In 1960, when I was just beginning my adult life, as a Catholic, I was energized by the candidacy of John F. Kennedy. But it was more than just the fact that he was running to be the first Catholic President. There was an excitement about the possibilities of the country after the seeming gray years of Eisenhower. But the antipathy to Kennedy because he was Catholic was real, not imagined. I sometimes think it was worse in certain academic circles than in the Masonic halls.

Yet he won. And more importantly, he did open the door to the vision of a future far different than the one we have lived.

His American University speech in June 1963, was an invitation to the world to set aside the hostility of the cold war and seek a just world for the children that we cherish.

Kennedy's promise ended on that dreadful November day in Dallas. Johnson won his first term on the strength of the Kennedy legacy and then, began the long decline and the rightwing resurgence, the culmination of which was Bush II.

It's been 48 years since any candidate for President has excited the audacity of hope the way JFK did. It was dispiriting, to say the least. That Bill Clinton and Hillary were the best we had to offer was most dispiriting.

Now, we have another candidate for President who seems to inspire and enthuse the national spirit in much the manner of JFK. Hope is alive. That there are some poor souls trapped in the past should not surprise us. What we can not do is let it deter us.

Nixon fought JFK to a near draw. McCain will not be able to do the same with Obama. I have nothing but pity for those trapped by their racism who can't kick-back and enjoy this ride.

It was said once of the great democratic leaders that their hallmark was that "they dreamed a great dream for us."

In the end, that will be the issue in this campaign: can we trust the dream that Obama is dreaming for us. Pity the man or woman who can not dream along.

johnklotz.blogspot.com

Thanks, David. You have caught the existential truth of our times.

Many of us, who are old enough to remember, believe that the tragedy at Dallas was the principal reason for a long American nightmare of which Bush II is simply the culmination. Ted Sorenson, the other night, stated that the 1961 Inaugural address was only Kennedy's second best speech. The best was, in Sorenson's opinion (and mine, his June 1963 American University speech at which he chartered a course to end the cold war. That he had plans to withdraw from Vietnam after the 1964 election is a matter of public record now. All that ended in Dallas.

I have always felt that second biggest casualty at Dallas was Khrushchev. The Cuban Missile crisis had scared them both and Khrushchev had staked his won career on his new relationship to JFK. His leadership survived for several months but eventually was ousted.

Maybe Lee Harvey Oswald was a lone nut gunman. To some, his cloudy intelligence background and the incredible convenience of his death to those who were looking to profit from the Vietnam War is more than a convenience.

If anybody is interested, I wrote an op-ed piece on the media and the environment using Kennedy's speech American University as a starting point. http://www.johnklotz.com/new-jfk.htm

I wrote an op-ed piece for Newsday (which made the WP wire) in November 1993 which discussed the media and the assassination.

In any event, you can graph the dissolution of the Americans with government has beginning it sharp climb to the time when the public discovered that Lab’s peace campaign of 1964 was a con job.

I don't know if Obama has Kennedy’s Irish political smarts and I don’t think he has quite obtained JFK's eloquence [maybe he needs a Sorenson], but he's getting there. And beyond political smarts, he has the intellectual capacity to be a truly great President. He will bear the heavy burden of enhanced expectations.

But, after a years of pessimism about the future, and years of second rate intellects occupying the White House, I am suddenly optimistic about the future. I have seen the future and it's Barack.

johnklotz.blogspot.com

Perhaps we need some reporting on the extent to which all the benefits of de-regulation and tax cuts have resulted in massive exports of our desperately needed capital.

What the beneficiaries of these policies have done is to stash their money in foreign tax and regulatory havens like the Cayman Islands and invest capital in foreign markets. They have not "trickled down" benefits to the US.

I probably shouldn't smirk, but one consolation from this mess is the dilemma of high-rolling hedge fund investors who find themselves stuck as creditors in a Cayman Island bankruptcy court.

Anyone who invested their tax cuts in a Bear Stearns hedge fund organized in the Cayman Islands is getting just what they deserve - nada.

johnklotz.blogspot.com