Obama -- The Next JFK?

Okay, I’ll admit it – while everyone was watching the American general elections on TV the other night, I wasn’t. Maybe I’m one of the few people on the planet that already knew the outcome, and didn’t feel the need to see it live.

I predicted many months ago that Obama would take the oval office. He’s the star candidate. He’s a far better speaker than McCain, has new-ish ideas that at least differ from the current administration, and because race is such a big thing south of the border, he’s got that in his favour too.

Obama’s skin color drew out a huge group of voters that don’t usually vote, because they don’t feel represented – mainly the visible minorities, especially the poorer ones. This alone almost guaranteed him a victory.

Though he is also very eloquent public speaker, able to sway people towards his way of doing things.

Is it just me, or was he trying to sound like Martin Luther King’s “I have a Dream” speech, with his own words last night?

Whoops! Guess ya caught me – I saw a bit of the American election on TV last night. Hey, it was in between commercials and . . .

I was right about my prediction that Obama would win – now I hope I’m not right about my next one. The way I see things, and yes they aren’t always right because I do wear glasses, Obama and John F. Kennedy are very similar.

JFK was an amazing public figure, brash, good looking, a true ladies man (he dated Marilyn Monroe, among other well known Hollywood babes), and he had some pretty new-ish ideas. Most of the country at the time fell in love with JFK, or at least fell in love from a political point of view. Everyone was JFK crazy – sort of like they were Pierre Elliot Trudeau crazy when that man was in charge of our nation.

But not everyone shared the love, and eventually JFK was shot dead.

I have a dream, but it’s more of a nightmare – that Obama will too experience the rush of emotions, and then also be shot dead.

America is an oddball place. On one hand, it has some of the most influential people in the world, from politicians, actors, singers, songwriters, sports stars, academics and others. Yet on the other hand, it also has some of the craziest, nutbars, often with outdated notions of the way things ought to be.

All it takes is one nutbar with a weapon and the “bam” can easily be taken out of Obama. Sure, security is a better than it was way back in JFKs day, but that hasn’t stopped others from taking swipes at American celebrities.

American President Ronald Reagan was shot in the 1980s (and lived), and authorities have already broken up a group of people plotting to assassinate Obama – and he hasn’t even set foot in his new White House.

I really hope I am wrong, but given the far greater racial tensions in the States than up here in Canada, and the fact that being America’s first black president puts him under a very large microscope, I fear I am going to be right about this prediction as well.