Perhaps because it is through telling stories that I pay my rent, but I think that humans reason via analogy and storytelling. We attempt to get a handle on the present and predict the future through comparisons to stories of the past. If someone is trying to sell us some new music they do so by analogy. Check out Amy Winehouse, they tell us. She sounds like the unisexual mating of Dinah Washington and Janis Joplin.
Presidential elections function the exact same way. With the two nominees all but certain we're now in a race to shape the story. The McCain side will draw him as the reincarnation of Ike, Montgomery and Julius Caesar, the noble philosopher/warrior who has put down his armor to come lead his people. They are already busily trying to paint Obama as Adlai Stevenson, an out-of-touch egghead, a well-intentioned but nutty professor.
The Obama side has explicitly been borrowing the JFK and RFK signifiers from the very beginning: the no tie, the youth, the embodiment of a new day.
What the Obama camp needs to do now is turn McCain into JFK's Nixon, the personification of antired old order that has run its course.
The elements are all there and more to paint a compelling and devastating picture of the Senator from Arizona.
As Arianna and others have pointed out he was long-considered the most-likable and most-open-minded of Republicans, but to become the Republican nominee his compromises have been Shakespearean in their enormity. "Shakespearean," is the operating adjective here. The story of John McCain is a tragedy of compromise writ large. The maverick once embodied all that we had hoped for in a reformist politician and to see him now neutered by the extreme right with their death grip on the Republican political machinery is heartbreaking. It needs to be pointed out again and again and again that this once proud warrior is running on a platform that he himself doesn't agree with; many portions of which he himself has voted against. Twice.
Obama needs to get us to weep for McCain as a hero who wasn't felled by our enemies but by the grinding corruption of Washington insider politics. Senator Obama needs to hold him up as the prime example of why he is running for President. To fix a system that has turned one of our brightest hopes into a defeated shell of his former self.
Obama should tell the nation that the problem isn't that seventy-year-old John McCain has been around too long -- he's just been in Washington too long.
Trey Ellis is the author of "Bedtime Stories: Adventures in the Land of Single-Fatherhood."
My own memory of JFK and afterwards is that when it became apparent that we were using the horror of war as one more political tool in our belt, to shape foreign policy to our own liking (regardless of the morality involved, or lack of it), JFK: [a] refused troops for a military followup to the unauthorized Bay Of Pigs, which the CIA had cooked-up behind his back; [b] issued the order (NSAM 263) to just say the hell with it and start pulling the troops out of Viet Nam.
(We all know how that last one ended up.)
So there goes the argument that "American exceptionalism", which is more a belief system of the Bush/Cheney cabal, somehow was one of the traits that endeared Kennedy to a wide swath of the American people. I really don't think so.
Coincidentally, there were many senior Democrats who worried about JFK's relative inexperience and his Catholicism. Al Smith, the only other Catholic to make it to the general presidential election lost to Herbert Hoover in 1928. It was JFK's victory over Herbert Hoover in the West Virginia primary that bolstered his argument that a Catholic could will the general election.
But it only even has to be, when someone like you trots-out this sick and discredited urban legend.
Third time's a charm:
http://www.slate.com/id/91350/
"Facts are stupid things"-- R.W. Reagan, the Holy Messiah of Death-Metal Republicans, 1988
The only way a Republican wins anything in November is if they call the elections off. People hate, genuinely hate, the President. His negative ratings make Nixon look like George Washington in comparison. McCain, with Lieberman whispering in his ear, has inexplicably emulated this loathed, criminal figure. Ralph Nader could beat a Republican in an honest election this year.
And that is why just about all Obama has ever uttered have been platitudes, bromides and motivational spiel. Blame him for that if you want, but you must understand that literally anything he utters that is not squeaky-positive will be ground back into his face, and he will have no friends in the media, when the GOP bares its scary teeth at them.
There won't be one chance in this election for anyone except, perhaps, MoveOn.org... and just wait until you see what gets said about THEM (like they care, fortunately!)... to speak the necessary truth to John McCain publicly. And the opportunities for them to be heard by vast numbers of voters will be kept to a minimum.
Everything you wrote is a lie.
[a] Cite your sources, on the "corrupt" thing. Or be branded the liar you are;
[b] As your scroll finger is impaired, you obviously didn't see where I made fertilizer out of the gentleman below, concerning that old, old Kennedy crap... emphasis on CRAP.
Here, morally- and intellectually-impovershed troll. Read, weep, disappear:
http://www.slate.com/id/91350/
"Facts are stupid things."-- Ronald Wilson Reagan, 1988
Also, if he plans a JFK, he had better be much more selective and not pick an LBJ for a VP.
Unfortunately, so far the campaign is run more like a Humphrey, McGovern, or Dukakis, Mondale, Gore, Kerry..........Yes, you have students, yes you have the liberal elite, but what about swing voters in swing states. This is concerning, because putting in McCain will be a disaster. Bush wants McCain because it will give him cover for history. Bush will look great in light of a McCain Presidency.
Google is your friend.
Go find out if Richard Nixon ever undertook an investigation of the "stolen" 1960 election, and what happened (I'm not doing it for you).
(... oh, screw it: http://www.slate.com/id/91350/ :-)
Facts are stupid things.
I don't thank Obama has to do too much as McCain does it to himself every time he opens his mouth. I exprect him to start snoring during one of his so-called 'speeches'. If you want a country to be proud of for yourself, and if your older for your kids and grandskids, Obama's the one!
Independent for Obama '08
What I want everyone to remember is how Nixon won the second time around...he appealed to the 'silent majority'...it's out there, guys.
However, anyone who's all full of vinegar about not having their favorite Democratic candidate as the nominee will take one look at McCain and realize voting for him is about as stupid as it gets. If you vote for McCain, you really haven't researched the candidates very well. The only reason the guy hasn't been kicked out of the race is because the Federal Election Committee has been deadlocked. McCain has definitely and blatantly violated some of very same campaign finance regulations that he, himself created. If the FEC situation, which has been held up by Bush, is resolved and Bush's guy isn't appointed, McCain could be in a whole mess of trouble. And a president McCain could be impeached within his first 6 months of office.
When JFK ran the Democratic had much broader appeal to moderates and conservatives. The Dems are now being led by the left wing and snobby left wingers at that. They look down on white blue collar people.
Obama is doomed in the general election. The Dems will try and make him palatable to white blue collar. They have him holding a cue stick in one hand, a beer in the other. His body language discomfort in these venues speaks volumes. He does not connect.
The other sickening part of Obama is his claims about being beyond politics. He is a product of Chicago machine politics. He got his ticket punched by the extreme left wing as well as the Richard Daley machine. Obama thinks most of the USA is stupid and and just fall into the mindless Obamamania.
After 12 years with Reagan and Bush the Dems woke up a bit and realized they are out of touch with a big chunk of America. Clinton closed this gap.
Obama is a cross between McGovern/Kerry/Carter/Dukakis, all of these guys are losers for the presidency with the exception that Carter won one term.
The Dem left wing has hijacked the party again. They assume that given Bush's low rating they can go with a left winger. Stupid is as stupid does. Hillary in 2012.
Symbolism and patriotism are not going to provide the answers to the structural challenges facing the economic and political system of the US. You talk about connecting with people. In 2004, White workers...Hard working White Americans… wanted to have a beer with G.W. Bush. Instead he shit in their faces. How many White workers…Hard working White people...would still like to invite him over for that Gdamn beer?
We need a leader that can help solve problems and provide answers to deep seated questions about the future of this nation. How in the hell does McCain fit this mold?
Without getting into the specifics of Obama’s policies. How ironic would it be if Obama has the capacity to bring a political approach to the USA that is actually effective –with the caveat being – White workers…. Hard working White people would have to get over their cultural “sensitivities” and vote for him!!!
Somewhere on Mt. Olympus the Gods must be laughing.
Seems like this blogger is advocating that Obama do some old school negative campaigning. It's not as if Obama hasn't done it thus far, in fact, it's refreshing to see of Obama's supporters be so blatant about his desire for Obama to paint his opponent in a negative light.
Wait, isn't that what they complained everyone else was doing to Obama?
Isn't the implication of the word "paint" that you will be altering the story in some way? Is McCain really the guy you want him to be painted as? Or, is he just gonna be another victim of Obama's smears?
Live by the sword, dies by the sword!
Obama is gonna do whatever he has to to win. Nothing new...just the same old stuff!
I'm not mad at him...I just wonder if his supporters really believe him or if they just wanna win.