Umbrella Quotes
The Prime Minister of Turkey was visiting the White House and the two leaders were giving an outdoor press conference when a hard rain began. The Turkish Prime Minister had other meetings at the White House but had only one suit with him. The President noted that and asked the Marine Guard to provide an umbrella which they did and also brought one for the President. The Marines held the umbrellas while the press conference continued. Ms. Palin in one of her many attacks on the President in this quote chastised him for not holding his own umbrella—in her view the American way. Palin, known for her poor memory and disregard for facts, apparently forgotten that when she was a vice presidential candidate, she was photographed emerging from a plane in the rain while an assistant held the umbrella over her head.
President Kennedy's father, Joseph P. Kennedy, was U. S. Ambassador to Great Britain when Neville Chamberlain appeased Hitler, leading to World War II. The elder Kennedy opposed war with Germany. During the 1960 Democratic convention Johnson and JFK were rivals for the nomination:
The “fool” was Neville Chamberlain, 1869-1940, the British Prime Minister who refused to stand up to Hitler and instead negotiated a peace pact, returned home declaring that he had preserved peace. (See {585941}.) Then Hitler invaded more of Europe and WWII was begun. Ford was a Hitler admirer and pro-German (Hitler supported him for the American Presidency--{586988}—and awarded him a medal) but he thought that England had bungled the negotiations by sending someone who was very weak. In this sense his views were the same as most who were anti-Hitler.