John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy
I just finished watching Thirteen Days about the weeks in October 1962 known as the "Cuban Missile Crisis." The other day I watch Oliver Stone's JFK.
In 1991, at the Democratic National Convention a film was shown called "A Town Called Hope" about this barely known Governor of Arkansas. There was a scene in it where Bill Clinton was shown to have met JFK when he was a high school student. Visually, they stopped it just a split second before their hands joined in a shake, a visual said to have been a specific allusion to the Sistine Chapel.
I remember how I felt when I saw that. I felt so energized and alive. I felt hopeful. I felt we had found our new JFK. In the Democratic Party, for the last 40 years, all have aspired to be the next JFK. That is the Gold Standard.
Kennedy was dead just under seven months before I was born, but my whole life this mythical figure has been held up as the Greatest President of recent history.
I am sure that my counterpart in the Republican Party has been taught the same thing about Ronald Reagan. What Reagan gave to people was that they made us feel good about ourselves. Well, I didn't feel any better, but I was a smart person and could see through the facade.
But, JFK was young and a Senator and a war hero. He was the real deal, while Reagan just was playing a part. In fact, I sometimes say that I feel that Jack Kennedy was the last one that I believe actually was in charge. Conspiracy theorists will say that is what got him killed and that all Presidents since has understood the necessity to "compromise" and share power.
There is one thing I see in Obama. I actually believe that he is running his campaign. He is a natural leader that people feel comfortable following. A day or so after Joe Biden was announced as his running mate, I saw a TV interview with them together and when Biden was asked a question he turned to Obama with a huge smile and said, "I'll let you handle this, boss." The way he said boss, they way it was coming from a United States Senator, several years the senior of the target, and it was said with no reservation, much respect and truth in his heart that he felt confident, comfortable and completely supportive of Barack Obama being The Boss.
THAT is the quality I want in a President, a Commander-in-Chief, the most powerful person on Earth and the leader of the free world.
That is also what sickens me so much about what the Republicans have been doing in this campaign. Everyone knows that it was going to be near impossible to any Republican to win this election because of how much George W. Bush is despised. They know it, too, and yet in their desperate grasp at power they have done so much damage to the reputation of Obama. To really hear the fear that has been placed in the heart of a significant portion of the electorate of this country. (Be it a third to close to a half.)
I sometimes think that as the stated goal of the Republican Party is smaller government, they really want to make sure we have someone completely inept (as to who they keep electing) or to completely discredit who the other guys elect. They spent the entirety of Clinton's presidency trying to find SOMETHING, ANYTHING to discredit him, and they found that he got a blow job from some chick. Anyone remember Whitewater, or Travel Office-gate??? Yeah, nothing came of those because they couldn't find anything. They were soooooooo bitter about Nixon being taken down that they just had to get payback.
For his generation, Kennedy was a Rock Star.
For this generation, Obama is a Rock Star.
Age, good looks, charisma, Harvard, eloquence, beautiful wife and children, breaking barriers. (JFK was the first none protestant ever elected, and that was considered groundbreaking at the time.)
I do believe that Barack Obama will be the next President of the United States of America, and I think this is exactly what this country, and this planet needs right now.
It's almost time for me to change my "Politics" icon here, because I don't think we are going to be "fucked" much longer.
A week from Tuesday I will walk down to Cordova Gardens Grade School and vote for Barack Obama and the future we all need.
In 1991, at the Democratic National Convention a film was shown called "A Town Called Hope" about this barely known Governor of Arkansas. There was a scene in it where Bill Clinton was shown to have met JFK when he was a high school student. Visually, they stopped it just a split second before their hands joined in a shake, a visual said to have been a specific allusion to the Sistine Chapel.
I remember how I felt when I saw that. I felt so energized and alive. I felt hopeful. I felt we had found our new JFK. In the Democratic Party, for the last 40 years, all have aspired to be the next JFK. That is the Gold Standard.
Kennedy was dead just under seven months before I was born, but my whole life this mythical figure has been held up as the Greatest President of recent history.
I am sure that my counterpart in the Republican Party has been taught the same thing about Ronald Reagan. What Reagan gave to people was that they made us feel good about ourselves. Well, I didn't feel any better, but I was a smart person and could see through the facade.
But, JFK was young and a Senator and a war hero. He was the real deal, while Reagan just was playing a part. In fact, I sometimes say that I feel that Jack Kennedy was the last one that I believe actually was in charge. Conspiracy theorists will say that is what got him killed and that all Presidents since has understood the necessity to "compromise" and share power.
There is one thing I see in Obama. I actually believe that he is running his campaign. He is a natural leader that people feel comfortable following. A day or so after Joe Biden was announced as his running mate, I saw a TV interview with them together and when Biden was asked a question he turned to Obama with a huge smile and said, "I'll let you handle this, boss." The way he said boss, they way it was coming from a United States Senator, several years the senior of the target, and it was said with no reservation, much respect and truth in his heart that he felt confident, comfortable and completely supportive of Barack Obama being The Boss.
THAT is the quality I want in a President, a Commander-in-Chief, the most powerful person on Earth and the leader of the free world.
That is also what sickens me so much about what the Republicans have been doing in this campaign. Everyone knows that it was going to be near impossible to any Republican to win this election because of how much George W. Bush is despised. They know it, too, and yet in their desperate grasp at power they have done so much damage to the reputation of Obama. To really hear the fear that has been placed in the heart of a significant portion of the electorate of this country. (Be it a third to close to a half.)
I sometimes think that as the stated goal of the Republican Party is smaller government, they really want to make sure we have someone completely inept (as to who they keep electing) or to completely discredit who the other guys elect. They spent the entirety of Clinton's presidency trying to find SOMETHING, ANYTHING to discredit him, and they found that he got a blow job from some chick. Anyone remember Whitewater, or Travel Office-gate??? Yeah, nothing came of those because they couldn't find anything. They were soooooooo bitter about Nixon being taken down that they just had to get payback.
For his generation, Kennedy was a Rock Star.
For this generation, Obama is a Rock Star.
Age, good looks, charisma, Harvard, eloquence, beautiful wife and children, breaking barriers. (JFK was the first none protestant ever elected, and that was considered groundbreaking at the time.)
I do believe that Barack Obama will be the next President of the United States of America, and I think this is exactly what this country, and this planet needs right now.
It's almost time for me to change my "Politics" icon here, because I don't think we are going to be "fucked" much longer.
A week from Tuesday I will walk down to Cordova Gardens Grade School and vote for Barack Obama and the future we all need.