Chris Matthews: GOP Candidates Could Learn from JFK

Chris Matthews believes the GOP Presidential field isn't very impressive when compared to President John F. Kennedy, the subject of his new book.

Matthews, the host of MSNBC's program "Hard Ball," told a capacity crowd at the Music Hall Friday night that Kennedy was a true leader who was willing to take full responsibility when he made mistakes such as the Bay of Pigs in Cuba in 1961.

"When you don't take the heat, you're not a leader," Matthews said.

Matthews new book, "Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero," explores these qualities and many other character traits based on the access he gained to scores of audio tapes made during and before Kennedy's administration, notes taken by journalist Teddy White, and many conversations he had with people who were part of Kennedy's intimate political circle that Matthews called the "Irish Mafia."

Time and time again during the Kennedy administration, Matthews said Kennedy was able to excercise the right type of leadership needed to help the world avoid a nuclear war before and during the Cuba Missile Crisis of October 1962.

He said voters need to think very carefully about who they want to serve as their Commander-in-chief when they go to he polls.

"When you pick a president, they need to have the emotional detachment to make the right decisions," said Matthews during the Writers on a New England State event held in conjunction with New Hampshire Public Radio.

Thus far in the Republican Presidential race, Matthews said he is not seeing any one candidate that inspires such confidence.

"The election process of the last three months is a clown show," he said.

During his introductory remarks, Matthews said he hoped the Republican Party would field a candidate who could give President Barack Obama a real challenge for the good of the country. But he was pessimistic that would happen.

"It would take a miracle at this point to create a serious option," he said.

Matthews said conservative Republicans continue their quest to make former President Ronald Reagan their hero and he said they should have heroes.

But whereas Reagan starred in the movies about World War II, Matthews said Kennedy was a real World War II hero who saved the lives of all of his crew members after PT 109 was cut in half by a Japanese destroyer. Despite having a bad back, Kennedy swam to and from several island over many miles until they were rescued.

But Matthews research showed that Kennedy was a complex man who lived many different lives. In some respects, Matthews said Kennedy was similar to the detached character of "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Matthews also said that throughout his life, Kennedy was a sickly and lonely boy who studied history and eventually became one of the heroes he idolized. But his experience of going to war made him a great President because Kennedy knew, especially in the nuclear age, war with the former Soviet Union had to be avoided at all costs.

Matthews said Kennedy was a man "who loved courage and hated war."

He also said a lot of his book is based on the access he had to Kennedy's memoirs and diary which showed him to be "a guy learning a trade, learning politics, how to do it."

Matthews, who said he comes from an Irish Catholic family like Kennedy did, said he also devoted some of his book to how Kennedy reconciled his religious beliefs in the face of the affairs he had while married to Jackie Kennedy.

Throughout his entire life, Matthews said Kennedy "would pray beside his bed every night."

He said Kennedy would also visit the grave of his son, Patrick, who was still born in 1963 and kneel down and pray, which was difficult because Kennedy had chronic back pain.

"He was always in bad shape," Matthews said. "He was not what you think as the guy who always had it made."

Matthews also said Kennedy's success was not directly attributable to whatever efforts his father, Joseph Kennedy Sr., made to help him. Matthews said one of the most interesting things he discovered about President John F. Kennedy was that "he was a self-made man" who learned from his mistakes.