Obama
Resurrects the Spirit of JFK and a New Era of Camelot
Barack Obama has been riding the tide of JFK's popularity both in
the US and Germany, where the the former US President was once
idolized. Endorsements from the Kennedys give Obama's candidacy even
greater legitimacy.
In June 1963, former US President John F. Kennedy stood before a
crowd of 120,000 ecstatic Berliners and gave his legendary "Ich bin
ein Berliner" speech. The Berlin Wall had gone up two years before,
dividing the city along Cold War lines, and Kennedy was expressing
his solidarity with the people of free West Berlin.
The Kennedy aura resonates more deeply in Germany than in the United
States, according to Dieter Dettke, a Georgetown University
professor of US-European relations, who was for many years the
Washington-based head of Germany's Social Democrat think tank, the
Friedrich Ebert Foundation.
During a tour of European capitals last July, it is no coincidence
that the only public speech that Barack Obama gave was also in the
German capital, said Dettke.
"There are several components to the Kennedy myth," he said. "His
youthful appeal, the break with the past. Old America then was
looking for a breath of fresh air."
Sen.
Kennedy throws his full support behind Obama.
Back then, an America in which
whites and blacks had been segregated in some states was struggling
to overcome division across racial lines. Today the schism is more a
socio-economic divide, but in both cases, the country was looking
for a way to face the challenges it was confronted with.
Kennedy clan endorsement
Even the Kennedy clan has said it
sees parallels between JFK and Obama, who has been dubbed the "black
Kennedy" by the German media.
It was Caroline Kennedy, the 50-year-old daughter of the slain
president, who first endorsed Obama in a New York Times commentary
in January. Kennedy, who has previously shunned the political
spotlight, then made a public appearance at a huge campaign rally at
the American University in Washington.
She said that for the first time in her life she had seen a man like
her father.
"Barack Obama is already inspiring all Americans, young and old to
believe in ourselves, tying that belief to our highest ideals,
ideals of hope, justice, opportunity and peace, and urging us to
imagine that together we can do great things," said Kennedy in a
speech at the rally.
The dream lives on
Caroline Kennedy was not alone, but accompanied by her uncle Senator
Edward M. Kennedy, who also endorsed the Obama candidacy in a
rousing speech back then. On Monday at the Democratic convention
floor in Denver, the same scenario was repeated.
The 76-year-old senator from Massachusetts, one of the most
influential and long-serving American politicians of all time, who
recently underwent surgery for a malignant brain tumour, used his
authority to throw his full support behind Barack Obama.
Obama represents a new generation of leadership in America, said the
senator. "The work begins anew, the hope rises again and the dream
lives on," he said before a cheering crowd.
And so the era of Camelot, the legendary tale of King Arthur that
defined JFK's 1,000 days in office, has been transported Chicago,
the constituency base of Barack Obama, the junior senator from
Illinois.
But how much does the white Irish Catholic Kennedy clan have in
common with the black Messiah Obama? JFK had also been the first
Catholic US President ever, just as Obama now is the first black man
to emerge as the Democratic candidate for the presidency.
When Kennedy took the oath of office, he was just 43, even a few
years younger than 47-year-old Obama. Kennedy, however, had been a
highly decorated war veteran and had already served for 14 years in
Congress, where his travels had taken him to Europe, Asia and the
Middle East.
JFK as a role model
Even then, Kennedy was a blank page for the American public,
according to Jackson Janes, the executive director of the American
Institute for Contemporary German Studies at Johns Hopkins
University.
"Kennedy was more about style than substance back then in 1960,"
said Janes. Is Obama pursuing the right strategy?
"Yes, but I think he shouldn't go too far with it, since lots of
people also regard the (Kennedy) era as a unique time in history,"
he said.
Obama, like Bill Clinton before him, has repeatedly talked about
John F.
Kennedy being his great role model.
As President of the United States of America, he would seek to
emulate JFK's leadership style, said Obama. Now as the official
Democratic Party candidate, Barack Obama is one step closer to his
goal.
Suppressing the dark side of Camelot
What remains unaccounted for is the "Kennedy curse" -- all the
tragedies that have made one of America's first families larger than
life. John F. Kennedy and his younger brother Robert were both
gunned down by assassins and three of their sons also succumbed to
unnatural deaths at an early age.
Then there were the Kennedy brothers' dalliances with women other
than their wives, JFK's health problems and the scandals that have
tarnished the clan -- the dark side of Camelot that the Democrats
would rather not think about at the moment.
Christina Bergmann
Deutsche Welle
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