Posted on 02/01/2008 12:46:09 PM PST by Kaslin
The gods have made their choice. The Olympians have found their anointed one. Bow, bow, before the vessel of the Divine Spark!
So sayeth the priestly class of the mainstream media as they witness the divine laying of hands from the Kennedys upon the New Deliverer, Barack Obama.
He is, quoth ABC's Terry Moran, the "new son of Camelot." Moran continued: "Ted and Caroline Kennedy pass the torch to Barack Obama to carry the legacy of JFK." David Wright, also of ABC, proclaimed, "the audacity of hope had its rendezvous with destiny ... Obama is now an adopted son of Camelot."
MSNBC's Chris Matthews: "Today, for a brief shining hour, the young got to see what we saw, not the gauzy images of Camelot, but the living spirit of the New Frontier."
CBS's Harry Smith proclaimed: "In the civic religion that is Democratic politics, the most treasured covenant was passed to the young senator from Illinois."
One would think that in this age of hysteria about global warming, the press would show some restraint in releasing so much hot air into the atmosphere. Of course, in a gasbaggery race with Ted Kennedy, everyone needs to go into overdrive.
Still, it is a startling thing to behold: Nearly 45 years after the man's tragic death, the liberal establishment remains enthralled to the cargo cult that is the John F. Kennedy myth.
And it is a myth. Start with the "Camelot" label. It's worth remembering that nobody used that word to describe JFK's presidency when he was alive. The media's marketing of the term stems from Jackie Kennedy's recollection that her husband liked the Broadway musical "Camelot," which had opened a month after Kennedy's election. Theodore White, a journalist-admirer of Kennedy's, convinced Life magazine to run with the idea. The musical's tagline "for a brief shining moment" became an overnight cliché to describe the supposedly glorious idealism of Kennedy's "thousand days."
As James Piereson argues in his brilliant book, "Camelot and the Cultural Revolution," the mythmaking industrial complex kicked into overdrive largely to compensate for the fact that Kennedy was killed not by the American right but by a devout Marxist red named Lee Harvey Oswald. The propaganda campaign to blame "forces of hate" - code for the American right - was one of the most fascinating instantaneous "happenings" in U.S. history. For example, a young Texas reporter got hold of a false rumor that a classroom of schoolchildren in Dallas - aka the City of Hate - cheered when they heard Kennedy had been murdered. The local CBS affiliate concluded the story was untrue. But the enterprising reporter did an end-run and filed the story with the network in New York anyway. And with that, a young Dan Rather was off to the races.
But the mythmaking hardly ended there. Suddenly, JFK was hailed not merely as a liberal but as a sort of liberal messiah, martyred for trying to save America. Washington's Methodist bishop, John Wesley Lord, said Americans must "atone" for their role in Kennedy's death. The best way to "thank a martyr for his death and sacrifice" was to embrace liberal politics. Vast conspiracy theories were churned out that Kennedy was murdered because he was going to pull us out of Vietnam. The Oliver Stone crowd has argued ever since that Oswald was the fascist military industrial complex's fall guy. This makes no sense. Kennedy ran to Nixon's right on foreign policy in 1960. Mere hours before he died, Kennedy was boasting to the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce that he had increased defense spending on a massive scale, including a 600 percent increase on counterinsurgency special forces in South Vietnam. The previous March, Kennedy had asked Congress to spend fifty cents of every federal dollar on defense. One of JFK's original apostles, former speechwriter Ted Sorensen, is touting Barack Obama as JFK's "heir." But heir to what? Certainly not policies of any kind. Obama is dovish in every way JFK was hawkish. Indeed, Obama is to Hillary Clinton's left. National Journal rated him the most liberal senator of 2007. Sorensen himself admitted in a 1983 Newsweek interview that JFK "never identified himself as a liberal; it was only after his death that they began to claim him as one of theirs." He went on to say that "on fiscal matters (JFK) was more conservative than any president we've had since." But Sorensen has now been overtaken by nostalgia. The legitimacy of Obama's coronation as our new "photogenic redeemer" (a phrase historian Douglas Brinkley used to describe John F. Kennedy Jr.), rests on cloud-castle platitudes about hope and unity, lacking even the slightest ballast of realism. It's political divinization, not policy detail. But what else would you expect from a party that has become a civic religion?
Well that may be the case. I’m still not totally convinced Oswald acted alone, even though he every well may have.
There was a lot going on in the circles close to him.
Good point.
Oswald was the trigger man. But Kennedy had so many enemies and around himm too, so who knows? ANYBODY could have wanted to blow him away.
OHMYGOD, all you have to do is tell these LW nutjobs that Kennedy was a patriot, and hated Communism, and I swear they completely lose it.
I’m not even convinced Oswald could pump out the rounds to do what was done. The majic bullet theory has always been problematic for me and Ford saying he altered the final details of that didn’t help.
Mob, Castro, Castro sympathizers, lunatic fringe nut job... who knows.
LOL, that does his them where they live doesn’t it.
My parents knew Kennedy and were big supporters of his, even went to his Inauguration. A couple of years later, they quit him in disgust. They said later he had a split personality, Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde. They said ANYBODY AND EVERYBODY wanted him dead. They were horrified about Marilyn Monroe. He treated people like scum... but the press covered up for him. The Secret Service DETESTED him, so when he ordered them off the car in Dallas, they happily went. The SS did like Jackie, though, and felt sorry for her.
Yep, and you should hear it when they start screaming, “FASCIST!!!!” Yell Communist at them, and they are not offended. I have a better name for them: LEFT WING FASCISTS. Catchy, isn’t it? They scream that “Bush is a dictator.” I laugh and say, “if Bush were a dictator, YOU WOULD BE DEAD.” They SPLUTTER, and it is hilarious to watch it.
Thanks for the two good responses. I appreciated your insight and humor. I agree with your comments.
maybe not so pro-life.
“What I want to tell you is my very last secret—an extremely personal one,” Exner dramatically told Liz Smith in 1997. The secret was the abortion she had as a result of her last sexual encounter with the President. She was “too ashamed” to tell it earlier. “But now, before I die, I think the Camelot myth should also be demystified, and the Kennedy legend examined for its reality. I don’t have a single, solitary thing to hide.”
Kennedy, she said, had begged her to come back and talk, to try again. She went to see him one last time in late December 1962. “I said I wouldn’t see him anymore; it was too painful. But we were intimate that one last time, in the White House.” Shortly afterward she realized she was pregnant. “I hadn’t been with anyone but Jack—not ever during the whole time.” By her calculations she was “almost two months” pregnant. Because abortion was then illegal, the President said, “Do you think Sam would help us? Would you ask Sam? Would you mind asking?” Giancana agreed to assist her.
The same evening she told Giancana she needed an abortion she was sexually intimate with him. “It was the one time with Sam and it was an emotional response to his loving-kindness and caring for what I was going through. But I would hardly say that that was having a simultaneous affair with two men.” Exner claims she had her abortion at Chicago’s Grant Hospital, and left the hospital on January 28, 1963.
Lefties are so much fun to piss off. They never can respond logically, only EMOTIONALLY, which makes them totally irrational. JFK never considered himself a liberal. In fact, he would HATE the Democrats, now. When you grow up as a Democrat, you see these things. They have always been about violence, and hatred. They first hated Nixon, as VP, and then President, then Reagan, then the senior Bush, and now GWB. They can never give a good reason for it, other than they “hate” them. The bile against GWB is a logical outcome of 60 years of hatred.
I agree.
I disagree with the people you mentioned on point. That is reasoned. What I see the left teeing off on is just insane.
Like you say, they are loopy.
I will tell you, I do try to measure myself by this yard stick from time to time, to guage if I am being rational with the left. Most of the time I am.
WHat I was trying to say is that the Left never gives a reasonl for hating, Nixon, Reagan, the Bushes, etc, just that they “hate” him. They go from one irrational hatred to the next, whether it be a person or something like the “Defense Department,” the “CIA,” or whatever. My own mother was like that. She first hated Nixon, then Reagan, then the senior Bush. She also went into hating the Vietnam War, Caspar Weinberger, Bob Packwood, ad nasiem. When I asked her why, she never had a reason, just that she hated whatever. My father finally told her that she was rabid. The Dems and the Left are not only negative about everything, they just HATE, continuously. They also think that they are better than other people, and smarter, and that only THEY know what is best for everybody. You can see why they lose a lot of elections, even the ones they are supposed to win.
My mother also hated LBJ, a Democrat, for good measure. The reason was, according to her, was that she LOATHED Texas, ans despised The South in general. Before, she hated Truman, as she thought he was low-class. Go figure. A lot of Dems did hate Truman and LBJ. Sometimes they DO hate a few of their own, but it’s usually Republicans. I had an idiot scream at me: “I HATE REPUBLICANS,” AND SHE NEVER COULD GIVE ME A REASON.
I know what you mean. I’m getting rather tired, but I appreciate the responses.
It’s good manners to reply to civil posts. Manners are something the Dems do NOT have. They hate manners too, and think it makes people “affected.” They also think people with manners are WEAK. No wonder Reagan, and GWB wind up winning over these stupes.
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