Former Kennedy Speechwriter Says Barack Obama Would be Good President, Clinton Will Lose

[FlaxieB]

John F. Kennedy's former top speechwriter says Barack Obama not only is a lot like Kennedy, but would make the best president.

Former Kennedy aide Ted Sorensen, 79 — the closest living aide to the slain president — also said he believed Hillary Clinton would likely lose to a Republican should she be nominated, according to the U.K. Telegraph.

"Both Kennedy and Obama have fantastically winning smiles and I might say both are very relaxed in front of an audience and on television. They don't shout into a microphone, they talk," Sorensen said.

Click here to read the full report in the Telegraph.

Sorensen said Sen. Obama, D-Ill., has "great judgment," adding: "Judgment is the single most important criterion for selecting a president." The Cuban Missile Crisis, for instance, tested Kennedy's judgment in 1962.

On Clinton, Sorensen said the New York Democratic senator was more calculating and formulaic than Obama, and predicted she'd lose.

"She's got everything going for her but a lot of people just don't like her," Sorensen concluded.

"The principles, the values Obama and Kennedy are enunciating are not five-point plans for new health care programmes, which is more Hillary's style.


"http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,301365,00.html

[ronnykmarshall]

1. Good 'ol Fox news

[aquart]

Ah. Didn't notice it was a FOX story.

[Ethelk2044]

15. Fox didn't make the comment Ted did.

[rinsd]

2. LOL so Hillary is steak while Obama is the sizzle!

"The principles, the values Obama and Kennedy are enunciating are not five-point plans for new health care programmes, which is more Hillary's style."

[jefferson_dem]

8. Hillary is the system. Obama has the vision.

Pretty simple, really.

:bounce:

[MethuenProgressive]

3. Obama has "nice smile", Clinton "has everything going for her"

Those FOX folks really know how to edit, don't they?

[PurityOfEssence]

11. Obama has "great judgment"; Clinton is "calculating and formulaic"

Okay, sure, it was "...more calculating and formulaic", but this all just shows how stories can be chopped and channeled.

Their headline is hardly too much of a distortion of the article. How much the article itself is a distortion of Sorensen's words, I don't know.

[aquart]

4. Thanks for undermining the primary process, Ted.

But a very nice endorsement for Obama. But touting the smile? Am I the only American who doesn't vote based on Miss America standards?

[Adsos Letter]

5. How did "Bay of Pigs" and "Vietnam" do as far as Kennedy's

"judgement" is concerned?

[democrat2thecore]

9. Very well, actually.

History tells us he didn't particularly want to go along with the Eisenhower Bay of Pigs invasion. Yes, he could have called it off, but everything was in motion and was assured that it would be short and quick. When it WAS NOT - he had the JUDGMENT to not supply air cover by the U.S. military which would have created a real WAR.

Vietnam? History tells us Kennedy was planning a massive reduction in U.S. forces when he was assassinated. Some even believe it was this very decision that led to his killing in Dallas.

The Cuban Missile Crisis? A model for JUDGMENT in a president.

[Thothmes]

21. the pull out was to occure after the next election. Delayed for political reasons.

[PurityOfEssence]

13. No worse than "Iraq" and "Iran"

Sandbagged by the already-in-motion Bay of Pigs invasion, he was cowed to a certain degree by the right wing's tarring of the Dems as soft on Communism, so he made a classic political blunder, somewhat akin to something to be expected of a Clinton: he took the middle course, which was neither fish nor fowl but simply foul: he didn't go full-on with it (to appease the right) and he didn't call it off (out of decency), he just took away the air cover and played for some plausible deniability. Definitely not his best moment.

It seems he was on the honorable track of backing off in Vietnam, but so much of that is speculation.

The Cuban Missile Crisis was true statesmanship and brinkmanship.

The Iraq vote is open to much conjecture, but certainly not a model for anything. The question of expediency has arisen, and whether that's the case or not, her other very calculated actions will plague her decisions to be characterized as such. Certainly more thorough poring over of the evidence would be in order for something as momentous as war. It's definitely not a shining moment regardless how many honorable people went the same way.

The Iran vote is sheer grandstanding to appeal, once again, once endlessly again, to the reactionaries. Perhaps she really DOES have the nomination sewn up and she can be fighting the general election now, but this won't win her too many votes. Oh, there's that issue of decency: giving Junior and his mob even the slightest of pretexts is accounted for in hundreds of lives at the least. This vote was blithering idiocy and reeks of worse: calculated death-dealing to curry favor with the electorate.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

6. If Ted Sorenson Couldn't Build Up Obama Without Tearing Clinton Down I'm Disappointed...

eom

[Ethelk2044]

14. Hell He did nto tear her down. She has made bad decisions. He was being honest about. What you

want him to lie and say she made good decisions. Everyone know she has made bad decisions.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

18. You Couldn't Possibly Be Objective

:crazy:

[Ethelk2044]

24. Is the pot calling the kettle black. Like you could ever be objective about Obama

don't make me laugh.

[rinsd]

20. Hey don't you have some right wing crap to post today?

Oh wait I see you already attacked John Lewis to the embarassment of other DUers who support Obama.

[Ethelk2044]

23. You should ask your mother about that. I get them from her

[democrat2thecore]

7. I was in Des Moines on October 2nd

He introduced Senator Obama in Chicago, Des Moines and Iowa City and basically said the same thing. He talked of how JUDGMENT means everything. EXPERIENCE means little. He was around the table during the Cuban Missile Crisis. It was Kennedy's JUDGMENT that saved the world (maybe literally). Point taken, Ted. He is a great man and is a HUGE Obama supporter. I was very impressed.

edited to correct spelling error.

[SaveElmer]

10. Why is the MSM trying to shove Obama down our throats?

Hey this is fun!

[Ethelk2044]

12. He is not a part of the MSM . He actually worked for Kennedy Unlike

CNN, MSNBC, ABC etc.

[SaveElmer]

16. Wow...Fox News is not part of the MSM...

Who woulda thunk it...

[Bitwit1234]

17. We're off and running

again we bash...again we lose..again and again and again and again. Damn the Obama supporters are sure sure surely like the republicans they are showing the desperation more and more every day.

[Mend]

19. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. supports Sen. Clinton...

[Colobo]

22. Sorensen is so right. We need to listen to him more.