The Kennedy endorsement of Obama has resulted in some rewritten "history." Ok, so I know that it is the "duty" of the opposition to minimize anything that might give an edge to someone else. However I find it amusing how the pundits view Ted and Caroline Kennedy's endorsement of Obama. The Baltimore Examiner, an admittedly conservative voice, recently published a column that called the Kennedy endorsement of Obama a return to the "Old Left." Not long before that, a Clinton supporter on CNN stated that JFK "scary" and had "brought us to the brink." I guess it depends on whom you want to blame the cause of any brinkmanship. Personally, I place the blame on the Soviet Union for placing missiles in Cuba and aiming them at us. JFK has been called a "Cold Warrior" as well as being reluctant to endorse the civil rights movement.
I was a young teen when Kennedy ran. I lived in a working class area of Philadelphia. Virtually all of the fathers in my neighborhood were blue collar. They were factory workers,cops, firefighters and meat cutters like my Dad. Most of the mothers didn't work outside the home (although mine did). We were a motley crew of second and third generation Irish, Polish, Italian, Ukrainian and Eastern European Jews. If you were Catholic, you generally went to Catholic school. We did have a few Protestants in my neighborhood, but most of them had fled to the suburbs when the great unwashed like my Italian grandparents came to this country.
We were excited to have someone more like us running for President. Of course he came from a wealthy family. Our parents were generally first or second generation Americans. Didn't everyone's grandparents speak with an accent! I watched in amazement as people like Norman Vincent Peale trashed Kennedy. It was said that if Kennedy won, his first allegiance would be to the Pope. I was surprised to hear that since we all knew that our only allegiance to the Pope was in spiritual matters. Our fathers had been in WWII, some of them wounded. We were Americans and proud of it.
JFK was hardly the far left liberal that both sides want to claim. He was very much a middle of the road Democrat who believed in a strong national defense. He made mistakes: the Bay of Pigs being probably the most egregious.
The thing about JFK was that he gave us hope that we could build a better world. I think that Eisenhower was underestimated as a President. However, when JFK ran the US needed a different face.
I voted in the "Potomac Primary" last week. (I prefer the term "Chesapeake Primary" myself, but it hasn't stuck - not alliterative enough, I guess!) I voted for Obama and the delegates that were pledged to him. He has been accused of the same thing as JFK: not enough "experience." I remember that famous song with the line "Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss." I can only hope "we won't be fooled again."