Heavy: Another former Dem. pres., Truman, said Kennedy lacked experience. Kennedy replied: “The world is changing. The old ways will not do!”
Regardless of your preference for Democratic presidential candidates, David Brooks has written a keeper in today's edition of The New York Times about the Kennedy mystique.
I normally share just the highlights with you so you get the flavor of an article without having to read it. This would not do this column justice. I share just the following, and encourage you to read his column:
[The most striking passage from Ted Kennedy's speech at American University in Washington in which he endorsed Obama was:] “There was another time,” Kennedy said, “when another young candidate was running for president and challenging America to cross a New Frontier.” But, he continued, another former Democratic president, Harry Truman, said he should have patience. He said he lacked experience. John Kennedy replied: “The world is changing. The old ways will not do!”
I normally share just the highlights with you so you get the flavor of an article without having to read it. This would not do this column justice. I share just the following, and encourage you to read his column:
[The most striking passage from Ted Kennedy's speech at American University in Washington in which he endorsed Obama was:] “There was another time,” Kennedy said, “when another young candidate was running for president and challenging America to cross a New Frontier.” But, he continued, another former Democratic president, Harry Truman, said he should have patience. He said he lacked experience. John Kennedy replied: “The world is changing. The old ways will not do!”
posted by Sid Cottingham | 12:12 PM
1 Comments:
Good column by Brooks, but I believe it's not just the Clintons' dirty tactics that have turned the Kennedys off but their betrayal of the progressive legacy of JFK (and FDR). The Clintons and the DLC crowd have tossed that legacy aside in favor of "triangulation" and "moving toward the middle." Of course the problem with "moving toward the middle" is that every time progressives do it, the right-wingers just move the goalposts. It's a game we can't win.
What's more, the DLC strategy has been a conspicuous failure politically. Under DLC guidance the Democrats lost five of the last seven presidential elections and both houses of Congress. The DLC strategy is a dead end for the party, a formula for permanent minority status and increasing irrelevance. Maybe the party has begun to find its soul again. I sure hope so.
Post a Comment
<< Home