The more things change...................

      One of the things which surprised me was how thin most of the newspaper and magazine reporting of the period was, the degree to which journalists accepted the norms of the government and, particularly in the glamorous Kennedy era, the reputation of these new stars at face value.  Credit was given more readily for educational prowess and for academic achievement than for accomplishment in government.

-David Halberstam, The Best and The Brightest