The Barack-Obama-is-the-next-JFK themehas basically vanished since Teddy K’s endorsement didn’t do Obama muchgood in Massachusetts.But, ever-so-subtly, Hillary Clinton could be reviving the comparison—only thistime, she’s invoking JFK’s naivete to hurt Obama.
Casein point: Look at her latest Pennsylvania attack ad .The narrator introduces the spot by growling, “It’s the toughest job in theworld.” Cue the hyper-fast montage of historic headlines and images: Black Thursday , Pearl Harbor , the BerlinCrisis *, 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 byHarry Truman, and a rhetorical question—”Who do you think has what ittakes?”—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. Ninthmost watched in France, 22 nd most viewed in Russia, and66 th most in Canada.You may not realize it, but you need to know these things.)
It’sin the initial montage—when it covers the Berlin Crisis*—that we see JFK.
*Corrections,April 22, 2008: Originally, the post incorrectly stated that aheadline Hillary Clinton used in a recent ad hinted at JFK’s handling of theVietnam War. It actually referred to the Berlin Crisis. The post made invalidconclusions based on the error. Those conclusions have been removed from thepost.
