I think the comparisons to Kennedy are a bit extreme. If you're talking about the cult of personality, then I agree, but Kennedy was a different class of politician. I feel that politicians were a lot more transparent 30-40 years ago. I'm not saying he didn't have his faults, he certainly did, but he was dealing with a lot more than Obama is right now. The civil rights movement is easily the biggest social movement this country has ever seen and if it's not the biggest, it's second only to the labor movement and JFK HAD to deal with that. Will I say he was a crusader for civil rights? No, because the simple fact is that he wasn't. Then again, neither was Lincoln. Both men would've been fine with maintaining the status quo of their respective time periods if complete social unrest and/or war didn't force action. That's not strictly relevant though. All that matters is what they did when push came to shove. Lincoln is still the greatest president we've ever seen and JFK is still gunning for the top 10 if he isn't already in it. History will always remember JFK as a president of pretty significant consequence, but aside from being the first black president, I just don't see Obama doing anything that will go down in the history books, at least not yet. Maybe the next four years will prove me wrong. I hope they do because I certainly want a better four years than the four we just saw.
I would say that Obama is certainly viewed as something of a Messiah on the left though and is unbelievably charismatic. I'll even admit, as a conservative, to occasionally being amused by the less political things Obama has to say. I'd also say that the African American community hails him as a Messiah. I mean, I don't really blame them - he is, after all, the first black president - but I've seen recent interviews where minorities are already saying that Obama is going to edge out the likes of Lincoln and Washington as the greatest president of all time. That's simply not going to happen. That's part of the problem though; he's causing serious division in this country. I feel like the racial divide is as high as it's been since the civil rights movement in this country, and I'm not alone in that feeling. There have been numerous polls that have corroborated what I'm saying right now. I also feel like the political divide is as high as it's ever been as well. Conservatives feel that Obama is just looking to make the USA a welfare state and liberals feel that conservatives are just being a bit too old fashion and inflexible on the issues. I mean I am mainly conservative: I feel that the welfare and assistance programs are out of control in this country, but I also feel like sometimes we just need to compromise because sometimes doing nothing is far worse. Ultimately, we should just abolish the whole two party system as far as I'm concerned because it doesn't allow for someone who is a bit more in the middle to be president, but that will never happen. I believe that similar to how westerners view Ghandi and Nelson Mandela as these great heroes when we only hear about the great things they achieved and maybe not about some of their shortcomings, foreigners don't really get to hear about all of Obama's shortcomings.
