Opinion: The Kennedy factor
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The Kennedy family’s endorsement of Sen. Barack Obama — Caroline Kennedy’s glowing New York Times Op-Ed on Sunday and Sen. Ted Kennedy’s highly prepublicized endorsement today — will probably only serve to strengthen the Kennedy-Obama parallel that pundits have been drawing almost since the junior senator from Illinois entered the race. But it brought to mind Sean Wilentz’s Op-Ed in Saturday’s paper, which trashed the Kennedy connection — and the Obama campaign for encouraging it:
Historians cannot expect all politicians and their supporters to know as much about American history as, say, John F. Kennedy, who won the Pulitzer Prize for a work of history. But it is reasonable to expect respect for the basic facts -- and not contribute to cheapening the historical currency. Spreading bad history is no way to make history.
But there’s another issue here as well. As Rosa Brooks pointed out, touting your iconic political forbears can have lasting negative consequences, as in the case of Hillary Clinton. In other words: The ‘90s weren’t all they’re cracked up to be, Bill.
While Obama has undoubtedly benefited from critiques of the Clinton legacy, he’s been very quick to don Kennedy mantle. And I find that somewhat disconcerting. What happened to ‘change’? Embracing the Kennedys as kingmakers seems a little out of sync with that message.
Both Clinton and Obama try to capitalize on ties to a golden era in Democratic politics. Obama may be a little luckier than Clinton — perhaps partly because fewer are alive who remember the on-the-ground realities of the Kennedy administration. But keep in mind, Kennedy was also the chief executive during the Bay of Pigs. Is that a message Obama wants to send?
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