Jul 01, 2008
Both of our two most likely choices for the White House this year bear striking historical comparisons to past leaders.
While Sen. Barack Obama is older than John F. Kennedy was when he moved into the Oval Office in 1960, the presumptive Democratic nominee does share the late President's oral eloquence and barrier breaking biography, with Kennedy being the first Catholic President and Obama vying to be the first African American.
Yet it is Obama's opponent's similarity to Richard Nixon that may very well swing the election in the Democrats favor.
John McCain has often been compared to our incumbent, George W. Bush, and while the two have been close allies over the past eight years, with McCain voting with Bush 95 percent of the time last year, according to the Congressional Quarterly, McCain's record evokes a quote from J.F.K., who 48 years ago critiqued his opponent, Nixon, as he accepted the Democratic nomination.
"We know it will not be easy to campaign against a man who has spoken and voted on every side of every issue," Kennedy is quoted as saying.
George Bush and his campaign team painted John Kerry as a "flip-flopper" in 2004, yet Kerry, for all his political flaws, wasn't nearly as inconsistent as his opponents made him out to be. John McCain, by contrast, is almost forced to contradict himself.
McCain, after all, offered a glowing endorsement of Bush and his policies in 2004.
"On the most important issues of our day, I've been totally in agreement and support of President Bush," McCain said in an interview on Meet The Press on June 19, 2005.
So, like Nixon, McCain is being forced to try to defeat a charismatic opponent. McCain , disturbingly, often tries to sound like he's become more like the Democrats in a deceptive attempt to win votes. With high gas prices squeezing millions of Americans, he was quoted in the New York Sun on June 13 stating to a crowd, "I am very angry, frankly, at the oil companies."
Yet his bout of progressive populism was short lived.
A few days later he was in Houston, criticizing Obama in front of executives from big oil companies, declaring his support for sacrificing the coasts of Florida for drilling, something he had long opposed.
In a television ad, McCain declares his hatred for war, despite his longstanding support for the Iraq War.
Despite having voted with the president's position 95 percent of the time last year, he's attempting to claim he's not like Bush. Despite a zero percent rating from the League of Conservation Voters on environmental issues, he's claiming to be "green." Despite his commitment to staying in Iraq, he talks about his hatred of war.
In 1968, Nixon faced an electorate unhappy with the war and promised "peace with honor." Once elected, he promptly escalated the war and expanded the fighting into Cambodia.
He kept the war going for five more years. McCain would likely use a similar strategy for Iraq. Democrats and Independents alike must fight to ensure that Americans elect the Kennedy-like Obama, before McCain has the chance to become the 21st century Nixon.