Centerfield

The Pending Kennedy Endorsement

Like it or not, JFK is a legend in the zietgeist, and people don't like their legends tarnished. You really can't get folks to listen to criticisms about JFK, like the fact that he didn't govern long or do much. He was our golden boy, and we'd have surely found Camelot by now if he had not been cruelly struck down. Period.

Now, JFK's sad, aging brother, a lion in winter, is poised to symbolically hand his brother's mantle to Barack Obama. Rest assured that the sound bite is being crafted as we blog. Maya Angelou might even be writing it. Or Oprah. The more the critics bitch, the higher the rhetoric shall soar. Annoying, aint it?

Don't you see what this is? Obama is going to pull the sword out of the stone while Teddy watches. And when Teddy symbolically implies that Obama IS JFK for sufficient intents and purposes, complete with a gorgeous soundbite, and maybe even a few lion's tears, who will dare to contradict him?

John was Teddy's brother, and that's all that matters. Except that he was Bobby's brother, too! Anyone who either tries to diminish JFK's stature or suggest the comparison is inapt is probably wasting their time. Obama is the hope salesman extraordinaire, and folks are buying. Do you know what people buy hope with? Not reason. Most assuredly not. They buy it with faith, not accessible to reason.

Once people start falling in love with Obama, who can stop this? Ever try to talk a friend out their blind and starry eyed faith in the mate they've chosen, wretched choice or not?? What's the running record for success on that one, 0 and gazillion?

And I like him too. But not as a lover, as a friend who can see his faults.