The Real Kennedy And Real Obama

On November 22nd the assassination of President John Kennedy will be remembered. Actually, it already has been remembered in TV re enactments, series,  films, books, opinion pieces etc. displayed all during November. The problem is most of those are more maudlin than real. Kennedy was widely unpopular as president on the day he was shot to death November 22, 1963 in Dallas, Texas. But the popular media seems to have a different view of Kennedy, and many accept that one instead of the reality.

President Kennedy was always a press favorite, much as the bumbling, incompetent President Obama is today.  He and his pretty young wife and their adorable young children made the Kennedy family, in the eyes of the media of the day, made them the enchanted family. Just as Obama's mistakes seem to be ignored by today's media, the media of Kennedy's day did the same. The difference though is in the perception the voters have of each.  There is and was great voter dissatisfaction with both of the presidents that is contrast to the adoration the media has for each.

Polls of the day in 1963 showed Kennedy was headed for defeat in his upcoming campaign for re election. His popularity was hardly what those current day Kennedy pieces tell us it was. The lesson is how history can be re written to fit the desires of the society to "feel better" about itself. instead of the young, incompetent, philandering, reckless, manipulating president Kennedy was, we get a view of Camelot. It sounds familiar to me. President Obama might already be the second camelot of the past 50 years as he flounders and steers the United Sates toward the icebergs that lay ahead.

The Kennedy legacy is one that is both not factual and romanticized. I suppose it is understandable that a President who was murdered in office is given a few passes, but it might be better to represent a person as he was , rather than as we want him to be, I wonder what will be said of Obama in 50 years. It's not possible to say, but I am betting it will be more like the Kennedy remembrance than a real one. Society sometimes selects oddly its heroes.