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July 18 2008
Some people working in the mainstream media have begun comparing Barack Obama to the late President John Kennedy. While the two men have some things in common, they are different in many ways too.
Things that are similar about both Obama and Kenendy include:
- If Obama wins the White House this November, he will take office around the same age that Kennedy did. Obama is 47 and Kennedy was 48 when elected.
- Like Kennedy, Obama projects an elegant persona while dressing very conservatively.
- Obama possesses Kennedy's oratory skills and has a similar ability to inspire something bordering on religious devotion among his supporters, especially young people.
- Michelle Obama is attractive and articulate and so was Jackie Kennedy.
- Like Kennedy, Obama represents an historical first. Kennedy was the first Catholic president and Obama will be the first African American one if he gets elected.
- Obama shares Kennedy's advantage of campaigning against an opponent who can't begin to match his charisma.
There are also many differences between the two men, such as these:
- Kenendy came into office at a time when the United States was powerful and prosperous. Obama will be taking over leadership of the counry when America has lost its international prestige and faces the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.
- Kennedy was a dedicted womanizer, though nothing was ever said about it in the media at the time. It's safe to say that Obama is no skirt chaser or the Republicans would have hit him over the head with his infidelity by now.
- Kennedy was hawkish on foreign policy, approving The Bay Of Pigs invasion, gettting American tangled up in Vietnam and nearly blowing up the world by playing nuclear chicken with Kruschev over Russian missiles in Cuba. So far, Obama sounds like more of a dove, though this may change, once he gets elected.
- Kennedy rode into office on a rising tide of liberalism in the early 1960s. Despite the hunger that Americans have for change right now, the Political Right has done a thorough job of convincing them that "liberal" is a dirty word and that any sort of Government social program is a form of Communism. Obama will have to tack very carefully to the center, unless he can manage to change the attitudes of the ordinary folk.
The Kennedy Years were not as golden as many baby boomers remember them to be. Rather than seeing him as the new John Kenendy, Americans would do better to assess Barack Obama on his own merits or failings.
George
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Posted by gjcondon on 2008-07-18 12:08:41 | Rating: | Views: 50
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