Reclusive Caroline Kennedy Schlosberg just took a tiny political step forward, wading into the fray of Obama v Clinton by officially endorsing him. And when doing so she wrote a moving piece explaining why.
"I want a president who understands that his responsibility is to articulate a vision and encourage others to achieve it; who holds himself, and those around him, to the highest ethical standards; who appeals to the hopes of those who still believe in the American Dream, and those around the world who still believe in the American ideal; and who can lift our spirits, and make us believe again that our country needs every one of us to get involved."
So do we all.
But no matter how passionately we may want another JFK, when we look at her father’s biography we note very different paths these two men have walked. Her father was a privileged member of Bush’s "haves" and "have mores" by birth; he could have chosen a very different life for himself. He was a member of the Greatest Generation forged in the fires of World War II. Never let anyone tell you that these men, whatever war they fought in, see the world the same as those who have not. The men emerging from the ruins of Iraq know; they can tell you so.
And even though he was from their father’s generation, the babyboomers; those children of the Greatest Generation who would also be sent to fight and die in far off lands; seized upon his ideas passionately and set out to change, not just our country, but the world. When her father told them "Ask not what your country can do for you -- ask what you can do for your country." they responded. And one was a young man whose proudest moment was having the opportunity to shake her father’s hand. And one was a young woman determined to make a difference and began by organizing food drives while still in high school. The young man grew up to become president. The young woman grew up to become the first woman with a chance to become president. And both passionately believed in her father’s message and his ambitious goals when he challenged them with these words: "In your hands, my fellow citizens, more than in mine, will rest the final success or failure of our course..."
Her father’s biography includes this analysis of his achievements
As President, he set out to redeem his campaign pledge to get America moving again. His economic programs launched the country on its longest sustained expansion since World War II; before his death, he laid plans for a massive assault on persisting pockets of privation and poverty....Responding to ever more urgent demands, he took vigorous action in the cause of equal rights, calling for new civil rights legislation. His vision of America extended to the quality of the national culture and the central role of the arts in a vital society
.
This was his legacy. Like Martin Luther King, he was so very eloquent; and he could move the people not just with his rhetoric but with his sense of humor. You didn’t have to be there, you only have to go to the tapes to realize the power of his personality. He is the only president I know of who could take criticism with a quip and a smile and win you over no matter what that criticism might be - except perhaps Teddy Roosevelt and Bill Clinton.
John Kennedy was 24 years old when he joined the Navy; his bad back should have kept him out but he "pulled strings" to join the Naval reserve and served honorably and heroically. He was a Massachusetts Congressman from 1947-1953 for 6 years ; a Senator for 8 years from 1953-1961; and became president from 1961-1963.
Caroline Kennedy’s father had 14 years of experience in government; 5 years of experience in the military during war time at the time he ran for president of the United States. He was one of the millions of his generation tempered by injury and deaths of friends and loved ones. Before he turned 30 he had lost a 29 year old brother, a 27 year old brother-in-law and a widowed 28 year old sister and saved the lives of sailors under his command. And even though he became the youngest president in history, he was no inexperienced youth. He had already accumulated more experience in the political madness called government than what most of us won’t experience in a lifetime and he used that experience to try to create a better world.
One of her father’s strongest advocates and helpmates was her uncle, Robert. Ignoring criticism of nepotism, JFK appointed his brother Attorney General in 1961 where he served honorably until 1965 when he was elected Senator from New York. In 1968, he ran for president and was assassinated before completing his senate term or the presidential campaign. He, too, had served honorably during World War II, enlisting "six weeks before his 18th birthday" and receiving an honorable discharge in 1946 at age 21. He became a lawyer in 1951 and "worked as a lawyer in the Internal Security Section (which investigated suspected Soviet agents) of the Criminal Division of the United States Department of Justice.... In February 1952, he was transferred to the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn to prosecute fraud cases before resigning to run his brother’s senate campaign in 1952." From 1951 - 1965, he had accumulated 14 years of public service.
Robert Kennedy was said to be President Kennedy’s closest political adviser. President Kennedy was quoted as saying: "If I want something done and done immediately I rely on the Attorney General. He is very much the doer in this administration."
We should all have learned that, as Attorney General, Robert "pursued a relentless crusade against organized crime and the mafia, sometimes disagreeing on strategy with FBI head J. Edgar Hoover. Convictions against notorious organized crime figures rose by 800% during his term." according to his biography.
And where Civil Right were concerned, neither John or Robert equivocated about the political ramifications of taking a firm stand, "We will not stand by or be aloof. We will move. I happen to believe that the 1954 Supreme Court school desegregation decision was right. But my belief does not matter. It is the law. Some of you may believe the decision was wrong. That does not matter. It is the law." and in 1962 he commented that Civil Rights seemed to envelop almost every area of his public and private life. There is no question that he intended to carry the torch of the interrupted journey of his brother back to the White House. And three of his children disagree with Caroline Kennedy’s endorsement of Senator Obama.
I respect Caroline and Teddy's decision but I have made a different choice. While I admire Senator Obama greatly, I have known Hillary Clinton for over 25 years and have seen first hand how she gets results. As a woman, leader, and person of deep convictions, I believe Hillary Clinton would make the best possible choice for president. She shares so many of the concerns of my father. Hillary has spent a lifetime speaking out on behalf of the powerless and working to alleviate poverty, in our country and around the world. I have seen her work up close and know she will be a great President. At this moment when so much is at stake at home and overseas, I urge our fellow Americans to support Hillary Clinton. That is why my brother Bobby, my sister Kerry, and I are supporting Hillary Clinton.
If a family who has devoted so much of their lives to the cause of Public Good can be this divided, our country can be this divided. But this is not the time to choose up sides and begin a war of attrition on the only people standing between us and another Republican "win". Caroline Kennedy’s wish for a presidential candidate like her father is neither Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama; the experiences that made up the man John Fitzgerald Kennedy are missing from both their lives. We do not know what role model formed the character of Barack Obama.
But we do know that Hillary Clinton and her husband chose Caroline Kennedy’s father for theirs. And we know that they did ask what they could do for their country. Hillary Clinton began modestly, organizing food banks as a teenager, went to law school and spent 12 years of her life working for children’s rights. She wasn’t just Arkansas’ First Lady, she was the first working First Lady of any generation. As such, she is as much a political anomaly as her rival.
You can’t ask for a clone of John F. Kennedy; there isn’t one. But, if you believe Caroline Kennedy’s statement of hope for someone to follow her father’s dream, wouldn’t one of his disciples be a better choice? And wouldn’t it be nice to know who the man Barack really is rather than the man he says he is.
His recent comparison of two very different presidents, Ronald Reagan and John F. Kennedy gives insight into a rather stark analysis of their goals and achievements.
I think Ronald Reagan changed the trajectory of America in a way that Richard Nixon did not and in a way that Bill Clinton did not. He put us on a fundamentally different path because the country was ready for it.
I think Kennedy, 20 years earlier, moved the country in a fundamentally different direction. So I think a lot of it has to do with the times. I think we are in one of those fundamentally different times right now were people think that things, the way they are going, just aren't working.
There is a fundamental different between the directions these two men took, both born of that "greatest generation" but which one is Senator Obama intending to follow? If candidate Obama intendes to straddle the fence of these two ideologies, he would do well to remember that the People are standing on the side of Kennedy.
We all need to remember to ask every candidate not what they can do to further their political career, but what they can do to save our injured nation.
Our task is not merely one of itemizing Republican failures. Nor is that wholly necessary. For the families forced from the farm will know how to vote without our telling them. The unemployed miners and textile workers will know how to vote. The old people without medical care--the families without a decent home--the parents of children without adequate food or schools--they all know that it's time for a change.
But I think the American people expect more from us than cries of indignation and attack. The times are too grave, the challenge too urgent, and the stakes too high--to permit the customary passions of political debate. We are not here to curse the darkness, but to light the candle that can guide us through that darkness to a safe and sane future. As Winston Churchill said on taking office some twenty years ago: if we open a quarrel between the present and the past, we shall be in danger of losing the future.
Sound familiar? It was spoken at Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles on July 15, 1960 by John F. Kennedy. Doesn’t it sound as relevant now as it did then?