Barack Obama as the Next John Kennedy?
This is apparently the connection that Senator Barack Obama wants to make while pushing for the Democratic nomination. In a way, Obama does resemble Kennedy in his relative inexperience and high optimism for the power of Americans to improve their own lot. The Obama campaign has dragged out Ted Sorensen, a 79 year old former speech writer in the Kennedy brain trust, to help the candidate drive him this connection. Sorensen provides an endorsement of Obama’s role as the young, hip candidate among a group of establishment politicians in a way that no other octogenarian can do.
The problem for Obama is that the historical parallel is faulty. The 1960 election that allowed Kennedy to rise to power was tainted with corruption. Richard J. Daley certainly helped Kennedy win Illinois with back room machinations and the nomination of Senator Lyndon Johnson from Texas helped win over conservative voters. If Obama is Kennedy then Hillary Clinton is Johnson without the scowl or the large frame. I find it difficult to believe that Senator Clinton would leave her spot in the Senate to become a vice president to a candidate without her pedigree.
This comparison between Obama and Kennedy also begs the question of how Obama would deal with the war on terror. Kennedy may have used fluffy language about the Peace Corps and Americans giving back for the benefit of their nation, he also escalated conflict with the Soviet Union with involvement in Cuba and Vietnam. Barack Obama needs to be careful about harkening back to history to avoid comparisons during the general election that may be unflattering. The Democrats need to think about substance instead of style to distinguish themselves from the Republicans in 2008 (that is, if the Republicans choose Mitt Romney, the ultimate hair-do).
October 3rd, 2007 at 11:20 am
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February 20th, 2008 at 2:37 am
Wasn’t LBJ suspected of stuffing ballot boxes (or was that for an earlier election in Texas, like LBJ’s congressional race)? Anyway. I remember the appeal JFK held for people in my family. They liked how opposite he was from Ike, who they thought was stale and complacent, like much of the 1950s was. They also loathed Nixon, who they thought was the embodiment of evil. And they mistrusted and resented the attitudes and policies of the Republican Party. They thought JFK was a go-getter. His relative youth & energy gave them hope he would challenge the status quo, the Republican Party. My family was hardly what you would call radical or liberal, but they were passionate about standing up for the less than affluent, for the “little guy.” They were New Dealers to the core, and quite offended by the Republicans who criticized FDR’s Works Progress Authority and other similar programs. (They would have LOVED John Edwards.) They felt the little guy had a better chance with someone like JFK rather than any Republican. The JFK charisma was really just icing on the cake. If they didn’t have faith in his Democratic policies, they would not have cared a whit about his youth and charisma. My peers & I have discussed the so-called Obama-JFK (or Obana-RFK, take your pick) comparison and none of us quite see it. I actually do not even think he is particularly a charismatic or compelling speaker. I think he tends to drone on a bit. But I have more faith that he can “work well with others” than Hillary. I think he is fully capable of doing the job, is smart enough and a quick enough study, and competent. His lack of experience with playing politics, especially compared with the messy, sometimes nasty, political games the Clintons are so good at, is what has been the deciding factor for me. As for the point made in this blog that Kennedy was a hard liner despite his Peace Corps talk, I am well aware of that and assume Obama is too. But many historians have speculated that had JFK lived he would have not remained hawkish on Vietnam. So … that’s my two cents, from the Land of the Lurkers. Thanks for listening. I enjoyed your blog posting.
March 18th, 2008 at 11:36 am
[...] growth in adverse political environments. His response was telling of the mythology surrounding John F. Kennedy and the promise of New Frontier politics. Oglesby said that Kennedy’s assassination led to a [...]