A NEW PRESIDENT.

• Position: BLAST FROM THE PAST

An editorial in the December 1960 issue of The Progressive set an agenda for the nation's newly elected President, John F. Kennedy. Here's a taste:

The next four months will answer some of the questions and resolve at least a few of the doubts of those who voted for Senator John F. Kennedy with hopeful hearts and troubled minds. It will take much longer than that, of course, to form a considered judgment about the Kennedy Administration. But there will be helpful clues during the next thirty days when he makes his major appointments, and thereafter during the first 100 days of his administration when, by his own judgment, he must, for the rest of the long road, chart the course and set the style of his presidency.

The pressures from the far-right and the cautious moderates are tremendous. They are contending that the extraordinary closeness of the outcome robs President-elect Kennedy of a progressive mandate and demands of him the formation of something...