Tribune endorses JFK legacy

If you think the Tribune's endorsement Sunday of Barack Obama's candidacy in the Democratic primary for president was a nod to John F. Kennedy, guess again. The Trib used its Republican endorsement of John McCain to talk about the JFK legacy.

To hear McCain speak of honor, of duty, is to wake up the echoes of John F. Kennedy urging Americans to ask not what their country can do for them. A President McCain would engage challenges domestic and foreign with the candid conviction that doing what's right may cost us. Maybe plenty.

His unswerving commitment to victory in Iraq is the likely template. He has never brooked defeatism because the consequences of defeat are so severe. McCain instead urged a troop surge to calm Iraq and, now that it's working, he deflects the credit to the general who executed it.

We've pointed out many times here how JFK wouldn't recognize the Democratic Party today. Here, again, are some differences between Barack and JFK.

* JKF was for a strong national defense.
* JFK won at least one political debate.
* JFK favored tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.
* JFK escalated a pre-emptive war on foreign soil without an exit strategy.
* JFK ran the dirtiest campaigns of his time.
* JFK once said America would, "pay any price, bear any burden."
* JFK once said "…one path we shall never choose, and that is the path of surrender, or submission."
* JFK's superior "judgment" included sleeping with the mistress of America's most powerful Mob boss.

Apologies to that noted agent of change, Ted Kennedy.

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