‘Kennedy’ Netflix Series Drops First Look at Michael Fassbender as Joe Kennedy Sr. and Adds 13 to Cast

Jealous? Heck no. [I'm simpin' for Nixon](https://blog.nixonfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/nixon-football.jpg). I have always been fascinated by the man, another tragic American figure. He had a chip on his shoulder this size of the nose immortalized in masks of him. To me, the 1960 race, and their similar yet divergent path epitomized how he got that chip. Nixon wasn't rich; not at the start. His wife Pat wore a 'Good Republican Cloth Coat' as he said in his famous Checkers speech. She friend zoned him back in Whittier. He kept at her, though. He drove her around for years, even for dates with other dudes, before he finally won his chance. Every time he dropped her off, that chip grew. Like JFK, he signed up for the Navy but he was too smart for his own good. He did so well in the logistics department back in DC, they didn't want to let him get near combat. His dad was a small town grocery store owner. No pull in the war department. No heroic war stories. That chip grew again. He didn't get called Tricky D*** before the 1950 senate race, but when he ran for congress, it wasn't a coronation, but a knife fight, and Nixon stabbed first. The chip kept growing and with it, his paranoia. He saw enemies in every negative headline. His tactics created more and he kept fighting and scrapping. And he was brilliant! The story of the 1960 debate with telegenic JFK standing beside pale and sweaty Nixon does him a disservice. He had been hospitalized with a knee infection before the debate and was still recovering. In truth, Nixon was one of the first politicians to leverage television to his advantage in his [Checkers Speech](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpWwgwytdzk). He got accused of using campaign cash for personal use when he was Ike's VP candidate. It was a distraction Ike, who already had to be convinced to choose Nixon, didn't want. Nixon could have been dropped from the campaign. He took to TV with a half hour speech explaining how he did nothing wrong and laying out his modest means. The genius came at the end, with what would become the speech's namesake: Checkers. He said there was one thing given to him by a donor he was going to use for personal reasons. A little dog his daughter named checkers. He wasn't going to take his kids' dog away. He had Mamie Eisenhower in tears and convinced the country he was an honest man. Not bad for a man known as tricky d***. Losing in 60 to a pretty boy born with a silver spoon in his mouth set Nixon on his tragic trajectory. He won 49 out of 50 states in the 72 election. His paranoia led him to send out dirty tricksters, to go to criminal lengths to win an election he already had in the bag. I'd say that's a bigger tragedy than Joe Kennedy. Had a worse effect on the nation than anything a Kennedy has ever done, that's for sure.