An Obama/ JFK Comparison

As President Barack Obama moves into his second week of being in office, and Caroline Kennedy recently took herself out of the running for senate seat vacated by new Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, I started to think about the similarities between the presidential runs of Barack Obama and John F. Kennedy.
Despite their runs being some forty-eight years apart, there are parallels that can be drawn. Both made their runs when they were in their forties, younger than the usual fifty-sixty range for most presidential candidates. Consequently, they were both young and vibrant with a great deal of charisma. They also had young and attractive wives that quickly became style and fashion icons; and pre-teen children that the country could embrace.
On the potential liability side, Kennedy was a Catholic at a time when all previous presidents had been white Anglo-Saxon Protestants.
Of course, Obama is African American . Jesse Jackson had been the only semi-serious contender for a major party nomination. And there have been only a handful of black senators and governors.
Kennedy was able to overcome partly because he was a member of a very wealthy, celebrated, and well-connected family. He also had the support of powerful Iris Catholic politicians like Chicago’s mayor Richard M. Daley. The element that probably pushed Kennedy over the top was his mastery of the relatively new medium of televison. In a series of television debates he shined above most other politicians due to his charisma and ad lib sense of humor. His Republican opponent, Vice President Richard Nixon, was the direct opposite; uncomfortable, flat, and unconvincing in front of a television camera. Many experts believed Kennedy’s performance in the debates was a major deciding factor in turning the tide of the election in his favor.
Barack Obama was propelled from an early in his term senator to a national figure by his rousing speech at the Democratic Convention. His best-selling books reinforced his message of change and coming together for a common cause. Like Kennedy, Obama took full advantage of an emerging technology. Obama extensively used the internet to get his message across. More importantly, he used the internet to raise millions of dollars to finance his campaign before primary victories gave him greater access to more traditional means of fund raising.
Coming into his presidency, Kennedy was faced with a growing cold war fraught with tensions over the proliferation of nuclear weapons, and their potential use, which escalated into the Cuban Missile Crisis. On the home front there was the more visible than ever civil rights movement that was gaining momentum through television coverage and the emergence in statue of Martin Luther King Jr.
Obama inherits two costly wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the ongoing threat of Mideast inspired terrorism. Domestically, there is the economic down turn that has spiraled into the housing market debacle, slumping auto industry, the resulting lay offs and rising unemployment. Not to mention inflated prices and the spending withdrawal by consumers.
Kennedy relied, and Obama will rely on his ability to inspire Americans to keep a positive frame of mind despite the trying times they are facing.
Finally, Kennedy was receptive to the goals of the escalating civil rights movement at a time when some blacks were leery of starting trouble, and a high percentage of whites would have favored a government and law enforcement crack down on civil rights demonstrations.
President Obama serves as a obvious source of pride and inspiration for African Americans of all ages. Even more so for senior citizens past the age of seventy, some who endured through the hard knocks and dangers of being active participants in the civil rights movement. Most suffered daily indignities, and the hovering threat of physical dangers in their efforts to provide for their families. Many never thought they would see the day when an African American would be elected President of the United States.