Kennedy and Obama

Published November 28, 2013

By Gary Pearce, Talking About Politics, November 26, 2013.

As if I didn’t get enough JFK last week, I’m reading a new book about how Kennedy, in his last months, was growing into and getting better at the roles of President, politician and persuader-in-chief.

If only President Obama could summon some of that mojo now on Obamacare.

The book (“JFK’s Last Hundred Days: The Transformation of a Man and the Emergence of a Great President,” by Thurston Clark) shows how Kennedy used the presidential pulpit in late 1963 to rally public support on three big issues: civil rights, a tax cut and a nuclear test ban treaty.

Kennedy was pushing on all three fronts, all while grieving the death of his infant son, coping with his wife’s grief, dealing with riots and violence in the South, sorting through conflicting advice on Vietnam and plotting a reelection campaign.

But he was able, sometimes off the cuff, to come up with lines like this one from his address to the nation on civil rights: "We are confronted primarily with a moral issue....It is as old as the scriptures and is as clear as the American Constitution.”

In the history of American politics, that stands as one of the most powerful statements a President ever made.

Clark describes a political trip out West in September, much like the trip Kennedy was to make to Texas two months later. His staff had laid out a schedule and a set of speeches that focused on conservation, national parks and natural resources.

The urbane Kennedy was about as much an outdoorsman as President Obama. And it showed. His speeches were flat, the crowds were flat, and the trip looked like a flop. Then, at one stop, Kennedy ad-libbed a few remarks about the test ban treaty – and the importance of avoiding nuclear war. The crowd came alive. Kennedy took note. He started tossing aside his prepared texts and talking about the treaty at every stop. The crowds grew, and so did their applause. The trip turned into a triumph. Kennedy concluded that peace could be a winning issue against Barry Goldwater in 1964.

Kennedy had developed the gift of reading his audiences, feeding off their reactions and turning what he learned into a tool for leadership.

Contrast all this with President Obama today. For all his speechmaking skills, the President seems unable or unwilling to make a public case for his one signature issue, the Affordable Care Act.

It’s telling when the best argument comes from a Republican Governor, John Kasich of Ohio: “It saves lives.”

Where is Obama’s speech? Where is the argument that Obamacare saves lives and saves money? Where are the mystical chords, part reason and part emotion, that Kennedy learned to touch?

So far, President Obama’s main contribution to the dialogue has been, “It’s on me.” He talks about websites and tech glitches, not human beings and transcending issues. So Democrats like Senator Kay Hagan are running scared and some fear that 2014 could be another 2010.

Presidents can’t make websites work. But they can make moral and political arguments. This President needs to get on it.