Robert Dallek: What Kerry Can Learn from JFK

Robert Dallek, in the WSJ (Aug. 3, 2004):

... Mr. Kerry enters the fall campaign in as strong a position as any Democrat since Jimmy Carter in 1976 and his prospects are certainly stronger than Bill Clinton's in 1992, when Bush 41 had his decidedly successful war against Iraq to his credit. Like Mr. Carter, who had the advantage of running against a failed Nixon presidency and Gerald Ford, who bore the onus of pardoning Nixon, Mr. Kerry enters the contest against a president with a less than sterling record in either domestic or foreign affairs.

John F. Kerry will want to remember John F. Kennedy's successful presidential bid in 1960. Like Mr. Gore, Nixon was a well established national figure as Ike's V.P. Like Kennedy, who carried potential negatives into the campaign -- his youth and inexperience, his religion, his undistinguished congressional record and unenviable caution in response to McCarthyism -- Sen. Kerry has to overcome questions about his capacity to speak to Americans in understandable ways and his alleged inconsistency as a senator or politician who speaks out of both sides of his mouth.

Sen. Kerry needs to recall how JFK outdid Nixon in their first and most important televised debate. Nixon had a reputation as a skilled debater with a track record of having effectively stood up to Nikita Khrushchev in the famous kitchen debate in Moscow. President Bush does not compare to Nixon in spontaneous forensic skills, but he will carry the mantle of the presidency into his confrontation with Mr. Kerry and it would be a serious mistake to dismiss him as some kind of lightweight. He will be well prepared and ready to strike at any Kerry weak points.

While Mr. Kerry will certainly want to emphasize President Bush's questionable record in the White House, he will do better to put a positive message before the country, not as some policy wonk but as a genuinely compassionate man with a clear, understandable vision of where to lead the country at home and abroad. He began to do this last Thursday night, but he must do more to sway the undecideds. Like Kennedy, he will want to come across as less of a debater than a sensible man of action who can do better than the current administration in promoting prosperity and securing the country's safety. Mr. Kerry should recall that Kennedy's New Frontier was an attractive antidote to the mood of concern that had settled over the country at the end of Eisenhower's eight-year term, which was marred by three recessions, the Soviet's launch of Sputnik, and an alleged"missile gap."

It would be a mistake, however, for John Kerry to put himself too much in Kennedy's shadow, however attractive JFK remains to millions of Americans. Jimmy Carter's unsuccessful attempt to imitate Franklin Roosevelt's fireside chat with an uninspiring televised talk should be a cautionary flag. As with most victors in presidential election contests, Mr. Kerry needs to walk the fine line between regard for party predecessors and programs and a demonstration of his capacity to overcome contemporary challenges with fresh ideas.