As a Catholic with a serious shot at becoming president, he sought to assure wary Southern protestants that he would be the president of all of the people. That he was the Democratic candidate for president who happened to be Catholic, and not the Catholic candidate for president.  For some, this may have been seen as a distinction without a difference, but it meant a great deal to Kennedy and to others facing varying degrees of discrimination or oppression.  The speech became the standard by which pols of all stripes have measured their religious views against their public obligations -- until the Christian Right began its assault on the wall of separation between church and state that Kennedy thought was essential.  The Kim Davis debacle epitomizes the situation Kennedy hoped our society would want to avoid.

In part because that's so, the speech is almost as refreshing and true today as it was in 1960.  Kennedy made clear that if, in the unlikely event that his moral conscience conflicted with his duties as President, he would resign. And he hoped "any conscientious public servant would do the same."

"Whatever issue may come before me as President--on birth control, divorce, censorship, gambling or any other subject--I will make my decision in accordance with these views, in accordance with what my conscience tells me to be the national interest, and without regard to outside religious pressures or dictates. And no power or threat of punishment could cause me to decide otherwise."

"But if the time should ever come--and I do not concede any conflict to be even remotely possible--when my office would require me to either violate my conscience or violate the national interest, then I would resign the office; and I hope any conscientious public servant would do the same."

But Kim Davis is not a conscientious objector so much as a public official abusing her office to grandstand her idiosyncratic views of God's Law over now well established federal civil rights law.  (She has little chance of legal success.)  We have seen this kind of thing before, and in fact, these kinds of issues come up all the time.  Anyone who aspires to basic political competence, let alone leadership, needs to be able to deal with them effectively.  Just ask John F. Kennedy.

But for today, as we watch the tabloid spectacle of Kim Davis dominate the news -- until it doesn't -- let's remind ourselves that not only is Kim Davis in no way analogous to the leaders of the Civil Rights Movement -- she is also no Jack Kennedy.