Get Ready for JFK Day

The 50th anniversary of JFK's assassination brings no shortage of essays, recollections, and theories. A small sampling:

• Most popular: Kennedy is, by far, the most popular president of the last 50 years, says a new CNN poll. He scored a 90% approval rating, followed by Reagan (78%) and Clinton (74%). Nixon brings up the rear at 31%, with George W. Bush (42%) the only other president under 50%.
• NFL played on: The LA Times looks back on NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle's decision to play on just two days after the assassination, one he later regretted.
• Memorials today: Events in Dealey Plaza and in Boston highlight some of today's planned remembrances, notes Politico.
• Oswald's co-worker: The Wall Street Journal looks at how the assassination changed four lives, including that of the co-worker who drove Lee Harvey Oswald to work 50 years ago this morning at the Texas School Book Depository.

• In Dallas: An editorial in the Dallas Morning News doesn't think the city will ever "truly get beyond" the assassination, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. "It does us no good to pretend this didn’t happen 50 years ago. From this terrible day and all the ones that follow, we will keep learning about ourselves and our city."
• Oswald's Mexico trip: At Slate, Ron Rosenbaum thinks a new book about a weeklong trip that Oswald took to Mexico City in September 1963 sheds new light on his motives. Especially that "twist" party.
• Autopsy mistakes: A renowned forensic pathologist thinks JFK's autopsy was botched badly, but also that Oswald was the lone gunman, reports USA Today.
• Interactive: The New York Times has an interactive look at the four days following JFK's death here.

(More JFK assassination stories.)