Exonerating the Clintons

Trying to figure out who was behind the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Jr., is nearly as complicated and controversial as untangling the dark web of forces behind his father's slaying. In looking at the evidence though, there appears to be two primary lines of thinking that could lead us to logically conclude that some powerful people wanted this man dead.

The first area we will explore is John F. Kennedy, Jr.'s, desire to enter the world of politics, something he had shunned his whole life. If this was true, it would put him in the way of some potentially dangerous people who had their own designs on obtaining the reins of power.

Second, it appears likely that at the end of his life, JFK, Jr., was becoming increasingly aware that the C.I.A. organized the assassination of his father. This fact may have been why he became a publisher, to have a platform to expose the truth to the world, and bring to justice those still alive who planned his father's execution.

Let us first explore the possibility that John F. Kennedy, Jr., was seriously considering running for governor of New York, and eventually president. This, according to his closest friends, was exactly what was on his mind in the last months of his life. His assistant at George, Rose Marie Terenzio, told People in a July 2016 cover story that he was planning on running for president. After Republican New York Senator Alphonse D'Amato told Kennedy he should run for mayor of New York City, he apparently laughed it off. After this encounter with D'Amato, Terenzio asked why he would not want to consider it. His answer pointed to a much loftier goal, a shrewd political calculation that would have made his father proud.

"Well, Rosie, how many mayors do you know that become President?" Kennedy said to Terenzio. "I was so shocked I didn't say anything. Then he smirked as if to say 'That's not the road you go down. We'll see what happens.'"

The mayor of a city is not a large enough platform to stage a run for the White House, no matter who you are. However, the U.S. Senate, or being the governor of a prominent state like New York could have been just the stepping stone that he had in mind to launch his presidential bid, likely in 2004. In fact, several of his friends knew he was seriously considering running for governor. The next election for governor would have been in 2002. He would have faced George Pataki, who at that time was seeking a third term. Most people voting that year did not vote for Pataki, as he garnered an unimpressive 49% of the popular vote. He largely ran on his record of leadership during the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York City. The one candidate who could have counteracted this appeal would have been JFK, Jr., a longtime resident of New York City. Kennedy probably would have personally known many of the people who died in the attack, and likely would have aided in the recovery. There is no doubt that his potential appeal as a candidate no matter what office he ran for would have energized New York State Democrats like no one else. A fellow Democrat from New York, Mark Green, mulling over his own run for the Senate, conducted a private poll in 1997 to see who Democrats liked the most within their state. "He was by far the most popular Democrat," Green said. "He had the highest favorable-unfavorable spread; 65% of Democrats rated him favorably and 10% rated him unfavorably." Former New York State Democratic Chairman John Marino said that if Kennedy ever ran for office, "it would have been, goodbye, anyone else." Such a campaign would have been much like when his uncle Robert Kennedy won his New York U. S. Senate seat by an impressive 10-point margin, 53% to 43%, over incumbent Republican Kenneth Keating in 1964. Assuming Kennedy won the election in November 2002, he would have become New York's 54 governor on January 1, 2003.

Would a short time in Albany be enough to run for president in 2004, to prevent George W. Bush from getting a second term? Many of our presidents at one time were governor of New York, often for very shorts stints. Martin Van Buren, our nation's 8th president, was only governor for 3 months from January 1, 1829, to March 5, 1829. Grover Cleveland, the 22 and the 24 president, was only governor for one year when he announced his candidacy for president in 1884. Theodore Roosevelt spent only one year as governor as well before agreeing to run with William McKinley as his vice-presidential nominee in the election of 1900, after which he ascended to the presidency a few months later following McKinley's assassination in September 1901. Franklin Roosevelt was in the middle of what would be his only term as governor when he began his campaign for president in the early 1930s. We could even mention Democrat Samuel J. Tilden, the 25 governor of New York, who spent only one year as governor before accepting the nomination of his party in the summer of 1876. Most historians agree the presidency was stolen from him later that year in a corrupt deal worked out in the Congress that gave the presidency to the Republicans, otherwise he would have become the nation's 19 president.

Also in that People article was the testimony of Gary Ginsberg, a friend from their time together at Brown University, as well as a business partner who helped Kennedy start George magazine. Ginsberg was with Kennedy the night before he died and had this to say about his mindset. "By July 1999, I think he could take great comfort that he had started and led a successful business, had fulfilled his mission to cover politics in a colorful, non-ideological way that would make it appealing for people who had never bought a political magazine before, and was now in a position to do something new." According to Ginsberg the New York Senate seat was also on his mind but eventually decided against that path, out of deference to first lady Hillary Clinton, a friend and fellow Democrat. "He had been thinking about running for the N.Y. Senate seat. He even had meetings about it that spring, but by July had concluded he would focus his attention on running for governor of N.Y." The next election for governor was 2002. His longtime friend felt this was a better fit for him anyway. This is an important point we need to make here. Kennedy had decided against running for the Senate. Many have laid the blame at the feet of the Clintons for this assassination. The fact that he was making it clear he had no intention of running against Clinton is no small point. "By temperament and interest, John, I think, realized he was far more suited to being a governor than a legislator. He knew from running George that he could be an inspiring, strong chief executive of a...