Well, when I was in high school, Boston Globe columnist George Frazier said he never wanted to meet

politicians because he was afraid he might like them. And then he wouldn't be objective in writing

about them.

And I knew, I knew when I was in high school and I read that column.

I knew George Frazier was right when I read that.

George Frazier was an elegant pro-st stylist and sometimes profound thinker who grew up in a Boston

Irish neighborhood like mine, went to public school and made his way to Harvard College,

where he followed the advice of poet laureate Robert Frost,

the advice that Robert Frost gave to John Kennedy, which was, quote,

be more Irish than Harvard.

I knew Robert Frost was right too when I read that.

What he was saying was,

empathy is more valuable than expertise, because empathy cannot be taught in classrooms.

George Frazier was right to believe that he wasn't strong enough to

suppress his empathy for those three Kennedy brother politicians that he was covering in those days in the Boston Globe if he had gotten to know them well.

Many reporters were not as strict as George Frazier about keeping their distance from politicians, the legendary

anchor man of the era, Walter Cronkite befriended John Fitzgerald Kennedy and had to fight back tears on the afternoon of November 22nd, 1963

when Walter Cronkite made this announcement to the nation.

From Dallas, Texas, the Flash,

apparently official President Kennedy died at 1 PM Central Standard Time, 2 o'clock Eastern Standard Time, some 38 minutes ago. Vice President Lyndon Johnson has left the hospital in Dallas, but we do not know to where he has

has proceeded.

Joe Biden was 21 years old on that day, eagerly awaiting the chance to vote for the very first time in his life

...