According to a column in Newsmax entitled “Obama Too Thoughtful for Presidency”:
“Though President John F. Kennedy and President Barack Obama share a few marked similarities, there is one significant distinction: Obama is too thoughtful to be president, Richard Reeves says.
” ‘Kennedy, more than Obama so far, had more of a gut instinct for decision making . . . I somewhat think Obama is too thoughtful to be president . . . he’s nice and he tries to think things out logically . . . presidents have to respond to events that no one predicts or foresees in any way . . . so it’s really their judgment, not their IQ, that marks how they handle unknown situations, and so far that equation has not been good in office for Barack Obama. Kennedy was better at being a politician.’”
With all due affection and respect to the charismatic and brilliant John Kennedy, he gave the go ahead to the disastrous Bay of Pig invasion of Cuba, he allowed us to drift into the Viet Nam War, and he cozied up to the notorious Senator Joe McCarthy.
Jack Kennedy was a very brave and brilliant guy, but unprepared to be a congressman, senator, and later president. He was a product of father Joe Kennedy’s unbridled ambition for his son and management of his career.
Only after a couple of years in office did he acquire the knowledge and experience to begin to be qualified to do the job. Until then, for example, he found it expedient to support Southern positions on civil rights.
It should be kept in mind that while Kennedy sacrificed four critical years to serving in the Pacific during the Second World War, Obama at the same age had the opportunity to spend four years at Harvard Law School and as a community organizer.
President Barack Obama has gotten us out of two foolish wars, introduced health care coverage for forty million previously uninsured despite unparalleled and vicious business and conservative opposition, proposed essential fiscal stimulus to restore prosperity although he was not able to get Congress to agree beyond his first year in office, and avoided any major mistakes apart from the unsuccessful launching of the Affordable Care Act, for which his responsibility is indirect.
Kennedy jumped from being a genuine wartime hero to successive and short terms as a Congressman and Senator, and then was elected President. He became his own man only after a couple in office. By the time Obama entered office, he came with a very well thought out agenda and, against the advice of many, immediately took on the worthy but extremely difficult task at which at least half a dozen former presidents had failed: Health Care Reform.
History will judge the tragically shortened Kennedy presidency as being sub par, and that scholarly evaluation is well underway. We believe history will judge the Obama presidency to be one of the best.
