Thursday, January 31, 2008

Obama is the new JFK?

Please......let's not resort to absurdities, shall we?

Obama is a likable enough guy with plenty of charisma, but really.......

Here' s some points for comparison.

How can you compare

".....it's a disgrace we haven't talked to the leaders of (state sponsors of terrorism such as) North Korea, Syria and Iran."

......with

"
We shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, and oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and success of liberty."


6 comments:

  1. Obama may have the ability to make a good speech but that is about as close to JFK as he comes.

    He talks a lot but says little about his vision for America. JFK was able to paint a portrait of the vision he had for America and he put it on an easel for all to see. He did not remove it after he was elected. He allowed the portrait of that vision remain as a reminder to him and to the American people as to why they trusted him with the mantle of leadership. '
    Obama lacks the skill to even fill in the lines of a coloring book much less paint such a vision.
    What an insult to a great man to even compare him to such as Obama.

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  2. I think the major difference in those quotes is that Obama is saying we should talk to the leaders of hostile nations and JFK did so without letting anyone know -- and was practically a co-contractor on the Berlin Wall.

    We just wouldn't find out about any of that until nearly 20 years after his death.

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  3. "I think the major difference in those quotes is that Obama is saying we should talk to the leaders of hostile nations and JFK did so without letting anyone know -- and was practically a co-contractor on the Berlin Wall.'


    In 1961?

    I don't think so.

    Churchill/Atlee, Truman, and Stalin could claim that honor as a result of Potsdam in 1945.

    Add Stalin again for the Berlin Blockade in '48, and Truman for the Truman Doctrine, George Marshall for the Marshall Plan, John Foster Dulles, and so forth.

    Most historians think Kennedy, elected to congress in '46 as an anti-Communist Democrat, responded with restraint to the provocation of the wall.

    Although he campaigned hard against the Eisenhower Administration as being "soft" on the Soviet threat in '60, that can hardly be any more than an excuse from the soviets and East Germans to escalate hostilities.

    As far as the comparison between JFK and Obama talking to hostile nations, JFK did so because of Cold War protocols, to a foe who well understood the concept of mutually assured destruction.

    Obama's dialogue with today's foes would not proceed under such conditions. Today's foes don't care, wouldn't listen, and follow no real protocols.

    Obama's statement was a sign of weakness and naivete.

    Kennedy's words and actions were nothing of the sort, although he DID call himself a "jelly doughnut" in his famous '63 speech.

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  4. From JFK's speech to the nation on July 25, 1961:

    "We do not want to fight -- but we have fought before. And others in earlier times have made the same dangerous mistake of assuming that the West was too selfish and too soft and too divided to resist invasions of freedom in other lands.

    Those who threaten to unleash the forces of war on a dispute over West Berlin should recall the words of the ancient philosopher: 'A man who causes fear cannot be free from fear.'"


    Can anyone imagine Obama making such a comment?

    And finally, from his closing remarks, JFK seems to be reaching into the future to a first term junior member of the Senate with no practical experience in such matters:

    "I would like to close with a personal word. When I ran for the presidency of the United States, I knew that this country faced serious challenges, but I could not realize -- nor could any man realize who does not bear the burdens of this office -- how heavy and constant would be those burdens."

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  5. I think my view of the Kennedy presidency has been shaped most my Richard Reeves' excellent book, President Kennedy: Profile of Power.

    We'll have to agree to disagree, I guess -- but I see more similarities than differences in these men. Kennedy was told he was too young, didn't have the proper practical experience, should wait his turn -- and he responded by essentially destroying the process of selecting presidential candidates in the United States to that point because he didn't feel he should have to wait his turn (or, if you believe the many who knew him and said that his having nearly died so many times made him fatalistic, then because he believed he could not wait his turn).

    Given the choice between Obama or Clinton as the Democratic nominee I'd have to say Obama was the way to go every day of the week, and twice on Sunday.

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  6. We haven't heard Obama proclaim "I am an apple turnover" in French yet, so you may be right.

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