"Fuentes, and McCafferty, and Bailey, and Badillo, and Carey, but no one knows whether they were Catholics or not ..."

or, Obama's no Jack Kennedy.

David Broder, on Kennedy's important speech, 50 years ago today. Never forget:

Then came the rhetoric, including the reminder that "side by side with Bowie and Crockett died Fuentes, and McCafferty, and Bailey, and Badillo, and Carey, but no one knows whether they were Catholics or not. For there was no religious test" at the Alamo.

In the question period, Kennedy sported a look of bemused puzzlement as the ministers quoted from the Catholic Encyclopedia, his body language conveying that this trip was outside his normal world. But he never lost his cool, and he assured them he found none of the questioning "unfair or unreasonable." He left to applause.

At the end, Peter Lisagor of the Chicago Daily News turned to a knot of other reporters and said, "If the editors of this country were smart, they'd pull every reporter covering Kennedy tonight off him for the rest of the campaign. You can't have watched this and still say you're neutral." I thought he was right.

By contrast, after a rousing Labor Day speech in Milwaukee, the president yesterday is back to that just-reading-off-the-teleprompter delivery again.* Which might work, if he indeed had a team of brilliant speechwriters, capable of crafting the kind of wordplay that can't help but complement the president's natural delivery -- bring out the best in him and all. We know he's got it in him, when the inspiration strikes...

Instead: say, is that young fellow caught feeling up Hillary's cardboard boobie still on the job?*

Nothing wrong with youth per se, in and of itself, but sometimes it helps to surround yourself with "old souls" --regardless of age -- because those boy-whippersnappers with all the ego and answers (the intellectual version of "young, dumb, and full of cum") really don't have their listening ears well attuned to their fellow countryman's needs and all.

And sometimes listening -- before you craft your speeches, agendas, and priorities -- to the people who brung ya, counts more in the end than all the youthful support of the paid fanboys, who believe their credentials from the best and brightest places indeed entitle them to a place at the table quicker than those other American workers who have spent lifetimes listening and responding, working day-by-day-by-day at the dirty details to promote effective change that lasts longer than a political term or two.


















(Yup, that last sentence is a run on. So what? Function over form. Solid gains over PC niceities. Catch my drift? I knew you would.)

* I think some speechwriter was trying unsuccessfully to match Kennedy's rhetoric. The bit about Muslims fighting and dying, and praying together with other denominations in the Pentagon nearby, was an attempt.

But when you put names to the fight, when you show us instead of the continual telling... It works.

(Is that even a test to measure these policies anymore? Whether something works or not? Maybe it should be? And in hindsight too, not just in optimistic prediction mode... No excuses. Either it works, or not. And if it's not working ... something about change ... nope, cap that = Change!)