USA: 6 months before Dallas, JFK got up close with Nashville

[Poll_Blind]

6 months before Dallas, JFK got up close with Nashville
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/05/18/jfk-visited-nashville/2323041/

This is a rather lengthy article discussing president Kennedy's trip to Nashville 50 years ago this weekend and, interestingly, the similarities between his visit to Nashville and Dallas, Texas. Including the publication of his motorcade's route in a local newspaper beforehand and the publication of the fact that his protective bubble would only be on the car if it rained. There are many other interesting tidbits but the article doesn't so much have a point as a nostalgic and wistful revisiting of a man whose presidency was cut short.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- President John F. Kennedy rode down busy streets in an open convertible when he came to Nashville 50 years ago this weekend, following a motorcade route printed in The Tennessean the day before he arrived.

And in another odd precursor to the national tragedy that would unfold six months later in Dallas, tension festered within Tennessee's Democratic leadership as Kennedy began to plant the seeds for his 1964 re-election campaign. In Tennessee and Texas, the friction involved Kennedy's vice president and former rival, Lyndon Johnson.

As Texas Democrats feuded over their own ideological differences the following November, the president was killed by a sniper who fired into his open car after the parade route was published.

"It could have happened that morning (in Nashville), no doubt about it," said John Jay Hooker, an attorney and Kennedy family friend who attended the 35th president's speech at Vanderbilt University's Dudley Field on May 18, 1963.

--snip--

Much more at the link. This is not going to be everyone's "thing", but I found it was an interesting read.

PB