Obama and Kennedy – meeting the press
Barack Obama’s first press conference brought to mind the news conferences that John F. Kennedy presided over after becoming President in 1961. I remember them well.
Yesterday’s occasion carried much of the anticipation and intensity that surrounded JFK’s appearances, but without the air of electric excitement that used to accompany the Kennedy events.
The world has moved on since then but remarkably, there are distinct similarities in both the nature of the issues and the responses from the President (or President-elect). There was humor in both, whether it was Obama comparing himself to a shelter “mutt” on the question of a puppy for his children, or Kennedy, on being asked about the influence of the press, admitting that he was “reading more, and enjoying it less.”
There were other, more troubling, points of similarity.
In Kennedy’s first press conference as President, a gentleman of the press (there were only male reporters in attendance) asked JFK why he dealt only with “America’s position in the world” in his inaugural address. His reply was “because the issue of war and peace is involved, and the survival of perhaps the planet, possibly our system, and therefore this is a matter of primary concern to the people of the United States and the people of the world.”
Barack Obama, in his Chicago news conference, warned that Iran’s development of a nuclear weapon “is unacceptable. We have to mount an international effort to prevent that from happening.”
As President, Obama wil doubtless face many tough questions as he meets the media during his time in the White House. None, however, are likely to be as difficult as Kennedy’s appearance the day after having taken responsibility for the Bay of Pigs fiasco.
“I do not think that any useful national purpose would be served by my going further into the Cuban question this morning. I prefer to let my statement of yesterday suffice for the moment.”
That was probably the low point of Kennedy’s term, but it was not the only setback he faced during his first year in office. Soon after, Kennedy found himself out maneauvered by Nikita Khrushchev at the Vienna Summit. This was followed by the erection of the Berlin Wall. It led to Kennedy’s visit to Berlin where he made his famous speech, “Ich bin ein Berliner.”
The big difference in the political scenario facing the two Presidents is the economic crisis that Obama will inherit. Kennedy came to office at a time of great international tension, but of relative economic tranquility at home.
In 2009, Obama faces potential setbacks at every turn:
- What if whatever new aid package he pushes through Congress fails to blunt the economic downturn?
- What if the deployment of more troops to Afghanistan merely deepens the quagmire that NATO forces seem to have gotten themselves into?
- What if either the U.S. or Israel become enmeshed in war with Iran?
In looking over the transcript of the early JFK news conferences, I shivered when I read the last question asked of him at his first meeting with the press in the White House.
Had he given any thought, he was asked, to the “problem of succession in the case of injury, illness or some incapacitation.” Kennedy answered: “Nothing has been done on it as yet, but I think it would be a good matter which we could proceed on.”
Congress has since dealt with this matter, refining the process of Presidential succession. It best be left there.
