OBAMA, YOU'RE NO JACK KENNEDY

Everywhere we turn, we read/hear/see comparisons of Barack Obama to John F. Kennedy, both young, attractive, charismatic men, who inspired a generation; both history making candidates, one African-American. one Roman Catholic. The Obama campaign would like us to believe that JFK was also a young, inexperienced candidate. JFK served in the US Navy for four years, in the House of Representatives for six years and in the US Senate for eight before entering the White House. And whatever, one thinks of the Kennedy legacy, Joe Kennedy’s sons were raised to lead. From the time they were children, they shared their dinner table with the greatest minds of the day. Obama himself often cites Kennedy’s own words, “Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.” as rationale for negotiating with renegade countries. What Obama doesn’t say, perhaps doesn’t know, is that that attitude led to a disastrous meeting with Nikita Khrushchev, then the leader of the Soviet Union, which in turn led to the Cuban Missile Crisis, the closest point to a nuclear war this world has ever seen. Obama’s running mate, Joe Biden, this weekend told a roomful of well healed Democratic contributors in Seattle that, "Mark my words, it will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy… Watch. We're going to have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy.” We remember the near panic of the missile crisis, the “duck and cover” drills in elementary schools, the makeshift bomb shelters on every block. We have no desire to walk with Obama through such a scenario.

We actually see more parallels to another President elected on a wave of hope and optimism, James Earle Carter, Jr. Jimmy Carter is a brilliant man, reportedly the highest IQ of any US President, graduated from the US Naval Academy with a degree in physics. He served in the US Navy from 1946 to 1953, ran his late father’s business in Georgia and served on several local community boards, like Obama, before being elected to the State Senate, like Obama. He ran for Governor unsuccessfully in 1966, and was elected Governor in 1970, an executive position he held until becoming President in 1976. To this date, he is considered to be a good, sympathetic man, known for a lifetime of good works. Like Obama, a press weary of the Imperial Presidency of Richard Nixon, lionized him. Who can forget the sycophantic Barbara Walters interview. Like Obama, he ran as a Washington outsider and he was, bringing to Washington, DC, a group of adviser woefully ignorant of the ins and outs of Capital politics. The administration will be remembered for 15% mortgage rates and the humiliating Iranian hostage crisis, and lower popularity ratings than Nixon or George W. Bush. Obama hasn’t the IQ or moral character of Carter nor the experience or family history of Kennedy. Why should we expect a more favorable experience if/when Obama matches wits with a foreign adversary. We close with a paraphrase from the 1968 Peter O’Toole/Katherine Hepburn film, “A Lion In Winter”

We know. You know we know. John McCain knows you know we know. We’re a very knowledgeable bunch. On the other hand, Barack Obama….