Ask Not What J.F.K. Can Do for Obama - Frank Rich

[WillyT]

(edited for copyright purposes-proud patriot moderator Democratic Underground)

<snip>

BEFORE John F. Kennedy was a president, a legend, a myth and a poltergeist stalking America’s 2008 campaign, he was an upstart contender seen as a risky bet for the Democratic nomination in 1960.

Kennedy was judged “an ambitious but superficial playboy” by his liberal peers, according to his biographer Robert Dallek. “He never said a word of importance in the Senate, and he never did a thing,” in the authoritative estimation of the Senate’s master, Lyndon Johnson. Adlai Stevenson didn’t much like Kennedy, and neither did Harry Truman, who instead supported Senator Stuart Symington of Missouri.

J. F. K. had few policy prescriptions beyond Democratic boilerplate (a higher minimum wage, “comprehensive housing legislation”). As his speechwriter Richard Goodwin recalled in his riveting 1988 memoir “Remembering America,” Kennedy’s main task was to prove his political viability. He had to persuade his party that he was not a wealthy dilettante and not “too young, too inexperienced and, above all, too Catholic” to be president.

How did the fairy-tale prince from Camelot vanquish a field of heavyweights led by the longtime liberal warrior Hubert Humphrey? It wasn’t ideas. It certainly wasn’t experience. It wasn’t even the charisma that Kennedy would show off in that fall’s televised duels with Richard Nixon.

Looking back almost 30 years later, Mr. Goodwin summed it up this way: “He had to touch the secret fears and ambivalent longings of the American heart, divine and speak to the desires of a swiftly changing nation — his message grounded on his own intuition of some vague and spreading desire for national renewal.”

<snip>

More: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/03/opinion/03rich.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&oref=slogin

:shrug:

[H2O Man]

1. Very interesting.

Thank you.

Nominated.

[WillyT]

2. Thank You, H !!!

:hi:

[neutron]

5. it's myopic for the "chic" dems

to hang the reason to vote for a president on one vote.
And nothing else.

These guys knew their candidate from the beginning and they
have not evolved.

Does that tell you that they are calcified aka NARROW MINDED?
Not looking for answers because they already know everything?

I know people who started with Obama, went to Edwards and
finalized on Hillary. I'm one of those.

I've liked, then become disillusioned with every candidate
except Clinton.

She has exceeded my expectations.

Rich, you should open your mind. It's getting predictable.
Like your candidate says, "Change is Good."

[LaStrega]

3. k&r n/t

[loveangelc]

4. he needs to win..

[Cha]

6. My sister tonight said she

thought this country had to experience 8 years of the bushites so we could be ready for this CHANGE from these candidates..

It's just too bad so many had to sacrifice their blood for CHANGE.

"That both Clintons are capable of fistfighting is beyond doubt, at least on their own behalf in a campaign. But Mrs. Clinton isn’t always a fistfighter when governing. There’s a reason why Robert Kennedy’s children buried the Iraq war in a single clause (and never used the word Iraq) deep in their endorsement. They know that their uncle Teddy, unlike Mrs. Clinton, raised his fists to lead the Senate fight against the Iraq misadventure at the start. They know too that less than six months after “Mission Accomplished,” Senator Kennedy called the war “a fraud” and voted against pouring more money into it. Senator Clinton raised a hand, not a fist, to vote aye."