Obama starts exploratory committee

I really see no comparison between Obama and JFK. "Kennedy was not a career politician when he ran..." But that is exactly what Obama is. Aside from a couple of years at a law firm and some law school teaching, Obama has been a full time politician for over 10 years. And not a very distiguished one at that.

In fact when elected President, Bush had less elective office experience (8 years) than Obama has now. It's just that Bush actually accomplished something.

The appeal of JFK and Obama is very similiar. They both have the celebrity senator thing going on. Whoever the equivalent of Frank Sinatra is today (if there is one) would probably jump on the Obamatrain. Most of the senators that have run for president, think Bob Dole and John Kerry especially, have been guys that have been on the Hill for decades and are unable to express their message.

That doesn't mean that Obama has Kennedy's leadership qualities. That would be a ridiculous assertion based on how little Obama has done while in office.

People liked Kennedy because he was young AND he had substance. He wasn't new to national politics when he ran, having been in Congress since 1946. He was much more of a known quantity than Obama, who is simply a media-created celebrity and nothing more.

Trust me...I'm not saying this because I'm some huge Kennedy fan and resent the comparison. It's just that on an objective level, the comparison doesn't hold water. Now if you argue that the media WANT people to view Obama as a new JFK, that I will certainly buy into. Afterall, they did the same thing with Clinton.