Rose Kennedy Leadership Style

though. As the American Experience program “RFK” notes:
“Rose Kennedy was a devout Catholic, and Bobby absorbed her religious intensity. He made his first communion when he was 7, and went on to become an altar boy and attend a school run by Benedictine monks. Bobby grew up with a strong sense of right and wrong, good and evil. Like his brothers, he was toughened by the religious demands of his father, but he was disguised, as well, a gentler nature. Bobby, a friend said, was “truly in touch with his emotions.” (PBS transcript, 1964).
Kennedy managed his older brother’s campaigns for both Senate and the presidency, during which he gained a reputation for tough political infighting and unwavering loyalty. As a reward for his services, he was appointed attorney general, dispute objections that he was inexperienced and under qualified. He proved uniquely suited for the job, emerging as a statesman of the law, organizing a tough drive against organized crime. Although at the time of this press conference Kennedy is still Attorney General, his
He was killed while celebrating his win in the California presidential primary in June of 1968. The carpetbagger problem at first gave rise to jocularity. “What gave the carpetbagger charge its edge was the idea that the invasion of New York was one more expression of Kennedy’s well-advertised and ruthlessness- a power grab by a madly ambitious, arrogant, opportunistic, primitive and dangerous young man, the son of Joe Kennedy, the aide of Joe McCarthy, the confrere of J. Edgar Hoover, the oppressor of Jimmy Hoffa, who stopped at nothing to advance himself and now was cynically using New York as a launching pad for the Presidency (Schlesinger,