Wednesday, January 30 - Freaky Weather and King Barack in Camelot

Yesterday was quite freaky in the weather department in good ole Indiana. I won't go into great detail, because I have a feeling Romeo may have another wrath of god styled blog entry on his experience with it, but needless to say, it went from 54, to hurricane force winds, to torrential rain, to hail, to a bit of snow, and it is 9 degrees as I write this. It is weather like this that makes my GayAARP card carrying ass want to move to Florida...well, except for all the crazy old Republicans.

Speaking of crazy and old, I have been contemplating the effect of Ted Kennedy's endorsement of Barack Obama since I was laying on my death couch on Monday. Even though I am a Hillary supporter, I will not begrudge Mr. Obama the kudos for getting the endorsement, because the reality is that for people of a certain age and many Democrats of all ages, the Kennedy legacy is a great one. It is a major feather in his crown, er cap, that could possibly lead to more votes in some key states.

With that being said, I have to wonder what exactly is the Kennedy Legacy? Sure, John Fitzgerald Kennedy was a fantastic orator that swept people up into the power of his rhetoric ("Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country"), but what exactly did he accomplish in his short term as president that actually qualifies him for all this nostalgia? I realize that he presided over "Camelot," had a fantastically glamorous wife and his assassination is one of the most analyzed moments of the century, but why is this man still the person presidential candidates are trying to emulate?

Anyone who goes back and actually studies his term in office, will find that he accomplished very little beyond the beginnings of the Space Program and the Peace Corp, and outside of the lucky success in the Cuban Missile Crisis, his presidency was marked with one foreign policy blunder after another, starting with the Bay of Pigs all the way up to the year of his death where the CIA colluded with the Baath Party to bring them to power in Iraq. You know? The Baathists? Saddam Hussein. Ring a Bell? I will not go so far as to say that the current war is the result of Kennedy's foreign policy, but it is certainly one of those things that could cook your noodle if you think about it too much. Finally, Kennedy continued funding for Vietnam, and we all know how that turned out.

On the domestic front, he had many ideas in his "New Frontier," that did not come to fruition during his presidency. Many components of those became LBJ's "Great Society," but LBJ will forever get the credit for those. So what are we left with? Not a whole hell of a lot outside of probably the most glamorous presidency in history.

The Kennedy that I am fascinated with is Robert, and I really do believe he would have been a monumental president. Unfortunately, we cannot really discuss that any further due to his own untimely death, which pretty much leaves us with the Kennedy standard bearer, Teddy. It is pretty well known that he has had his successes and his own turmoil. For every person who lionizes Teddy, you have another one making a jab about Chappaquiddick. I realize that Teddy Kennedy is one of the most revered Senators with a great liberal legislative record, but it must also not be forgotten that he helped write the compromise bill for "No Child Left Behind," which everyone considers to be pretty terrible. I bet you could find just as many boneheaded initiatives as great ones.

All that being said, I take a lot of umbrage with Teddy floridly exclaiming and proclaiming that we need a change in Washington and that Barack Obama is the only arbiter of that. What change is Teddy advocating? Let's face it, Teddy Kennedy has been in the Senate since 1962, which is one year less than the 46 years of Obama's life. So how is it all of a sudden is his the kingmaker of change? Plus, for everyone lambasting Hillary Clinton for even ruminating on going back to the successes of the 1990's, why are we all of a sudden wishing for the restoration of an even more bygone (and fictional) era?

Memory is a pretty extraordinary thing, and the adage of "absence making the heart grow fonder" is absolutely a true one. Thanks to the actions of Lee Harvey Oswald and Sirhan Sirhan, the legacy of the Kennedy's is one that is burnished into idolatry. The reality is that John F. Kennedy was an incredibly flawed man and president who had a vision that went beyond the horizon. Yes, I chose those words intentionally, because indeed, if you do want a Kennedy-esqe candidate, then you certainly have one in Barack Obama, and I am not being complimentary. The love that the people of a certain age and those Democrats have for "Camelot" is pretty much a castle built on sand. It shows that we were as susceptible to rhetoric then as we are now.