Wash. Monthly: "Ask Not! Why Obama Is No JFK"

[bidenista]

This is not a hit piece, but it is critical of the JFK/Obama comparison which we're seeing everywhere. Some interesting historical material on JFK for his fans:

Ask Not!
Why Obama is No JFK
By Ted Widmer

John F. Kennedy is not running for anything in 2008, but you’d never know it. A front-page photo in the New York Times recently showed his electability in Serbia, of all places, where local candidates are vying to establish their credentials as the latest citizens of the New Frontier. Back in the U.S., no candidate has captured the reflected glory of JFK more than Barack Obama, thanks to his youth, eloquence, and message of change. The Kennedy-Obama parallel has been played up by the press, and Obama’s campaign has not discouraged those comparisons—indeed, it has brought in Ted Sorensen, JFK’s talented speechwriter, to make speeches and render the judgment of history.

But the comparison falls short when voters consider the key question for 2008: foreign policy experience. It’s true that Obama, like Kennedy, is a youngish senator (at 46, three years older than Kennedy when he ran for president), but the parallel falters after that. The more one looks into Kennedy’s lifelong preparation for the job, the more one realizes how misleading it was, then and now, to describe him as inexperienced. Everyone who has stressed Kennedy’s youth, from Dan Quayle in 1988 to Obama today, has bumped up against the uncomfortable fact that JFK was an extremely well-informed statesman in 1960. As Lloyd Bentsen reminded us in the zinger that pole-axed Quayle, the truth was a lot more complicated than the myth.Subscribe Online & Save 33%

Kennedy, of course, was a decorated veteran of World War Two, which he fought in the South Pacific. But before and after the conflict, he had acquired travel experiences that most people take a lifetime to accumulate, richly detailed in biographies like Robert Dallek’s An Unfinished Life. His father was ambassador to the United Kingdom in the pivotal year 1938, and young Kennedy was in the audience of the House of Commons as the Munich deal was furiously debated (the experience shaped his first book, Why England Slept). As a young man, he made American officials uneasy with his relentless desire to see parts of Europe and the world that few Americans ever encountered. In 1939 alone, he took in the Soviet Union, Romania, Turkey, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Greece, France, Germany, Italy and Czechoslovakia. As the war was ending, he attended the San Francisco conference that created the United Nations, filing seventeen dispatches for the Chicago Herald American.

More: http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2008/0801w.widmer.html

[saltpoint]

1. Kennedy was a soldier, yes, but there are many other ways to serve one's

country. Sen. Obama was a neighborhood builder. I call that high service.

Also, JFK wasn't JKF when he was running for president, exactly. The Camelot aura came a bit later.

Obama is Obama.

I believe he is likely to be the next President of the United States.

[rodeodance]

2. I comparison has bothered me--can't quite put my finger on it. I think it is

the romanticism that is involved. Going back or hoping to go back to a time that once was--for whatever reason-is impossible.

later.

[Afje]

12. I'm bothered by it too

It's like the pathetic GOPhers trying to dig up Reagan. I don't know where the comparison came from, but I bet it was some talking head who had to fill an hour with fluff.

[Apollo11]

17. Looks like it doesn't bother Caroline Kennedy

She has been explicitly comparing Obama with JFK these past few days.

[robbedvoter]

20. Obviously. I am still entitled to find it tacky as I do Ted's e-mails asking for $

by dragging his dead, more successful brother's name into it.
And then it's you guys screaming "dynasties! No more!"

I also noticed that many of you are doing a Rudy. You answer any unrelated question with "Teddy Kennedy" (instead of 9.11)
Why are the people in the media who brought us Bush praising Obama?
Ted Kennedy
Does Obama have experience?
Ted Kennedy
Can Obama win the GE?
Ted Kennedy

For one, the one who hammered NCLB with W, does not have infailible judgment.
Second, as of now, he is just an Obama surrogate now - so you might as well read me campaign literature to convince me of stuff.

Another thing that was tacky - all the "passing the torch" BS. Did Teddy have a torch? Where was he keeping it all these years? His closet?

[MH1]

8. Thank you OC

You must be bummed today. I'm sorry. :hug:

[saltpoint]

10. One tries not to personalize political convulsions. The Edwards group

is disappointed, understandably, but this isn't my first disappointment.

There was Senator Kerry in Nov. 04. There was Mario Cuomo in January 92.

There was Mo Udall.

There was Birch Bayh.

And the snowstorm into which Senator Wellstone disappeard.

All sad days.

But one builds a kind of thick-skinned resilience and pushes on.

You know this story also.

There are Republicans to defeat and I'm already at work helping that happen.

[Bitwit1234]

3. Gee the only thing I see that the MSM will dare to print is he knows

how to push the wrong buttons and missed voting. I sure would like to see what they have in their research. You'd be suprised how afraid they of the other candidate.

[MethuenProgressive]

4. DU has already spoken on how Barack is/is not like Jack:

Poll question: The reason Sen. Obama is most like President John F. Kennedy

[flor de jasmim]

5. Obama's foreign experience

One thing that has been gnawing on me is the lack of comment from Obama on recent events in Kenya. Now it's true he is not an immigrant and apparently ties to his father were not strong, but I haven't heard him talk about Kenya (or foreign affairs) in any specific way. I live abroad and am dependent on the internet, but with all the talk of his having lived abroad when he was young, I would expect him to come out with some statement about the world at large. Does anyone else find this odd? Or am I simply wrong and he has done this?

[MethuenProgressive]

6. I'm pretty sure he phoned Kenyan authorities after the news broke.

I too, would've liked more from Obama on this.

[MH1]

9. He has gone on Kenyan radio at least a couple of times

There have been posts on DU, but they get overwhelmed by "handjobgate" and similar crises.

I believe he has commented on it elsewhere as well.

[KennedyGuy]

7. a got that right..No way is Obama evan a fraction of JFK

[izzybeans]

11. Sure he's not JFK.

he wasn't born in to dynasty like JFK.

I wouldn't vote for a Kennedy, a Bush, or a Clinton today for President. That is unless the super-delegates force me to do it (for a Kennedy or a Clinton that is). Being bred to lead sounds too much like kingmaker to me to ring truly democratic.

[Hippo_Tron]

13. Dan Quayle was truly dumb as a fucking post and should not be compared to Obama

And as far as my take on Obama and JFK goes... I really don't know whether he's like JFK or not because I haven't had a chance to see him as President.

Truth be told it's very hard to speculate how good of a President someone will be based on what they do before they are in office. Lincoln didn't know shit about war until he became president and he was arguably the best war president if not the best president we've ever had.

Herbert Hoover had plenty of experience and he turned out to be a fucking disaster.

The only people who can really claim that they have the experience necessary to be President are incumbent Presidents up for re-election. Nobody is going to be the best that they can possibly be at the job from day 1 and there is ALWAYS a learning curve.

[sandnsea]

14. That's a little peculiar

No, Obama hasn't been in a war zone. But he grew up overseas as much as JFK did, he's travelled as a Senator. He also has local organizing service, civil rights advocacy, and state legislative experience. He brings a different skillset that is necessary for this time in history. The common thread between the two is the ability to bring people together to support their cause and that's got nothing to do with experience.

[FrenchieCat]

15. It's pretty elementary really.........

Why Washingtonmonthly misses the mark, I don't know?

No one is saying that Obama is "like" JFK in anyway other than the fact that he inspires people to get involved with their government (like JFK did with national service). This is why our Dem turnout have been so large.

He is speaking to people and they are responding.

So Washington Monthly is going into a direction that no one is pointing to.

That's kind of sad of them.

[rodeodance]

21. Its a great REALITY CHECK for those who have been Glitterized by the manic of

Obama-mania!!--

So Washington Monthly is going into a direction that no one is pointing to.

That's kind of sad of them.

[Apollo11]

16. The guy who wrote this used to work for Bill Clinton.

Ted Widmer, Director of the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University, is a Senior Research Fellow at the New America America Foundation, and was a foreign policy speechwriter for President Clinton (1997-2000).

Maybe this guy still counts himself as a friend of the Clintons? :eyes:

Nobody is saying that Obama's resumé is exactly equal to that of JFK. JFK had the experience of serving in WW2. Obama has the experience of being a Community Organizer in Chicago.

But I do think Obama's forward-looking message has the potential to bring people together and unite the country in a way we have not seen in a Presidential candidate since JFK.

Apparently Caroline Kennedy thinks so too.

[rodeodance]

18. its hard for me to get any future out of his talks--lots of Follow me, trust me.

[rodeodance]

19. Excellant--good Rovian tactic--kill the messenger.

The guy who wrote this used to work for Bill Clinton.

Ted Widmer, Director of the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University, is a Senior Research Fellow at the New America America Foundation, and was a foreign policy speechwriter for President Clinton (1997-2000).

Maybe this guy still counts himself as a friend of the Clintons? :eyes:

[Apollo11]

22. "kill the messenger"?

By pointing out the fact that he used to work for Bill Clinton?

You're right - that was a real low blow! :eyes: