Kennedy speechwriter lauds Obama
President George W. Bush ’68 may have left an unimpressive foreign policy record, but President-elect Barack Obama is poised to restore the legacy of the John F. Kennedy years, Kennedy’s former speechwriter and adviser said Wednesday.
Theodore “Ted” Sorensen discussed topics ranging from present-day politics to the Kennedy administration’s handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis at a speech sponsored by Timothy Dwight College’s Chubb Fellowship Wednesday. During the 90-minute talk, Sorensen used humor and colorful anecdotes to bring his encounters with Kennedy to life for an audience...
Oh please. President elect Obama is heir to the Kennedy legacy only in that they were both young when elected and both had an adoring media that favored them over their opponents. The media did a good job covering up Kennedy's medical problems and heavy use of pain-killers, spying on Martin Luther King Jr., as well as his adulterous relationships. We'll see over time how the media treats the Obama presidency, but so far the "mainstream" media has done about everything it could to get him elected.
In terms of policies, Kennedy would today be considered a conservative Democrat or moderate Republican--he favored lower taxes, more personal responsibility, strong defense, and the benefits of promoting democracy overseas. His policies would be much closer to those of President Bush than those of Obama.
Regarding foreign policy, one must remember the Cuban Missile Crisis came about because the Soviet Union perceived Kennedy to be weak in his prior meeting with Krushchev. We see history repeating itself with Russia and Obama.Remember Joe Biden promised that Obama would be tested because of his perceived inexperience.
I would disagree with "Ted" about the Bush foreign policy legacy. There has been much antipathy toward the US going back generations. Remember the cold war with the USSR, Iran hostages and Carter, Lebanon and Reagan, World Trade Center attack, the Cole, Somalia, the embassy bombings and Clinton, and 9/11 shortly after President Bush took office. President Bush has managed to thwart many enemy attacks here and abroad since then, liberated 53 million Muslims from oppression, gotten Libya to give up its nuclear program, improved relations with India and Pakistan, used multilateral support to put pressure on Iran and North Korea, made progress on a two state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and provided more treatment for AIDS and Malaria in Africa than all previous Presidents combined. Military force in Iraq was authorized by overwhelming bipartisan support in the House and Senate after all diplomacy was exhausted(remember all those UN resolutions). Hardly unimpressive.
"Unimpressive" foreign policy record??
How about, no terrorist attacks on U.S. soil in the past 7 years?
President Bush's predecessor could scarcely claim as good a record, and his successor too seems poised to put an end to the defense against terrorism.
Time will tell, but I suspect that talk talk talk won't impressive those who wish us ill.