There are some things I find interesting about threads like this.

Time and again on this board, the left has brought up:

1) Bush's past boozing habits, and one or two posters has suggested that they do not believe he ever really gave it up;

2) Bush's family connections being the reason his career in politics was launched in the first place;

3) Bush's less-than-top-of-the-class grades in college

4) Bush getting into college based on his family name alone

5) Bush's military service or lack thereof, and the possibility that family connections kept him from ever seeing a battlefield

Where Kennedy is concerned:

1) His past boozing habits may never have been completely buried in 'the past' and his led to a death

2) Kennedy had a connection or two. 'Nuff said.

3) His pre-college grades have been described as 'ordinary' and 'mediocre'. In college, he was ranked in middle of his class.

4) His pre-college grades were not really Harvard-level, and yet he not only got in, but was re-admitted after a period of being expelled due to cheating

5) Kennedy's father's connections kept him from being deployed to the Korean War; instead he ended up stationed in Europe where he got to climb the Matterhorn and partied hard.

I just think it's interesting that those who would still crucify Bush for past issues are so ready to excuse almost identical situations as "all in the past" when it comes to Kennedy.

While I'm still floored by the whole, "Mary Jo was dead anyway, so what's the big deal that he left her there?" attitude here on the board, if he asked for forgiveness, so be it. That was all happening at around the time I was born, so other than the fact that I think he was a selfish pig of a guy back then, I really don't have much frame of reference regarding those events. The fact that he was such a boozer, such a womanizer, and that he would just leave the scene and go visit about yachting boggles my mind. To me that means that at least at *that* time in his life, he was more interested in self-preservation than doing the right thing. If character is what is demonstrated in crisis moments, then he failed that test.

But that doesn't mean he wasn't eventually remorseful and that that event didn't shape him in beneficial ways. I was not a fan and didn't follow him closely, so I really have no opinion one way or the other about that.

I just know that I generally disagreed with his politics, and that if I'd ever had a daughter his age, I wouldn't have let her date him. lol