Eisenhower, Kennedy and Obama
Serious endorsements for OBama here at the tail end of the week. We’ve got another Kennedy and an Eisenhower, several other Republicans and George Clooney! Sure, endorsements don’t win elections, but these sure don’t hurt, especially in California.
Rory Kennedy has come out in support of Barack Obama, and she quotes her mother Ethel Kennedy, who said of Barack, “I think he feels it. He feels it just like Bobby did. He has the passion in his heart. He’s not selling you. It’s just him.” Susan Eisenhower, granddaughter of Ike, has also come out and endorsed Barack Obama. Here’s her say from the Washington Post:
Forty-seven years ago, my grandfather Dwight D. Eisenhower bid farewell to a nation he had served for more than five decades. In his televised address, Ike famously coined the term “military-industrial complex,” and he offered advice that is still relevant today. “As we peer into society’s future,” he said, we “must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering, for our own ease and convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without risking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow.”
Today we are engaged in a debate about these very issues. Deep in America’s heart, I believe, is the nagging fear that our best years as a nation may be over. We are disliked overseas and feel insecure at home. We watch as our federal budget hemorrhages red ink and our civil liberties are eroded. Crises in energy, health care and education threaten our way of life and our ability to compete internationally. There are also the issues of a costly, unpopular war; a long-neglected infrastructure; and an aging and increasingly needy population.
I am not alone in worrying that my generation will fail to do what my grandfather’s did so well: Leave America a better, stronger place than the one it found.
Given the magnitude of these issues and the cost of addressing them, our next president must be able to bring about a sense of national unity and change. As we no longer have the financial resources to address all these problems comprehensively and simultaneously, setting priorities will be essential. With hard work, much can be done.
The biggest barrier to rolling up our sleeves and preparing for a better future is our own apathy, fear or immobility. We have been living in a zero-sum political environment where all heads have been lowered to avert being lopped off by angry, noisy extremists. I am convinced that Barack Obama is the one presidential candidate today who can encourage ordinary Americans to stand straight again; he is a man who can salve our national wounds and both inspire and pursue genuine bipartisan cooperation. Just as important, Obama can assure the world and Americans that this great nation’s impulses are still free, open, fair and broad-minded.
George Clooney had a bit to say when he endorsed Obama as well, but I don’t think that holds a candle to the endorsements of these two, nor to the outpouring of Republican support for Obama, as chronicled in the Newsweek “Obmacan” article.
Good news, though Hillary Clinton has a big leg up on Super Tuesday.




(Bold emphasis by PoLT):
From Cassiopedia:
“In the penultimate draft of the address, Eisenhower initially used the term military-industrial-congressional complex, indicating the essential role that U.S. Congress plays in propagating the military industry. But, it is said, that the president chose to strike the word congressional in order to avoid offending members of the legislative branch of the federal government. The author of the term was Eisenhower’s speech-writer Malcolm Moos.”
At the bottom of the above link are the sources for the entry, which includes: “Nelson, Lars-Erik. “Military-Industrial Man.” In New York Review of Books 47, no. 20 (Dec. 21, 2000): 6.” which I believe is the original source for the above statement.
Guess old Ike didn’t want to piss everybody off.
While I want to believe that Obama is the great uniter, my personal experience with the Obama campaign has been quite negative. On April 14, 2007, at a campaign rally at Georgia Tech, Obama’s campaign staff prevented me from joining the rally because I was carrying a peace sign. I wrote a brief blog post about my experience.
It never ceases to amaze me that with all the talk of ‘change’ and ‘tomorrow’ that much ado is made about REMOTE links to the farther and farther past (Rory Kennedy? Susan Eisenhower?)
Obama has some nerve denouncing bridges to the 20th Century, when he’s referencing the ’50’s and ’60’s while decrying the 90’s.
Obama’s much ballyhooed Republican and blue-dog support is what most annoys me about him.
Lie down with dogs . . .
Anyhoo, I roar with laughter whenever Chris Matthews decries the Clintons and ‘dynasticism’, then rolls over with misty-eyed wonder at the thought of Caroline and Teddy.
Count me a symptom of the Tweety Factor. This is one Edwards supporter that is going for
Hillary on Tuesday here in CT/