Is John Kerry the new JFK?

[dArKeR]

By Karen Testa

Boston - In the autumn of 1962, a crowd of Yale students - some toting signs such as "How about Less Profile and More Courage?" or "Why Not Free Cuba?" jeered President John F Kennedy on the New Haven Green.

The taunts troubled a 17-year-old freshman named John Kerry, who had met his hero several times through mutual friends during the summer of 1962.

He had joined Kennedy on a yachting trip in Rhode Island's Narragansett Bay and aboard a naval ship to watch the America's Cup sailing races there.

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=3&art_id=vn20040727142145435C363692

[PVnRT]

1. No

Sorry, but Kerry does not have the charisma speaking that Kennedy did. Edwards is actually pretty damn close, he's just not from New England.

[IndianaGreen]

8. I agree

JK is no JFK. JK is JK.

[demwing]

2. Duck and cover

I brought up a similar subject a while back and it got pretty snippy pretty quickly.

[aquart]

4. Damn straight.

What an utterly appalling thing to say. JFK WAS MURDERED. Before that, his legislative agenda was bottled up in a hostile congress. Kind of like they did to Bill Clinton who, all things considered, is lucky to be breathing.

JFK analogies are like painting a target on Kerry's back and daring someone to come and get him.

[demwing]

5. Sorry Aquart, I disagree

I reject the deification of JFK, the fear of "painting a target" on anyone, or any other attempt to put John F Kennedy in a glass case, untouchable and somewhat surreal.

However, comparing ANYONE to Kennedy is a risky adventure, because it invites the Republicans (of all people) to put Kennedy on a pedestal, and mimick Bentson's famous line "You sir, are no Jack Kennedy."

That statement was WELL applied to Dan Quayle, but much more appropriate when applied to either Kerry or Edwards, and all the more so when applied to the combination of these two men.

JFK may not be the new JFK, but Kerry/Edwards sure do remind me of the Kennedy Whitehouse.

[aquart]

10. Kennedy and Johnson loathed each other.

Resemblance?

[demwing]

13. Two Senators on the ticket, one from the south, one from MA.

The Mass Senator is a war hero, very rich, and Catholic.

There was also talk at one time that Kerry and Edwards didn't get along all that well.

But when I said that the Kerry/Edwards ticket reminds me of the Kennedy Whitehouse, I wasn't referring to a direct correlation between Kennedy/Johnson and Kerry/Edwards.

What I was referring to was the symbolic sense of the Kennedy Whitehouse being found in the combined careers and biographies of the two candidates.

Kerry has a Kennedy-esque biography, Edwards looks and talks a bit like a Kennedy. Seeing him with his kids also reminds me of JFK, as there havn't been young kids near the Whitehouse since that time.

Most of all is the sense of renewal and hope that Kerry/Edwards brings to America, a hope that we lost when Kennedy was lost.

Add to that the complete Nixon-like qualities of the Bush/Cheney ticket, and it seems like this has all happened before in some way.

Comparrisons donot have to be exact and literal to be effective, and it is time we took Kennedy off of the pedestal where some would have him sit.

[aquart]

15. What happened before was MURDER.

Please try to process that.

P.S. How on God's green earth is comparing JFK/Johnson to Kerry/Edwards in any way taking Kennedy off a pedestal?

Kennedy had his skull blown to bits. Where is the resemblance?

[demwing]

16. What is your obsession?

Now you're back to the murder business. Sigggghhhhh....

So Kennedy was murdered, does that mean I can't compare someone to Kennedy?

What a load of nonsense.

BTW - try to stick to one line of logic. You argue like a frog jumping back and forth between lily pads.

[HarveyBriggs]

7. Considering Bush's lack of ethics ...

I'd knock on wood the next time Kerry makes a campaign trip to Texas.

I don't trust those suckers down there for one half second.

The kookie righties down there already have one JFK head on their mantles down there -- probably mounted along with the gun from the grassy knoll.

They also stole an election in Florida.

Don't want to see another JFK shot.

Harvey Briggs

[lastliberalintexas]

12. Funny that LBJ was

able to get his agenda through that "hostile" (though Democratically controlled) Congress. The CRA of 1964 and 1965, Medicare, Medicaid, the other Great Society/War on Poverty programs. I guess Rayburn only allowed Congress to enact these things because LBJ was texan too. :eyes:


The lionization of JFK still amazes me. He never really seemed to empathize with minorities, or even with the working class. And he didn't do a damn thing to advance the civil rights struggle, despite the urging from many in his own administration. He didn't get us into Vietnam, but didn't get us out either. JFK had almost 3 years before his murder to try to push an agenda, but went for style over substance instead.

I guess Jackie's efforts at creating the Camelot myth haven't been wasted.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

3. Kennedy was the last Mass liberal to become President

so they have more in common than their initials.

[fujiyama]

6. They have a few things in common

Both in the Navy, both from Mass...I guess you could say both are liberals, though Kennedy did run to Nixon's right on the Cold War, and Kerry has moderated his stances during the election.

Kerry doesn't quite have Kennedy's speaking skill though. He's not quite as inspiring...but few have been.

That said, I am optimistic that Kerry will still be a good president.

[IndianaGreen]

9. I believe Kerry tried to pattern himself after JFK

which may explain his volunteering for swift boats, the nearest thing to PT boats.

Other than that, there are little similarities between them, which is good. You don't want to open the pandora's box of the Kennedy family and how they made their fortune, and the womanizing.

Should we mention Vietnam, the Diem assassination, the bugging of MLK, etc?

JK is not JFK, and that is good!

[WI_DEM]

11. No, there is only one JFK

Kerry has not that JFK's charisma or ability to make people turn to public service in my opinion. He is his own man, and has his own strenghts.

[demwing]

14. Actually, there were at least 5 JFKs

just kidding. :)

In truth, not even JFK was the JFK that some people choose to remember.

17. JFK was much younger

and a much better orator.

I'm not sure your age, but there is something about the generation just after me (I was born in 1956) that is incredibly nostalgic and overly self-conscious. Trying to equate our current "heroes" with past heroes is a symptom of this & leaves me very cold.

Let's just take them on their own terms not with reference to the past.

[Joe Fields]

18. Please don't ask that question ever again.

[demwing]

19. Why?

What is so "hands off" about Kennedy?

[JNelson6563]

20. Um, no he isn't.

I recommend against trying to plant this meme. I'd say try something a bit more original. Only people who are incapable and unaccomplished need to tap into the affection have for others.

Julie

[demwing]

21. Thanks for making it clear that this is your opinion

and not an established fact. Oh, wait.... you wrote:

"Only people who are incapable and unaccomplished need to tap into the affection have for others."

Just curious, did you make that up, or are you repeating something you heard somewhere? It must be somebody's opinion, because it certainly isn't a hard fact. If it were so, everyone would have to be a complete original before they qualified as capable or accomplished.

That is obviously not the case. Complete originality is among the most rare of human traits, and even the most capable and accomplished men and women are influenced by the predecesors.

22. It's my opinion too

I'm saying the same thing in post 17 above.
Guess I was more subtle or polite, but I have the same opinion more or less.

[JNelson6563]

24. influence is not invoking

Big difference.

even the most capable and accomplished men and women are influenced by the predecesors

Indeed but they do not need to invoke warm sentiments of those predecessors in hope of it rubbing off, like the idiot usurper and his handlers tried to do at the time of Reagan's death.

Julie

[DinahMoeHum]

23. I believe Kerry himself prefers the initials JK. . .

too much respect for his role model to appropriate the full initials
and sell himself as a "JFK-redux"

:kick: