When John F. Kennedy launched himself as a candidate for the presidency of the United States, for the 1960 elections, he appointed his brother Robert (Bobby) as head of the electoral campaign.

It seemed like Bobby was everywhere, coordinating, ordering, and often doing the work himself. He slept few hours and demanded that all his collaborators work as hard as he did.

It so happened that, in Nebraska, things were not going well, the campaign was stalling. As expected, Bobby traveled there to find out what the problem was and fix it.

Thus we have Bobby Kennedy approaching the city of Lincoln in a car, driven by Robert Conrad, nominated by his party as a candidate for a seat in the Senate, representing the state of Nebraska. Also in the car was Helen Abdouch, executive secretary of the organization in Nebraska.

“What is failing?” Bobby asked. “Aren’t the volunteers working hard enough?” Somewhat annoyed, Conrad replied, “Bob, it’s not as simple as that.” He was about to start explaining the situation to him when he saw in the rearview mirror that a police car had turned on its lights, telling him to stop. He parked on the side of the road and got out of the car to talk to the policeman (remember this was in 1959. Nowadays you are no longer allowed to get out of the car when the police pull you over; you have to stay inside and have to wait for the officer to approach).

As soon as Conrad got out Bobby turned on Helen, pressing for a solution. After a few moments, Conrad returned, started the car and continued driving, while Bobby continued arguing with Helen and brought up the subject again with Conrad. He didn’t ask if the policeman had given them a ticket and he didn’t even ask why they had been stopped. The only thing that interested him was that the electoral campaign improves.

REFERENCE: The book “Bobby Kennedy”, by Lester David and Irene David.