BARACK TO THE FUTURE

JOHN FITZGERALD "JACK" KENNEDY, during his election campaign in 1960, asked several of his aides to study the Gettysburg Address. Kennedy had them ask professors of English in Johns Hopkins why the address, which in my opinion is the most eloquent expression of the new birth of freedom brought forth by reform liberalism, was “any good”, as he himself was at a loss to see its merits.

PRESUMABLY HAVING LEARNT THE LESSON of how to use simple words, straightforward sentences, rhyme and repetition, cadence and crescendo, all in patterns of twos and threes, avoiding excess in adjective and adverb, keeping to the point and getting off the stage before boredom sets in, Kennedy went on to be known as an orator on a level with Lincoln, and, of course, to be compared with Lincoln in many ways. One of these ways involved being unpopular with people who carry guns.

THE PRESENT LEADER OF THE FREE WORLD has also had his aides study Lincoln’s speeches, as well as Kennedy’s, in order to achieve the same level of charisma. One can see the effect of this so clearly in his “Philadelphia Declaration” on January 17th before he got on the train to Washington, in imitation of Kennedy in words and Lincoln in acts: "We are here to mark the beginning of our journey to Washington, and this is fitting, because it was here in this city that our American journey began. We are here today not simply to pay tribute to our first patriots but to take up the work that they began. What is required is a new declaration of independence, not just in our nation, but in our own lives -- from ideology and small thinking, prejudice and bigotry -- an appeal not to our easy instincts but to our better angels. Starting now, let's take up in our own lives the work of perfecting our union. Let's build a government that is responsible to the people and accept our own responsibilities as citizens to hold our government accountable.”

BUT IT IS IN IMITATING KENNEDY that Barack Hussein Obama falls a little short. Kennedy’s boys had decided that the presidency needed a “big issue” to make a name for itself, and had come up with the cute idea of going to the Moon, which Kennedy himself announced on the radio and the then new-fangled TV. And now, as of Wednesday last, Barack and his boys appear to have come up with the “big issue for the future” that might define his own administration. Not for Barack to dream of Mars, like his predecessor; instead Barack dreams of the day when one will be able to go “coast to coast in this great nation”, “without taking off your shoes” by rail, to California. Perhaps one of the "guys" in his staff might point out that this has been done before. Or perhaps one of them should write a new “Penn Station Address”. My suggestion is: “We choose to go to California by train in this decade and to Florida too, not because it is easy, but because it is impossible.” And if he opposes the car lobby too much he may end up imitating Kennedy and Lincoln in a way more than rhetoric and posturing.