Reading John Glenn’s wikipedia page and I’m surprised to see he has had what appears to be a heavyweight political career. As a non-American I’ve heard all about John Glenn the astronaut, but little about Glenn the politician. Was he a major player in the US political arena in recent decades? Was he a charismatic, telegenic etc or did he tend to keep his head down, out of the headlines? I see that he failed to win the nomination against Walter Mondale, with hindsight that’s not something you’d want on your CV.
Reason I was interested in the guy was tangentially related to seeing a documentary on airspeed records and the men with the right stuff who set them. The fastest speed ever recorded in an airplane was set by William Knight in 1967. He later went into politics, but at the state level. Anyone know whether he was a success? I guess I’m intrigued to hear people’s opinions on how these military heroes adapted to the world of politics.
Glenn was Democratic senator from Ohio for several terms. Not really a heavyweight, but he was respected in the Senate and loved in Ohio. He was generally quiet, and his presidential campaign was a bit low-key; it was thought he used his fame to get elected more than any particular position. Politically, he was pretty middle of the road.
Glenn was a hero to millions as an astronaut, but he was never a very inspiring or charismatic politician.
He eventually made it to the U.S. Senate, where he was generally respected as a bright, moderately liberal, hard-working legislator, but not much more than that.
Very few voters or colleagues disliked him, but few found him exciting.
I seem to remember that Glenn wasn’t too keen on his portrayal in the book The Right Stuff, but was much happier with his depiction in the film, which was also conveniently timed to raise his profile for the presidential race. This prompted Reagan to disparage him as a “Hollywood hero”.
I really hate to bring up something so vague, and could even be about somebody else, but wasn’t he somehow blamed, with some other legislators, for the S&L meltdown? Or did something unpopular regarding the S&L scandal afterwards?
Arrgh, my awful memory. My apologies for such vagueness, especially if my swiss-cheese brain is thinking of somebody else.
Glenn got caught up in the scandal, but was exonerated. He evidently took money from Keating, but, unlike some of the others involved, he did not promise anything in return and was just criticized for poor judgment, not any criminal act.
Glenn was a very solid, workman Senator for the state of Ohio; he attempted to run for President in 1984, but his campaign never went anywhere, and for a simple reason: while Glenn was honest and straightforward, he was considered one of the blandest and least charistmatic Democrats in the race. Given that Walter Mondale was the leading candidate, that’s saying something.
I don’t have the book with me, but I remember that Mo Udall talked in his autobiography of when Glenn was asked to host a Gridiron Club Dinner in 1983- a speech in which he was expected to be funny and charming in order to kick off his presidential bid. His staff went crazy with hiring writers and consultants. To the point that, after the speech, one of Glenn’s assistants commented “It took more people to get him up on that podium than it did to get him on the moon.” (sic- Glenn was the first American into space, but never set foot on the moon.)
Double sic – Glenn was the first American in orbit, but the third in space – Alan Sheperd (who walked on the moon on Apollo 14) and Gus Grisson (who died in the Apollo 1 fire) both went up suborbitally before Glenn.
One famous story about Glenn (well, it should be) is that he was walking along the street one day shortly after his 68th birthday when some whackjob constituent ran up and punched him in the head. While Glenn’s security detail was still trying to understand what happened, Glenn – 68 years old and reeling from a crack to the noggin – grabbed the dude by the scruff of the neck and held on to him until the police arrived. Don’t fuck with the USMC.
I see a lot of political figured living and working where I do, and a not-unremarkeable number of Hollywood celebrities, but space junkie that I am, and Ohio liberal that I am, John Glenn is the only celebrity I felt the need to introduce myself to when I saw him at the theatre some years ago.
Baseball great Ted Williams was Glenn’s wingman in Korea. Reagan’s military experience was limited to making training films for the military during WW II.
Everything I’ve read about Glenn says that if there was a poster child for the clean cut all-American boy, he would be it. According to Glenn, that’s why he got bounced out of the space program, because he wouldn’t adopt the wild ways of the other guys.
I grew up in Ohio when Glenn was in the Senate, and I don’t really recall ever hearing much about him, except during his Presidential run and the Keating scandal.
Other theories said that Glenn got bounced out of NASA because he was so famous that NASA didn’t want him to die in a mishap. Instead reserving that dubious distinction for others.
Three of the Mercury Seven only flew once - Carpenter, Glenn and Slayton (who didn’t actually fly during Mercury, he was grounded and didn’t end up flying until Apollo/Soyuz in 1975).
I don’t think anyone blocked Armstrong from flying again. There were only six more moon flights scheduled, and those crews were already set. He wouldn’t have made it to the top of the rotation again before the end of the program.
He probably could have tranferred to the Skylab program and commanded one of those flights if he’d wanted. But when he retired in 1970, they were a few years away and there was no guarantee they were even going to happen. Many astronauts eventually tire of training for years for each brief flight. Heck, some train for years and never end up flying at all. That’s gotta really suck.
Glad to know. I went to high school in John Glenn’s hometown and graduated from John Glenn High School. However, the conservative attitude in our small Ohio town pretty much kept everyone focused on the astronaut stuff. I still don’t know much about his political life, other than what I’ve just read. I’m liberal in general, so I find it pretty humorous that it was swept under the rug.
I met Sen. Glenn briefly at a parade, and he’s known around town for being the kind of guy who “never forgot where he came from.” Funny, all he did was ride through on a float and then leave. I guess I don’t blame him…
Carpenter was blacked balled by Chris Kraft for his crummy Mercury flight. See the book Flight by Kraft. Slayton was grounded with an inner ear problem until the flight you mentioned, so none of the Mercury guys were grounded for political reasons.
I read it somewhere at the time, but can’t find a cite.
When Bobby Kennedy was seeking the nomination for President in 1968, John Glenn travelled with him some on the campaign trail.
One night in May of 1968, Bobby spoke at Vanderbilt University. After the speech, lots of us got close to the stage to try to shake Bobby’s hand. The crowd was too dense, so I went outside and stood by the motorcade hoping to be able to see Kennedy close up.
I was standing by a car and when I looked down, John Glenn was sitting in the back seat. I don’t even remember if there was security around. We exchanged a few words and I shook his hand, but it was obvious that neither of us had the gift of gab. He still remains a mystery to me.
Then the crowd came out with Bobby and the security wedge, and Bobby slid in next to John Glenn. It was easy to shake his hand and to tell him to “give 'em hell!” It seemed very surreal to go from such quiet to such electricity.
Bobby was dead within the month.
Sometimes I have to pinch myself to think that for just a moment or two I had the incredible hero that John Glenn is – all to myself.
It was Alan Shepard with the inner ear condition (called minears disease [sp?]) that caused balance problems. Deke Slayton was grounded with a minor erratic heartbeat. Shepard went to a number of doctors over a few year period until he found one who had developed an operation to cure the condition. Slayton was, afaik, never ‘cured’, the condition just eventually went away. Admittedly, the erratic heartbeat was only barely detectable, and if he’d been in any other job (ie one where he wasn’t getting regular, in depth medical tests), it would’ve never been noticed at all).
Armstrong’s authorized biography was released recently. I haven’t read it yet, but it’d have to give a clear explanation of how he ended up leaving the space program.