Must read. Frank Rich: Ask Not What J.F.K. Can Do for Obama

[flpoljunkie]

February 3, 2008

Ask Not What J.F.K. Can Do for Obama
By FRANK RICH

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.”

In other words, Kennedy needed two things. He needed poetry, and he needed a country with some desire, however vague, for change.

<>Richard Goodwin knew in 1960 that all it took was “a single significant failure” by Kennedy or “an act of political daring” by his opponents for his man to lose — especially in the general election, where he faced the vastly more experienced Nixon, the designated heir of a popular president. That’s as good a snapshot as any of where we are right now, while we wait for the voters to decide if they will take what Mrs. Clinton correctly describes as a “leap of faith” and follow another upstart on to a new frontier.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/03/opinion/03rich.html?hp

[patrice]

1. Ask Obama what he can do for me/you/them/him/her/it. nt

[neutron]

11. MUST READ: Obama vs Public Safety

1. His constituents find RADIOACTIVITY in their drinking water.
They get Obama to draw up a bill.

2. All they ask is a law so that the Nuke plants would tell them when
their shit was leaking into their drinking water.

3. Nuclear plants fight it.

4. Obama gets several hundred thousand dollars in donations for his senate campaign
from the Nuke people.

5. Obama REWRITES his bill protecting the NUCLEAR PLANT from the PUBLIC!
so his constituency will not know if their children are drinking radioactivity.

6. Obama parades around Iowa bragging that his first bill passed, when in fact,
it was defeated.

7. Iowa newspaper ridicules Hillary Clinton as the candidate for old ladies.

8. Mr. Environmental Advocate beats "old lady's delight" soundly in Iowa.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/03/us/politics/03exelon.html?em&ex=1202101200&en=f2853a7f59384438&ei=5087%0A

[Inuca]

14. You are pathetic

Sorry, had to be said. Keep posting unrelated silliness to your heart's content if it makes you feel better.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

16. Spam post # 92 today. Welcome to Ignore.

[kurth]

2. Yeah, all we need is a "poetically gifted president"

The deification continues.

[thunder rising]

3. If you can recognize a person as a gifted politician that supports your goals, what else is there?

[MichiganVote]

4. Gifted politician??? What the hell is that?

[peacetalksforall]

6. Careful. He is a gifted orator. And a young politician. There really

isn't a gift showing as a politician because we weren't all watching and no one who was there is saying that.

[rusty quoin]

5. I am an undecided, and almost cannot believe it. It's my first time.

I was so much into Edwards, that it was easy. I read the whole article, and to me it reads ambivalence, just like me. I am kind of glad I am not part of Super Tuesday.

[DemReadingDU]

9. Same here - I'm still undecided

Our Ohio primary is March 4th. I'm hoping the decision will already be made by then. I see both posiitives and negatives in both candidates.

[peacetalksforall]

7. Side point. I was looking at a book about JFK and have decided that

one of my favorite photos is one of JFK with President Eisenhower. It was during the Cuban Missile Crisis and they were walking - the photo is from behind them. JFK is talking and Eisenhower appears to be listening seriously with his hands behind him holding a hat and leaning slightly towards JFK. Just an extra tidbit.

[bleever]

8. I value this kind of conversation,

so even though I'm uncommitted I recommend this post, because a healthy conversation means a healthy society.

[Radical Activist]

10. Kennedy is the most over-rated President in history.

He didn't do much at all compared to Johnson. But it is a reminder of the importance and power of a candidate who can inspire people to reach for something better.

[Tennessee Gal]

12. May I remind you that Kennedy only served from

January 20, 1961 – November 22, 1963.

[Radical Activist]

15. Exactly

I don't give him points for what I imagine he might have done.

[Tennessee Gal]

17. You can't compare him to Johnson because Johnson served a lot longer

You totally missed my point.

[Radical Activist]

18. Then just compare their first 90 days.

Its not even close. Johnson did more in one year than Kennedy did in 3. Johnson even did more in the first 90 days after getting elected in '64 than Kennedy ever did. I don't think Kennedy would have done so much had he lived based on his first 3 years.

[THUNDER HANDS]

19. for the cuban missle crisis ALONE, JFK is one of our great presidents

the restraint he showed, and courage under pressure is UNMATCHED in any president since.

[Radical Activist]

20. Should we hold him accountable for egging that on

with the bay of pigs invasion that made Cuba feel the need to further defend itself?

[THUNDER HANDS]

21. it doesn't diminish it

if that's what you mean.

[featherman]

13. Good column from Frank - food for thought

[Nimrod2005]

22. Brilliant!