Yes, JFK and Nixon were higher caliber than the vast majority of modern day politicians, for the reason stated in bold in huisache's quote.
Nixon:
After active duty in the
Naval Reserve during World War II, he was elected to the House of Representatives in
1946. His work on the
Alger Hiss case established his reputation as a leading anti-Communist, which elevated him to national prominence, and in
1950, he was elected to the Senate. Nixon was the running mate of
Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Republican Party's presidential nominee in the
1952 election, and served for eight years as the vice president.
JFK:
In 1940, Kennedy attempted to enter the army's
Officer Candidate School. Despite months of training, he was medically disqualified due to his chronic lower back problems. On September 24, 1941, Kennedy, with the help of the director of the
Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) and the former naval
attaché to Joseph Kennedy, Alan Kirk, joined the
United States Naval Reserve. He was commissioned an
ensign on October 26, 1941,
[40] and joined the staff of the Office of Naval Intelligence in Washington, D.C.
[41][42][43]
His first command was
PT-101 from December 7, 1942, until February 23, 1943:
[42] It was a
patrol torpedo (PT) boat used for training while Kennedy was an instructor at Melville.
[47] He then led three Huckins PT boats—
PT-98,
PT-99, and
PT-101, which were being relocated from MTBRON 4 in Melville, Rhode Island, back to Jacksonville, Florida, and the new MTBRON 14 (formed February 17, 1943). During the trip south, he was hospitalized briefly in Jacksonville after diving into the cold water to unfoul a propeller. Thereafter, Kennedy was assigned duty in
Panama and later in the
Pacific theater, where he eventually commanded two more PT boats.
[48]Click to expand...