| GREG-STRANGE.COM |
"If you haven't found something strange during the
day, it hasn't been much of a day." -- John A. Wheeler
day, it hasn't been much of a day." -- John A. Wheeler
PROVIDING SUBSTANTIVE COMMENTARY ON THE
PEOPLE, POLITICS, EVENTS AND ABSURDITIES OF
OUR TIME. SERVED UP WITH ACERBIC WIT, YOU
SHOULD FIND IT QUITE SATISFYING.
PEOPLE, POLITICS, EVENTS AND ABSURDITIES OF
OUR TIME. SERVED UP WITH ACERBIC WIT, YOU
SHOULD FIND IT QUITE SATISFYING.
Caroline Kennedy Endorses Obama For a
Dreamy Return to Camelot
In a recent column I theorized that the somewhat puzzling
appeal of Barack Obama as a presidential candidate had to do
with his admirers' happy-headed fantasies of a return to
something resembling the "Camelot" years of the JFK
administration. I argued that Obama was being seen as a kind
of 21st century, multicultural reincarnation of the youthful,
handsome, charismatic JFK and reigniting people's hopes for a
brighter future for the nation and for mankind.
Well, lo and behold, and as if to officially confirm my thesis,
JFK's daughter, Caroline, has now come out with an
endorsement of Obama in an op-ed piece in the New York
Times entitled "A President Like My Father."
Okay, I'm not going to crow too much about my incisive
analysis since I was hardly the first to compare the appeal of
Obama to the appeal of JFK. I did point out, however, that
those comparisons were fully emotional and without
substance. Caroline's op-ed piece endorsing Obama provides
no exception. It's all touchy-feely, warm and fuzzy,
impressionistic nonsense that can't pass for substantive
argument.
I don't question the sincerity of the poor girl (er, excuse me, the
50-year-old woman; the image of her as the six-year-old child
who lost her martyred father is immutably frozen in my mind),
but it's all just emotional longing for someone to come along
and replace her father. Here are some excerpts from her piece:
"OVER the years, I’ve been deeply moved by the people who’ve
told me they wished they could feel inspired and hopeful about
America the way people did when my father was president.
This sense is even more profound today. That is why I am
supporting a presidential candidate in the Democratic
primaries, Barack Obama."
"My reasons are patriotic, political and personal, and the three
are intertwined. All my life, people have told me that my father
changed their lives, that they got involved in public service or
politics because he asked them to. And the generation he
inspired has passed that spirit on to its children. I meet young
people who were born long after John F. Kennedy was
president, yet who ask me how to live out his ideals."
"There is a generation coming of age that is hopeful, hard-
working, innovative and imaginative. But too many of them are
also hopeless, defeated and disengaged. As parents, we have a
responsibility to help our children to believe in themselves and
in their power to shape their future. Senator Obama is
inspiring my children, my parents’ grandchildren, with that
sense of possibility."
"I want a president who understands that his responsibility is
to articulate a vision and encourage others to achieve it; who
holds himself, and those around him, to the highest ethical
standards; who appeals to the hopes of those who still believe
in the American Dream, and those around the world who still
believe in the American ideal; and who can lift our spirits, and
make us believe again that our country needs every one of us to
get involved."
"I have never had a president who inspired me the way people
tell me that my father inspired them. But for the first time, I
believe I have found the man who could be that president — not
just for me, but for a new generation of Americans."
See what I mean? Call me a killjoy or even a dasher of dreams,
but there's just no "there" there, either in Caroline's piece or in
Obama himself. Yes, I've left many of the parts out, but it's just
more of the same: wishful thinking on the part of a very nice
woman who lost her president father a long time ago.
I'll even throw in one more bit of psychological analysis of
Caroline's endorsement. The fact that Obama is black makes
him all the more appealing to her. Why? Because one of the
things her father has been criticized for was not doing enough
to help the cause of civil rights. It took his successor, LBJ, to
stir the country, get the legislation passed and finally get the
ramparts of segregation dismantled once and for all. I'm
guessing it has always rankled Caroline that this gruff, slow-
talking, fatally flawed Texan was able to accomplish something
so significant that escaped her obviously superior father.
By the way, Senator Edward Kennedy, Caroline's uncle, has
jumped on the Obama bandwagon as well with his own
endorsement of the charismatic, JFKesque candidate.
The absurd thing about these Kennedy endorsements is that by
today's standards JFK would almost certainly be a Republican,
would likely be appalled at the politics of his brother and
daughter, and would never personally cast a vote for someone
as left-wing as Obama.
Dreamy Return to Camelot
In a recent column I theorized that the somewhat puzzling
appeal of Barack Obama as a presidential candidate had to do
with his admirers' happy-headed fantasies of a return to
something resembling the "Camelot" years of the JFK
administration. I argued that Obama was being seen as a kind
of 21st century, multicultural reincarnation of the youthful,
handsome, charismatic JFK and reigniting people's hopes for a
brighter future for the nation and for mankind.
Well, lo and behold, and as if to officially confirm my thesis,
JFK's daughter, Caroline, has now come out with an
endorsement of Obama in an op-ed piece in the New York
Times entitled "A President Like My Father."
Okay, I'm not going to crow too much about my incisive
analysis since I was hardly the first to compare the appeal of
Obama to the appeal of JFK. I did point out, however, that
those comparisons were fully emotional and without
substance. Caroline's op-ed piece endorsing Obama provides
no exception. It's all touchy-feely, warm and fuzzy,
impressionistic nonsense that can't pass for substantive
argument.
I don't question the sincerity of the poor girl (er, excuse me, the
50-year-old woman; the image of her as the six-year-old child
who lost her martyred father is immutably frozen in my mind),
but it's all just emotional longing for someone to come along
and replace her father. Here are some excerpts from her piece:
"OVER the years, I’ve been deeply moved by the people who’ve
told me they wished they could feel inspired and hopeful about
America the way people did when my father was president.
This sense is even more profound today. That is why I am
supporting a presidential candidate in the Democratic
primaries, Barack Obama."
"My reasons are patriotic, political and personal, and the three
are intertwined. All my life, people have told me that my father
changed their lives, that they got involved in public service or
politics because he asked them to. And the generation he
inspired has passed that spirit on to its children. I meet young
people who were born long after John F. Kennedy was
president, yet who ask me how to live out his ideals."
"There is a generation coming of age that is hopeful, hard-
working, innovative and imaginative. But too many of them are
also hopeless, defeated and disengaged. As parents, we have a
responsibility to help our children to believe in themselves and
in their power to shape their future. Senator Obama is
inspiring my children, my parents’ grandchildren, with that
sense of possibility."
"I want a president who understands that his responsibility is
to articulate a vision and encourage others to achieve it; who
holds himself, and those around him, to the highest ethical
standards; who appeals to the hopes of those who still believe
in the American Dream, and those around the world who still
believe in the American ideal; and who can lift our spirits, and
make us believe again that our country needs every one of us to
get involved."
"I have never had a president who inspired me the way people
tell me that my father inspired them. But for the first time, I
believe I have found the man who could be that president — not
just for me, but for a new generation of Americans."
See what I mean? Call me a killjoy or even a dasher of dreams,
but there's just no "there" there, either in Caroline's piece or in
Obama himself. Yes, I've left many of the parts out, but it's just
more of the same: wishful thinking on the part of a very nice
woman who lost her president father a long time ago.
I'll even throw in one more bit of psychological analysis of
Caroline's endorsement. The fact that Obama is black makes
him all the more appealing to her. Why? Because one of the
things her father has been criticized for was not doing enough
to help the cause of civil rights. It took his successor, LBJ, to
stir the country, get the legislation passed and finally get the
ramparts of segregation dismantled once and for all. I'm
guessing it has always rankled Caroline that this gruff, slow-
talking, fatally flawed Texan was able to accomplish something
so significant that escaped her obviously superior father.
By the way, Senator Edward Kennedy, Caroline's uncle, has
jumped on the Obama bandwagon as well with his own
endorsement of the charismatic, JFKesque candidate.
The absurd thing about these Kennedy endorsements is that by
today's standards JFK would almost certainly be a Republican,
would likely be appalled at the politics of his brother and
daughter, and would never personally cast a vote for someone
as left-wing as Obama.