How <i>Not</i> To Be An Ex-President

If John F. Kennedy had served two terms, he would have left the presidency at age 51. As we watch Bill Clinton agonizing over his Oval Office withdrawal at age 54, many Americans may wonder what JFK might have gone through as the youngest former two-term president in the nation's history. Would Jack Kennedy have appeared as miserable as Mr. Clinton when suddenly he was no longer the center of world attention?

Admittedly, these are questions that we won't be able to answer because John Kennedy was gunned down at age 46. But based on what we all saw at the time and what we've read over the past three and a half decades, it is hard to imagine JFK departing Washington as outwardly frustrated as the young ex-president we've been watching in recent days.

Before anyone starts complaining that this is more Clinton bashing, please step back for a moment and ask yourself if you could ever imagine John F. Kennedy and his wife Jackie doing the following:

On his successor's Inauguration Day, would JFK have taken over a hangar at Andrews Air Force Base to make a speech to his supporters saying he's moved out of the White House, but isn't leaving town?

Would JFK have tried to stick the taxpayers with a $700,000 annual rent bill for some of the most expensive office space in New York? Then when outrage erupted, would he have just chuckled and said, no big deal, one of my foundations will pay $300,000 of the rent, leaving it still more expensive than all the office space for the three other living ex-presidents combined.?

And it's not even for a high-rent law office, since Mr. Clinton has had his law license suspended for five years for what was essentially perjury committed in a federal investigation.

Would Jack and Jackie have packed up $190,000 worth of china, flatware, sofas, rugs, televisions and other goodies that had been given to the White House during Kennedy presidency?

If Mr. and Mrs. Kennedy had suffered such a lapse in judgment, would they have then tried to quell the controversy by offering to reimburse the taxpayers with a check for $86,000, about half the value of the goodies they took? Mr. Kennedy would have already owned enough furnished houses to satisfy his needs. He wouldn't have needed to load up some of the best furniture donated to the White House during his presidency to fill million-dollar homes in New York and Washington.

On Inauguration Day morning, would JFK have granted a bunch of presidential pardons without receiving legal recommendations from the Justice Department? Would there have been a pardon for a man convicted in the largest tax evasion case in history; a man listed on the FBI's Top Ten fugitive list after fleeing the country and renouncing his American citizenship? Would JFK have thought about the appearance of granting a pardon to a fugitive whose ex-wife was a huge contributor to his presidential library project and his wife's Senate campaign?

Based on the brief Kennedy time in thWhite House, it is impossible to believe that Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy would have felt her honor to be the nation's first lady entitled her to run for a U.S. Senate seat in the state of her choice.

The 35th president always outwardly showed class. To him, class was one of the unwritten obligations in the presidential oath. Even with the knowledge years later of some of the things that happened inside the Kennedy White House, it is doubtful that Americans would wonder in recent days if Jack and Jackie would have departed the White House with the lack of grace that's been exhibited by Bill and Hillary.

Would John F. Kennedy have chosen a wealthy financial group willing to pay him $100,000 to make his first post-presidency remarks?

Based on what we saw before John F. Kennedy was assassinated, Americans surely visualize him as a content ex-president. No, we probably wouldn't have seen him with a hammer helping ex-prez Jimmy Carter build homes for Habitat for Humanity. But he could have well been out on the speedboat with former President Bush, who was 68 years old when he left the White House; or on the golf course with former President Jerry Ford, 64 when he became an ex-president.

If John Kennedy were still with us, he would be celebrating his 84th birthday in May. I wonder what he would be thinking as he watched Bill Clinton's departure. I have to believe Mr. Kennedy might prefer that Bill Clinton refrain from constantly reminding audiences that it was his trip to the White House when he was 16 years old to visit President Kennedy that caused him to embark on a political career.

Surely, John F. Kennedy would be thinking, "Ask not what the presidency can do for you, Mr. Clinton, but what you can do for the presidency –: and for your country."

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