#1956 jack had his faults but he also just needed a hug. a hug he would not accept but a hug nonetheless.

[strryhaze]

jack at the democratic national convention in chicago, illinois. august 1956.

this moment needs to be huge in the jfk netflix series (if it ever happens, that is) because it’s when jack — as a political figure — went beyond the senate halls, beyond massachusetts in the public eye. it’s when he went national. despite the inevitable chaos and defeat of not winning the vice presidential nomination, this moment set him right on the presidential path. and the most important detail in all of this was that it wasn’t planned.

and because of that one detail, this event could make for such an iconic episode. the culmination of it all. the emotion. the drama occurring behind the scenes: joe senior yelling at jack and bobby through the phone and telling them that they have absolutely ruined jfk’s political future which the audience would find incredibly ironic, then the quick, neurotic, almost thrilling pace of bobby and jack trying to gain enough delegates for the vp nomination, jack and jackie’s relationship being on the rocks like never before bc of cheating allegations on BOTH sides (and the divide is unfortunately only exacerbated soon after)

but what would make the episode really shine, especially in a jfk centered series, is that aside from this moment being a monumental event in jfk’s political career, it would also work as a moving force within jfk’s emotional development in the show and demonstrate his state of mind at the time. somewhat fragile but within that fragility, a tough determination moving at high speed, impossible to break.

this spur-of-the-moment decision he made to try and obtain the vice presidential nomination stemmed from jfk’s near death experience in one of the harshest surgeries he’d ever faced. he always put on a good face, but as many biographers have pointed out, genuine fear always resided beneath the smiles and witticisms. two siblings had already died on jack and this time around, it was him that almost didn’t make it — that’s when it became all or nothing for him. and instead of his instincts backfiring on him like his father expected them to, they pushed him onto the political national stage; a stage that would be waiting for him when 1960 rolled around.