Posted on 11/07/2008 10:23:39 AM PST by presidio9
As the nation prepares for President-elect Barack Obama and his family to move into the White House, many Americans can't help but notice clear parallels between them and the family of the late President John F. Kennedy.
His was a presidency filled with idealism, glamour and excitement, observed co-anchor Harry Smith on The Early Show Friday.
"The torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans," Kennedy said in his inaugural address.
A young senator had been elected to lead his country.
Now, 47 years later, the nation has chosen another young senator.
"Change has come to America," Obama declared this week while addressing a huge crowd in Chicago's Grant Park after word came that he'd won.
And the similarities between Kennedy and Obama are, as Smith put it, "striking."
Kennedy was 43 when he was took office, and Obama is just three years older, bringing a certain youthful vigor to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue -- including young children.
Both Obama and Kennedy were criticized for lacking experience -- and both knew the power of well-chosen words.
"Ask not what your country can do for you," Kennedy said during his inaugural address. "Ask what you can do for your country."
During that speech in Grant Park, Obama referred to "the times we were told that we can't -- and the people who pressed on with the American creed: Yes we can."
Kennedy had more than his share of charisma, and Obama, says Smith, knows how to light up a room.
But it's their wives who might be the real superstars -- both seen as glamorous and possessing a high sense of fashion.
Both men overcame significant obstacles to become elected.
Kennedy overcame still-widespread anti-Catholic sentiment to win the presidency.
During his famous civil rights address, he said, "This nation was founded by men of many nations and backgrounds. It was founded on the principle that all men are created equal."
And perhaps even Kennedy would have been surprised that, four decades after that speech, the first African-American was elected the president.
Kennedy was, and Obama is, someone who professes great optimism.
And one of the children of Camelot sees the similarities.
On the campaign trail for Obama, Kennedy's daughter, Caroline Kennedy, told a rally, "I have never had a candidate who inspires me the way people tell me that my father inspired them. But I do now. And that candidate is Barack Obama."
and Russian missiles already being readied for deployment to the western hemisphere
film at 11
‘We dine well here in Camelot.
We eat ham and jam and spam a lot.’
Kennedy was also a lousy president wasn’t that popular at the end.
Give me a brake!!!
Camelot was a LIE. It was a myth dreamed up by Jackie Kennedy right after JFK was assassinated. “What we briefly had was Camelot”.
And the beginning of American royalty.
End the agitprop.
Yeah, that went well last time. Bay of Pigs. Start of the Vietnam war. Wiretapping and nepotism. And it all ended in an assassination and the presidency of a shady VP. Is this really a comparison that the media wants to be making?
Camel Lot?
Bill Clinton’s years were Came Alot.
Camelot?
More like the Politburo.
Oh my GOD!!!!!
The media is gonna start THIS Camelot crap again!
Damnitalltohell, but J.Feakin’-K was NOT that great a President; and he left a legacy that we are still trying to live down as well as a spoiled rotten family we’ve had to suffer all these years.
Post a photo in Michelle's "Black Widow" get up and one of Jackie O's Givenchy frocks...
I’m sure he will be tomcatting around just like the original King of Camelot. Except for Barry, it will be with boys.
JFK and RFK liked MLK so much they listened in on his private phone calls.
On second thought let’s not go to Camelot....’tis a silly place.
...wake me up when it’s all over.
Jackie O’Kennedy’s voice, may she RIP, drove me up a wall. Amazingly, my first wife had that voice. What would Freud say?
I had some Foster’s lager once. I liked the can a lot.
A lot where they sell used camels?
If this is Camelot, Michelle Obama is one ugly Jacky Kennedy.
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