If Obama is JFK, Who Does That Make Hillary?

Ted Kennedy's statement Monday that Obama was like JFK set off a storm of historical analogies. Hillary's side fired back that she is like Bobby Kennedy -- at least that's what three of Bobby's kids said the next day: "Like our father, Hillary has devoted her life to embracing and including those on the bottom rung of society's ladder," Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Kerry Kennedy declared.

Hillary herself has claimed not so long ago that SHE is our JFK: "A lot of people back then [1960] said, 'America will never elect a Catholic as president,'" she said in New Hampshire last March. "When people tell me 'a woman can never be president,' I say, we'll never know unless we try." And of course she also compared herself to LBJ, whose political skills, she said, made it possible for him to sign into law what she called "Dr. King's dream."

Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times compared Obama to Lincoln (both were undistinguished newcomers when they ran for president). Paul Krugman of the New York Times compared Hillary to Grover Cleveland (both were conservative Democrats in a Republican era). Biographer Joseph Ellis compared Obama to Thomas Jefferson (both spoke in favor of nonpartisan politics).

Sorting out these claims is, of course, a job for professionals -- professional historians. They too are partisans. The only organized political group of historians in this campaign in "Historians for Obama," which includes Joyce Appleby, former president of the American Historical Association; Robert Dallek, the award-wining presidential biographer; David Thelen, former editor of the Journal of American History; and the Pulitzer-prize winning Civil War historian James McPherson.

Their statement made some sweeping analogies: "Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation and kept the nation united; Franklin D. Roosevelt persuaded Americans to embrace Social Security and more democratic workplaces; John F. Kennedy advanced civil rights and an anti-poverty program. Barack Obama has the potential to be that kind of president."

On the other side, there is no historians-for-Hillary organization, but there is Sean Wilentz -- the Princeton professor and award-winning author of The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln who testified for the defense at the Clinton impeachment hearing. He recently took on the key Obama analogies in an LA Times op-ed. First, he said, Obama is no JFK: "By the time he ran for president, JFK had served three terms in the House and twice won election to the Senate," Wilentz wrote. "Before that, he was, of course, a decorated veteran of World War II, having fought with valor in the South Pacific."

And to compare Obama to Lincoln, Wilentz says, is "absurd": "Yes, Lincoln spent only two years in the House," but in 1858, when he ran unsuccessfully for the Senate, Lincoln "engaged with Stephen A. Douglas in the nation's most important debates over slavery before the Civil War."

On the other hand, Robert Dallek, author of biographies of LBJ and Kennedy, has explained that the appeal of JFK in 1960 has clear parallels to Obama's campaign today: "it's the aura, it's the rhetoric, the youthfulness, the charisma," he told the Chicago Tribune blog "The Swamp."

Then there is the Lincoln analogy. Eric Foner, the former American Historical Association president and author of Reconstruction, points out that, in 1860, the Republicans had to choose between two candidates: one who claimed decades of experience in politics, the other with much less, who won support because his oratory was so inspiring and he was deemed more electable. In 1860, the candidate with experience lost the nomination to Lincoln; he was William H. Seward. That makes it fair to say that Hillary could be our Seward.

Comments

[mdtaichi]

Clintons = Medicis on the Hudson...
perhaps not so interested in the arts.

[Silpat]

Nixon?

[zjr909]

The Lincoln comparisons scare me a little bit. What the ones comparing Obama to Lincoln are really saying is that, maybe - just maybe - Obama will rise to the occasion to meet the extraordinary challenges events throw at him. I'm sorry, but I'd like something just a bit more concrete than Obama might have the makings of a great president. Because it's just as likely that he might not. Bottom line: don't vote for who you think might have "the right stuff". Vote for who's presented the most consistent set of policies. That would have been Edwards; but since we live in this absurd cult of personality, he's out. That leaves, by default, Hillary Clinton as presenting the most (somewhat) consistent ideas. Settling for second best is always tricky.

[GiggidyGeshmoygen]

Judith Exner?

(without the looks)

[Tellmethetruth]

The Democratic party needs another JFK impersonator as much as we need another Elvis impersonator.

Ted Kennedy and Carolyn Kennedy claiming Obama is the best JFK impersonator they have seen seems too narcisistic for me. Maybe it's best to let the Camolot mythology die and allow a new generatation of Americans to actually be free of the Kennedy myth and chose a President not like JFK.

Perhaps this is why the Republicans keep capturing the White house, although they are using Reagan as the "myth" they try to imitate and it's not working for them.

Just dump the mythology and give us reality, which is why I liked Joe Biden and now Clinton.

I am tired of propaganda and fantasy escapism. Americans need to sober up and live in the reality of the world GW Bush left us.

[GhiaccioPronto]

obama is jfk?

i guess that makes Hillary Indira Gandhi

[hrayovac]

Hillary =Priscilla Presely in terms of Bill having to be number one. A tendency to govern as Lyndon Johnson. Silly I know, but it's how I feel about her.

Obama =like no other. FDR wasn't oriented to be progressive before his Presidential run. Jefferson comes closer than anyone.

[jvitroli]

hilary is lieberman's double. remember whining and victim? then crying. enuf of her bs. with edwards withdrawal there is little hope left. i'm still going to vote for kucinich the only honest candidate that dealt with all the issues appropriately. poer to the palestininans save gaza!

[Rule Of Law]

What does it make Hillary...?

The Loser?

[Garvagh]

Lincoln quite rightly thought the freedom of the slaves should be obtained by buying out the owners. This would have cost a fraction of what was paid in the Civil War.

Let us hope Obama can see the cost of endless war in the Middle East can be avoided by astute policy decisions totally alien to G W Bush.

[modmom]

Hillary is still and always will be a corporatist and opportunist!.

No thanks-we don't need another!

[JackWOrf]

Hillary is Bill in drag.

Fine with me, if he/she can fix the damn economy. That's all I care about.

[JackWOrf]

Fat Ted is bellowing for Obama. Obama has gotten his wish. Like Hillary, he now has his very own Fat Boomer to bellow for him. While Fat Ted never quite made it to the ranks of an ex-President, he is, however, the part-owner of the SOUL of an ex-President. So there is no reason why he can not drag the heroic image of John F. Kennedy, who so stirs the hearts of many Americans, through the muck and mire of this idiotic campaign.

But more importantly, Fat Ted is the Guardian of the Holy Virgin Caroline. The Holy Virgin Caroline has directly communicated with her father, who art in heaven, and she has determined that her father, JFK, who art in heaven, would most certainly be for Obama.

Unfortunately, God's legal residence is in Florida, so his vote will not be counted.

But getting back to Fat Ted, after complaining that it was inappropriate for a former president to be campaigning for his own wife, Fat Ted now explores totally new dimensions of inappropriateness. Fat Ted brings us METAPHYSICAL levels of inappropriateness! Fat Ted talks to DEAD PRESIDENTS and channels their opinions! Fat Ted is a MEDIUM!

Apparently believing himself to be the owner of a dead President's soul, by virtue of it having been his brother, he now feels that it is appropriate to drag out the heroic image of his dead brother to campaign for someone who otherwise shows signs of being a bit of a sleezebag.

I must say that I felt vomitous outrage at seeing the image of John F. Kennedy being shown at the same time as Obama. I am still wondering exactly WHO Barak Hussein Obama even IS, or WHAT he stands for, other than his banal and meaningless CHANGE mantra.

What sort of "change"? Hitler brought change. Lenin brought change. Even Bush brought change. So WTF does "change" mean?

[hellinabucket]

This is what I'd like to see-Hilary/Obama.

[dsigeorge]

"Seward's folly" was negotiating the purchase of Alaska. Hillary's folly continues to be a lack of substance.