RIP: John Glenn

[TheSportsPredictor]

Did. Found nothing.

You're lying as usual.

And NASA stuff was the one area where you had credibility. Sad!

You being a lousy researcher doesn't make Starman a liar.

 

[da man]

Ol Gus always got the shaft.

****in' A, Bubba.

 

[Ace]

What's laughable is that any Democrat had any serious presidential hopes in the 1980s. Cannon fodder, every one.

I thought Glenn was a Republican. Oh, well.

 

[YankeeFan]

You being a lousy researcher doesn't make Starman a liar.

Did you find some main stream criticism that called him unqualified for the job?

 

[cisforkoke]

Link?

Eh? You want an Internet link for something from the 1980s?

 

[User 11148]

Eh? You want an Internet link for something from the 1980s?

By then Al Gore had been at it for awhile, hadn't he?

 

[HanSenSE]

He was not a successful presidential candidate. Who gives a ****? He was a hero. He means more than the president-elect ever will unless the dumb **** starts a nuclear holocaust.

It's just like the Ali RIP thread. Since Glenn doen't fit YFs beliefs, he's a bum.

 

[jr/shotglass]

You could fill heaven with those who don't fit YF's beliefs.

 

[BTExpress]

Of course, my newspaper had to **** up and call him "first man to orbit the Earth" in its deck headline this morning. Would have caught it had I been working last night.

Typical American propaganda!

 

[User 11148]

It's just like the Ali RIP thread. Since Glenn doen't fit YFs beliefs, he's a bum.

That's not really @YankeeFan's point. He's arguing that @Starman's ravings -- that Glenn's hopes were torpedoed by the perception that he lacked experience -- are just ravings. Of course, one might also note that water is wet. Still ...

I had forgotten Glenn as a presidential wannabe (because he was eminently forgettable). This story does a pretty good job of summing up his brief candidacy:

When Glenn entered the race in 1983, he was seen as a major contender for the nomination, and the Democrats’ most credible alternative to President Ronald Reagan. Movie-star handsome, with military credentials to insulate himself from his party’s perceived weakness on national security, he was a political heavyweight from a key battleground state. By November, the CBS/New York Times poll showed him only eight points behind former vice-president Walter Mondale.
...
And then they started actually voting. In the Iowa caucuses, Glenn finished fifth. In New Hampshire, he came in a distant third, with less than 12 per cent of the vote. He did no better than fourth in any of the “Super Tuesday” states that were supposed to be his strongest. What happened? Part of the reason is that the icon with the American-hero story was less than inspiring as a speaker. This shortcoming was on display as far back as 1976, when he was being considered as a possible Carter running mate, and his keynote speech at the Democratic convention proved downright enervating. As Dave Barry described Glenn’s charisma: “he couldn’t electrify a fish tank if he threw a toaster into it.”
The more serious—and, as it proved, politically fatal—problem was that it just wasn't clear what John Glenn stood for. He and his campaign described him as a “centrist,” and over the years, he’d broken with key Democratic interest groups on a number of occasions: Jews didn't like his vote to sell aircraft to Saudi Arabia; labor didn't like his opposition to one of their pet pieces of legislation; liberals did not like the fact that he’d voted for Reagan’s first tax cut plan.
To pundits, those votes might have added up to centrism. What they did not add up to, however, was any coherent argument on behalf of his candidacy as an alternative to front-runner Walter Mondale. As it turned out, nearly half the party was looking for just such an alternative voice; and when Colorado Sen. Gary Hart, with his “New Ideas” pitch, came in second to Mondale in Iowa—albeit a far distant second—that segment of the party turned to him as the “not-Mondale.”

John Glenn, Hero and Political Cautionary Tale

 

[dixiehack]

The proto-Fred Thompson.

 

[User 11148]

The proto-Fred Thompson.

Not a bad comparison.

 

[YankeeFan]

It's just like the Ali RIP thread. Since Glenn doen't fit YFs beliefs, he's a bum.

I haven't said a single negative thing about him.

I might not agree with his politics, but I don't think he was a bad guy. I found he and his wife to be sweet, gracious people when I met them. (His wife was concerned that he was so busy be honored on the morning of the parade, that he ha hadn't eaten, and we made sure to get him some food before the parade started.)

He played a major role in the direction of my life, so I'll always remember him fondly. Plus, what's not to like about a college dropout, who was still able to get into the astronaut program?

My post was in defense of Glenn.

Certainly when he ran for president, he was still best known for his space heroics. And, he may not have been a great politician, had enough money, or developed a good rational for his candidacy, but no one was saying he was "just a celebrity" who was "unqualified" for the job.

Starman made that part up.

 

[Buck]

Explanation of Glenn's 'fireflies':
The Mystery of John Glenn's Fireflies Returns - Universe Today

 

[BitterYoungMatador2]

What's missing?

I wish I could say you.

 

[BitterYoungMatador2]

You being a lousy researcher doesn't make Starman a liar.

Hey asshole, you try finding a tweet from 1984...

 

[MisterCreosote]

And, he may not have been a great politician, had enough money, or developed a good rational for his candidacy, but no one was saying he was "just a celebrity" who was "unqualified" for the job.

I don't want to **** on this thread any more than I already have, but some may take the lack of a "a cogent platform of ideas" to mean "unqualified."

Funny enough, Glenn's candidacy is the first one I can clearly remember. I was 8 years old, and after my dad explained who he was, he became a hero to me. I was crushed when he got crushed.

 

[User 11148]

I don't want to **** on this thread any more than I already have, but some may take the lack of a "a cogent platform of ideas" to mean "unqualified."

Funny enough, Glenn's candidacy is the first one I can clearly remember. I was 8 years old, and after my dad explained who he was, he became a hero to me. I was crushed when he got crushed.

In the spring/summer/fall of 1984, I was trying to drag my sorry ass through the last hurdles of my undergraduate education and hustling like hell to round up a newspaper job. If I recall correctly I took 19 hours that spring, 9 hours that summer and 6 hours that fall. I honestly have no recollection of Glenn's being an actual candidate. All I remember about the political landscape was that I figured any Democrat was going to drub that loser Reagan.

 

[Starman]

Of course, my newspaper had to **** up and call him "first man to orbit the Earth" in its deck headline this morning. Would have caught it had I been working last night.

Typical American propaganda!

What the ****

 

[Spartan Squad]

Of course, my newspaper had to **** up and call him "first man to orbit the Earth" in its deck headline this morning. Would have caught it had I been working last night.

Typical American propaganda!

Propaganda you say?