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sponsorship
The Barack-Obama-is-the-next-JFK theme
has basically vanished since Teddy K’s endorsement didn’t do Obama much
good in Massachusetts.
But, ever-so-subtly, Hillary Clinton could be reviving the comparison—only this
time, she’s invoking JFK’s naivete to hurt Obama.
Case
in point: Look at her latest Pennsylvania attack ad.
The narrator introduces the spot by growling, “It’s the toughest job in the
world.” Cue the hyper-fast montage of historic headlines and images: Black Thursday,
Pearl Harbor,
the Berlin
Crisis*, Fidel Castro,
the oil crisis, the fall of the Berlin Wall,
Osama Bin Laden, and
Hurricane Katrina.
The ad wraps up with another montage of our modern-day plagues, a quote by
Harry Truman, and a rhetorical question—“Who do you think has what it
takes?”—that’s answered a split-second later with an image of Hillary. (The ad,
by the way, is the most watched News and Politics video on YouTube today. Ninth
most watched in France, 22nd
most viewed in Russia, and
66th most in Canada.
You may not realize it, but you need to know these things.)
It’s
in the initial montage—when it covers the Berlin Crisis*—that we see JFK.
*Corrections,
April 22, 2008: Originally, the post incorrectly stated that a
headline Hillary Clinton used in a recent ad hinted at JFK's handling of the
Vietnam War. It actually referred to the Berlin Crisis. The post made invalid
conclusions based on the error. Those conclusions have been removed from the
post.