If he were alive, former Democrat vice presidential candidate Lloyd Bentsen might tell Barack the same thing he famously told then vice presidential candidate Dan Quayle: "You're no Jack Kennedy."
Thomas Sowell (who also was right from the start about the political correctness scandal commonly known as the Duke lacrosse case) recently implored his readers to remember that we're choosing a president.
Mr. Sowell: "With all the media attention to the various political rivalries in both parties, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that all of this is ultimately about choosing a President of the United States."
Mr. Sowell's readers are much less likely to need the reminder than those who don't read his words of wisdom.
It's such a basic point.
Yet it's so easily forgotten in the excitement of a presidential campaign with Oprah Winfrey backing Senator Barack Hussein Obama and Chuck Norris beside former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee.
It's sad, but not surprising, that style trumped substance and that the winners of the Iowa caucuses were the most stylish (and youngest)of the presidential hopefuls: Obama and Huckabee.
Obama has been running as a rock star and actually told high school students that using cocaine did not stop him from going to Harvard and becoming a lawyer, a union organizer, an Illinois state senator, Illinois' junior United States Senator, the most memorable speaker at the 2004 Democrat Convention and the alternative to Hillary Clinton, who planned to parlay her many years as First Lady of Arkansas and then the United States and a bit more than one six-year term as New York's junior United States Senator into the politically correct selection as America's first female President.
It was a plausible plan, but the politically correct media preferred an even more politically correct scenario: a Black Camelot, with the Obamas of Illinois moving into the White House as America's black version of the Kennedys of Massachusetts, with Michelle Obama (who told people that her husband smells and doesn't put his dirty socks in the hamper)as Jacqueline Kennedy and their two young daughters filling in for Caroline and John-John. (The children may be up to the task, but the parents aren't.)
If he were alive, former Democrat vice presidential candidate Lloyd Bentsen might tell Barack the same thing he famously told then vice presidential candidate Dan Quayle: "You're no Jack Kennedy."
When JFK succeeded Ike as President in 1961, there was an inevitable generational change. Richard Nixon, then the Republican alternative, was about the same age as JFK and both of them were Navy men who had served in both World War II, the House of Representatives and the United States Senate. Nixon had been Vice President since 1953 and JFK had been a president in training virtually from birth.
Barack is no Jack Kennedy.
Yes, Barack has great style (mostly the style of a slimmer Dr. Martin Luther King).
But he's a rookie United States Senator who started running for President a year after becoming a United States Senator.
Making an unqualified person of color (Barack's dad was black and his mother, white) President based on style would be dangerous and taking affirmative action way too far.
Mr. Sowell noted in his article that Iowa, "a state that is 95 percent white[,] gave its biggest vote total to a black man, " and "[m]ore Iowa women voted for Obama than for Hillary."
As Mr. Sowell put it: "So much for the 'race, class and gender' mantra among the intelligentsia."
Great! Race, class and gender should not determine who should be President.
Substance, not style, should.
Mr. Sowell rightly reported the obvious: Barack has style and lacks substance.
Mr. Sowell: "By far the best presentation as a candidate, among all the candidates in both parties, is that of Barack Obama. But if he actually believes even half of the irresponsible nonsense he talks, he would be an utter disaster in the White House."
Exactly! The White House is not a place for on-the-job training. But the bulk of the major media wants an Obama Administration as the fulfillment of its politically correct, secular extremist agenda.
Mr. Sowell:
"Among the Democrats, the choice between John Edwards and Barack Obama depends on whether you prefer glib demagoguery in its plain vanilla form or spiced with a little style and color.
"The choice between both of them and Hillary Clinton depends on whether you prefer male or female demagoguery."
Mostly so. But, all things carefully considered, the top two Democrat male alternatives to Hillary are even less capable of leading America properly than Hillary.
If and when people focus on substance, it becomes clear that Mitt Romney is America's best hope among the leading presidential hopefuls.
Mr. Sowell:
"When it comes to personal temperament, Governor Romney would rate the highest for his even keel, regardless of what events are swirling around him....
"Temperament is far more important for a President than for a candidate. A President has to be on an even keel 24/7, for four long years, despite crises that can break out anywhere in the world at any time."
That's the plain truth.
In addition to being too old this time, Senator McCain lacks presidential temperament.
Mr. Sowell:
"John McCain trails the pack in the temperament department, with his volatile, arrogant, and abrasive know-it-all attitude. His track record in the Senate is full of the betrayals of Republican supporters that have been the party's biggest failing over the years and its Achilles heel politically."
"McCain's betrayals include not only the amnesty bill but also the McCain-Feingold bill that violated the First Amendment for the illusion of 'taking money out of politics.' His back-door deal with Democrats on judicial nominations also pulled the rug out from under his party leaders in the Senate.
"The White House is not the place for a loose cannon."
Bottom line: Mr. Romney remains America's best hope.
Michael J. Gaynor has been practicing law in New York since 1973. A former partner at Fulton, Duncombe & Rowe and Gaynor & Bass, he is a solo practitioner admitted to practice in New York state and federal courts and an Association of the Bar of the City of New York member.
Gaynor graduated magna cum laude, with Honors in Social Science, from Hofstra University's New College, and received his J.D. degree from St. John's Law School, where he won the American Jurisprudence Award in Evidence and served as an editor of the Law Review and the St. Thomas More Institute for Legal Research. He wrote on the Pentagon Papers case for the Review and obscenity law for The Catholic Lawyer and edited the Law Review's commentary on significant developments in New York law.
The day after graduating, Gaynor joined the Fulton firm, where he focused on litigation and corporate law. In 1997 Gaynor and Emily Bass formed Gaynor & Bass and then conducted a general legal practice, emphasizing litigation, and represented corporations, individuals and a New York City labor union. Notably, Gaynor & Bass prevailed in the Second Circuit in a seminal copyright infringement case, Tasini v. New York Times, against newspaper and magazine publishers and Lexis-Nexis. The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed, 7 to 2, holding that the copyrights of freelance writers had been infringed when their work was put online without permission or compensation.
Gaynor currently contributes regularly to www.MichNews.com, www.RenewAmerica.com, www.WebCommentary.com, www.PostChronicle.com and www.therealitycheck.org and has contributed to many other websites. He has written extensively on political and religious issues, notably the Terry Schiavo case, the Duke "no rape" case, ACORN and canon law, and appeared as a guest on television and radio. He was acknowledged in Until Proven Innocent, by Stuart Taylor and KC Johnson, and Culture of Corruption, by Michelle Malkin. He appeared on "Your World With Cavuto" to promote an eBay boycott that he initiated and "The World Over With Raymond Arroyo" (EWTN) to discuss the legal implications of the Schiavo case. On October 22, 2008, Gaynor was the first to report that The New York Times had killed an Obama/ACORN expose on which a Times reporter had been working with ACORN whistleblower Anita MonCrief.