Barack 'Black Jack' Obama

The comparisons have already begun, and we can suppose they are inevitable and will not stop until Barack and Michelle Obama prove they are nothing more than a married couple, albeit high profile, like many other married couples.

But then we can't be sure, for the media will play the soft side of the Obamas for everything it's worth. Already, Barack is the 'new JFK' and Michelle O has been compared to 'Jackie K' on the wondrous road to that fictionalized Camelot of yesteryear - the early 1960s and the Kennedy First Family.

Take a look a this Kennedyesque photo of the smiling, obviously happy Obama family on its way to the White House. Equally inspirational is the cover of the current issue of Ebony magazine - a lead-in to a glossy, insipid spread on the 'next First Couple.' They are not only all things Kennedy, but they are black, too, a powerful combination in our uptight politically-correct environment.

Does Obama really want to be known as 'the Black Jack' Obama? Is he willing to ride to power on the fantasies of Camelots past, or does he want to forge a name for himself based on his own character and achievements? That depends upon how much he values his own person, but then he is a politician, is he not?

Please, let's not have a 'Black Jack' Obama and a Michelle O as modern day stand-ins for the Arthurian Kennedys of the past. Let's not give to this 'power couple' any more mystique than they truly deserve.

William H. Driver

Hillary's 'If I Knew Then' Moment

According to columnist Robert Novak, "For the first time, [Hillary Clinton] has asserted that she would have voted against going to war in Iraq if she knew then what she knows now." And it's a remark she's made on several opportune occasions since, and again over the weekend on her first swing into New Hampshire after more than a decade.

On its face, the statement seems to be the sincere regret of a politician led astray my the Machiavellian machinations of an inept, overzealous chief executive and his administration. On a deeper level, however, Senator Clinton's protestation is nothing more than political expediency, for she wishes to abrogate any responsibility for her decision to vote for the resolution for war. She was quite adamant in her support for the war at the time the vote was taken, as were other politicians who now try to separate themselves not only from the war but from their votes in favor of it in 2003.

Now, Hillary and her supporters seem to think that she can exonerate herself by conditionally admitting her mistake. It's as if she were saying, "If I had known then..." is an acceptable cop-out for a major misjudgment on her part. It is rather simpleminded and, indeed, childish to toss out such a statement and expect it to be taken seriously by any clear-thinking person. The facts in the matter today are not different than the facts were in 2003 when she and the majority of the Senate voted to support the war. The emphasis may be different today because the progress of the war has not gone according to plan, but the facts remain.

Can you imagine the major revisions of history if such a lame excuse were accepted as a rational justification for past actions? Just think of the "Great 'If I Knew Then' Moments in American History"! A few examples from the recent past should suffice to illustrate the inanity of the "If I knew then what I know now..." defense:

Ethel Rosenberg was heard to whisper to her husband Julius, as they were led from the court room following their sentencing to death as spies, "You know, Julius, If I knew then what I know now, I never would have spied for the Soviet Union."

Saddam Hussein shouted to one of the hangmen, as he slipped through the trap door of the gallows in Baghdad, "Oh, boy, if I knew then what I know now, I never would have ordered the wholesale slaughter of all those crazy Kurds."

Bill Clinton was overheard by one of his staff pleading with Hillary, "Believe me, baby, if I knew then what I know now, I never would've played 'Where's the cigar?' with Monica or exposed myself to Paula or lied to Congress, and all those other mean things I did but won't admit to."

George W. Bush, in a awkward moment with Dick Cheney, "Look, hoss, I tell ya fer sure, if I hadda knowed then what I now know, I never wudda gone to war with I-rak."

The examples of such petty thinking are without number. In essence, Hillary's not sorry she voted for the war, she's sorry she got caught in the political turmoil that's resulted from the incompetent prosecution of the war. As I said, other politicians have used the same phraseology to mitigate their earlier positions, not just Hillary.

These fair-weather warriors would do well to avoid making such meaningless statements - it's really not the political thing to say.

Hillary's people should advise her to scratch the "If I knew then what I know now" defense from her speeches. It only calls attention to her lack of critical judgment.