Inspiration and Hope
Most Americans recognize that a long tenure in Washington, D.C. is not the same as judgment, wisdom and vision. Nevertheless, the Republican party wants voters to believe that John McCain’s maturity and experience are what is needed to solve our problems.
Long ago, prominent Republicans wondered whether a Democratic nominee for president: “really is grown up enough to be president.” They used the phrase “naive and inexperienced,” and insisted: “The United States cannot afford to risk the future of the free world with inexperience and immaturity in the White House.”
Those quotations came during the 1960 presidential campaign, when Republicans attacked John Fitzgerald Kennedy for allegedly lacking the age and experience necessary to be president.
Richard Nixon’s slogan was “experience counts,” to which John F. Kennedy responded: “to exclude from positions of trust and command all those below the age of 44 would have kept Jefferson from writing the Declaration of Independence, Washington from commanding the Continental Army, Madison from fathering the Constitution and Christopher Columbus from even discovering America.”
As a young Catholic, I was inspired watching John Fitzgerald Kennedy take the oath of office. Today, at 72 years of age, I look forward to January 20th, and watching a racially mixed young man named Barack Obama take the oath of office.
Our democracy moves very slowly, but we have demonstrated that we can respond decisively to our nation’s great challenge. That’s what the greatest generation did after winning World War II, by initiating the Marshall Plan, which unified Europe and created the basis for peace and prosperity for decades.
Hopefully, our grandchildren will look back on 2008, as a time Americans found the moral courage to solve problems, which some claimed were impossible to solve.
Barack Obama wrote: “The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream.”
Long ago, prominent Republicans wondered whether a Democratic nominee for president: “really is grown up enough to be president.” They used the phrase “naive and inexperienced,” and insisted: “The United States cannot afford to risk the future of the free world with inexperience and immaturity in the White House.”
Those quotations came during the 1960 presidential campaign, when Republicans attacked John Fitzgerald Kennedy for allegedly lacking the age and experience necessary to be president.
Richard Nixon’s slogan was “experience counts,” to which John F. Kennedy responded: “to exclude from positions of trust and command all those below the age of 44 would have kept Jefferson from writing the Declaration of Independence, Washington from commanding the Continental Army, Madison from fathering the Constitution and Christopher Columbus from even discovering America.”
As a young Catholic, I was inspired watching John Fitzgerald Kennedy take the oath of office. Today, at 72 years of age, I look forward to January 20th, and watching a racially mixed young man named Barack Obama take the oath of office.
Our democracy moves very slowly, but we have demonstrated that we can respond decisively to our nation’s great challenge. That’s what the greatest generation did after winning World War II, by initiating the Marshall Plan, which unified Europe and created the basis for peace and prosperity for decades.
Hopefully, our grandchildren will look back on 2008, as a time Americans found the moral courage to solve problems, which some claimed were impossible to solve.
Barack Obama wrote: “The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream.”
posted by Jim O'Leary | 12:00 AM
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