I am referring for these purposes not so much to the sentimental inflation of his reputation after his assassination but to the carefully contrived myth which got Kennedy elected and would likely have gotten him reelected in 1964. By the time of his assassination, John F. Kennedy was a drug addict, a sex addict and terminally ill. None of this was made known to the American people yet much of it was current among intimate members of the elite media.
The parallels to the election of Barack Obama are so obvious that they do not need to be recounted here. Essentially Barack Obama's radical Marxist/terrorist associations would have debarred him from the presidency had they become generally known. This knowledge was not nearly as closely guarded as Kennedy's liabilities, they were known to the conservative media and in the blogosphere and well-known, of course, on FreeRepublic. Yet, the elite media spiked any investigation into the radical associations of Barack Obama.
In other words, the media engaged in the hagiography of Barack Obama just as they had mythologized John F. Kennedy. Except in the case of Barack Obama the media could no longer plead ignorance of the facts, they were known to those who sought them out. The media, unable to plead ignorance, is guilty of willfully slanting coverage to advance a candidate. At best they did so believing that they were making history by supporting the first black president, more likely that rationalization is but an excuse enabling them once again to push the country to the left.
If in 1960 the elite media believed that it was advancing the first Roman Catholic president while saving America from a demagogue named Richard Nixon, it is clear that the media ever since has arrogated unto itself the God-playing moral right to determine what is best for America and the power to feed America the myths calculated to manipulate the electorate.
We conservatives must understand that we have been the victims of this scenario time after time after time. The treatment of Martin Luther King Jr. is but one more illustration of the rule.
In this context the significance of Newt Gingrich's stunning victory in South Carolina becomes plain: Republicans, at least, do in fact understand how they have been victimized in this process and they are not going to stand for any longer. I can recall in the run-up to the 2008 election screaming on these threads that John McCain was certainly destined to lose the election if he did not morally destroy Barak Obama. As we know, McCain did not even attempt to do so.
Now Gingrich has done so. He has done so brilliantly and in a stroke he has catapulted himself to the head of the pack. He has done so by attacking the mythologizing and demonizing excesses of the elite media. That alone is a sweet irony.
But there is a greater irony here, Gingrich has done so as the man who stands in the shoes of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Junior, Robert Kennedy, and Lyndon Johnson all of whom have been mythologized by an elite media which ignored their sexual peccadilloes. The media has certainly not ignored Gingrich's shortcomings but they have been prevented from driving him from the field.
It is a sign of Gingrich's political genius that he has converted this liability into a masterstroke.
To those conservatives who have doubts about Gingrich's ability to beat Obama take note of the fact that he just beat the combined efforts of the Republican establishment and the Democrat media in a stroke. You are not dealing with a candidate who will campaign back on his heels defending his "baggage." You are dealing with a candidate who can do, and will do, what John McCain could not do, or would not do.
You are looking at a candidate who just kicked over the table and declared that the game will not be dictated by any establishment. He will set the rules of the game which he can win.
While we ponder this sweet irony and the power it implies to win the election, we might also consider why Gingrich is the only choice for someone who will actually kick over the table and really restore our Constitution and our government to us.
