For Obama, a Most Congenial Spot

By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, February 4, 2008

When Ted Kennedy backed John Kerry for president in 2003, no major newspaper outside Massachusetts bothered to cover it, and even the Associated Press kissed off the event with a 200-word item.

When Ted and Caroline Kennedy gave Barack Obama their political blessing last week, it was treated as the second coming of Camelot: live cable coverage, lead story on all the newscasts, anchors intoning the old JFK line that "the torch has been passed."

Why the difference? The liberal lion's embrace of the rookie senator seemed to wave away objections about Obama's inexperience and to serve as a repudiation of Hillary and Bill Clinton. But it would be hard to overstate the excitement of many journalists too young to have covered the Kennedy presidency, who see Obama as a charismatic champion of another New Frontier.

In short, some Kennedy envy may be at work here.

"The endorsement included two things that media people like: Barack Obama, and the memory and glamour of the JFK years," says Slate writer John Dickerson, whose mother, Nancy Dickerson, covered and socialized with the late president. "Kennedy loved the press, loved the back and forth. He made it a Hollywood show, and you wanted to be part of the show. You were on the team if you were with Kennedy."

Roger Simon, a Politico columnist, says Ted Kennedy is a strong campaigner but that the family "mystique" drove the story. "It was a Camelot moment," he says. "It was a huge, emotive outburst for the candidate who's won a lot of hearts in the press corps already. The fact is, we don't know how important it is."

If Kennedy had backed Clinton instead, it's hard to imagine he would have drawn the same blowout coverage as did his appearance with Obama at American University, which was so packed that some journalists couldn't get in. Indeed, Clinton's endorsement by Robert Kennedy Jr. and Kathleen Kennedy Townsend was relegated to a mere footnote.

The story got huge play because it fit into a larger narrative involving Obama as an avatar of the politics of inspiration, as contrasted with what is depicted as the old-style Clinton "machine."

The Boston Globe referred to "Democratic royalty" and "past legends." MSNBC's Keith Olbermann asked Obama whether he was "being positioned as the John F. Kennedy of the 21st century." (Obama said he was "not comfortable" with the comparison.) Chris Matthews said the moment gave us "a glimpse of the early 1960s, when politics was alive."

"Barack Obama, touched by the legacy of Camelot," said CNN's Wolf Blitzer.

"Ted and Caroline set to hit the campaign trail after they announce the heir to Camelot," said CBS's Harry Smith.

Camelot is a retrospective label, inspired by Jackie Kennedy after the assassination, when she told Theodore White of Life magazine that her husband had loved the song from the Broadway musical bearing that name. But JFK's thousand days was clearly a riveting time for the press corps.

Its members matched wits with the young president during the first news conferences televised from the White House. Columnists such as Joseph Alsop and Charles Bartlett gave Kennedy private advice (and hosted him at dinner parties) in ways that would be considered fatally compromising today. Kennedy himself leaked stories to favored scribes. He once grabbed Ben Bradlee, then with Newsweek, at a White House dance to tell him of a prisoner exchange with the Soviets, and briefed New York Times columnist James Reston immediately after a summit meeting with Nikita Khrushchev.

"He liked journalists a lot, and some of his best friends were journalists," says Bradlee, now a Washington Post Co. vice president. "We saw in him so much hope and promise. A lot of journalists did identify with him because of that. They knew he liked newspaper people." These days, he says, "you get the feeling with most of these guys that they hate the press."

Bradlee says only a couple of paragraphs in any given Newsweek story came directly from Kennedy, but that he and Time's Hugh Sidey would grouse if the president gave the other exclusive tidbits.

Obama, by contrast, has never cultivated close relationships with journalists, but some began likening him to JFK even before he formally entered the 2008 campaign.

While the glittering Oprah Winfrey endorsement was a huge media windfall for Obama, it was the 75-year-old Massachusetts senator -- and Caroline Kennedy, likening Obama to her father in a New York Times op-ed -- who provided a living link to the martyred president. The carefully leaked subplot -- that Ted Kennedy had warned Bill Clinton he was unhappy with his tactics, derided by critics as racially tinged -- added to the melodramatic plotline.

In case anyone snoozed through the coverage, Obama launched a television ad that began with black-and-white footage of Kennedy and closed with Caroline Kennedy's warm words.

"A lot of journalists have shining memories of JFK and Bobby, and always hoped someone would recapture it," says National Review Editor Rich Lowry. " 'Passing the torch' -- that gets all the high-end pundits really excited. With average voters, I can't believe that makes much of a difference."

At the same time, says Lowry, "the press hates Hillary. There's real glee over the prospect of being done with the Clintons."

Whether personal feelings are a factor or not, journalists surely love a good narrative, particularly during the 22-state blur that culminates with tomorrow's Super Tuesday voting. One factor hurting Mitt Romney, a clean-living governor's son and former CEO, is that he lacks a stirring personal tale. John McCain, by contrast, is the war hero who survived not just torture but all those premature political obituaries last summer. Clinton is the former first lady who overcame a husband's humiliation and would break the ultimate glass ceiling.

But Obama, born of a Kenyan father and Kansan mother, would shatter a racial barrier after 220 years of white presidents. His life story, at least as depicted in the media, makes every other candidate seem conventional. He may have been born seven months into Kennedy's presidency, but journalists have conferred the legacy on him anyway. That may be unfair to the other candidates, but as JFK famously said, "Life is unfair."

Fox Face-Off

Advisers to Hillary Clinton and John McCain felt misled yesterday when "Fox News Sunday" host Chris Wallace prodded the candidates into talking to each other after they had agreed to be interviewed separately.

While McCain was being interviewed in Washington, Clinton aides grew suspicious when producers asked her to remain in the interview chair in St. Louis for 15 minutes -- ostensibly so she could hear his comments -- and refused to turn off her mike so she could have a private conversation. That enabled Wallace to tell McCain that he was about to interview the former first lady and "well, actually, she's right there right now. Senators, do you want to say anything to each other?"

No harm was done -- both candidates said they looked forward to a "respectful debate" if they face off in November -- but the McCain side was particularly unhappy.

Hometown Hero

At Wednesday's Republican presidential debate, John McCain had a ready comeback when Mitt Romney said the senator must not be a conservative because the New York Times was backing him.

"Let me note that I was endorsed by your two hometown newspapers who know you best, including the very conservative Boston Herald. . . . I'll guarantee the Arizona Republic will be endorsing me, my friend."

It was a pretty safe bet; the Phoenix paper had endorsed McCain the previous Sunday.

But it was no sure thing last time around. During the 2000 campaign, the Republic editorialized about McCain's "volcanic" temper and said there is "reason to seriously question whether McCain has the temperament, and the political approach and skills, we want in the next president of the United States."

Editorial Page Editor Phil Boas says that eight years ago McCain "was still angry at the newspaper" in a dispute over coverage. "It was a very icy relationship, but there has been a real thawing in the last several years. It's a new cast of people here."

Waiting Too Long

"Nell and Wallace Crain, a couple who were featured in an Express-News Page 1A story and photo on 'the secret to a happy marriage,' died between the writing of the story last summer and its publication in the San Antonio Express-News on Monday. . . . The Express-News apologizes to family and friends of the couple, and to our readers, for the egregious omission."

The author, J. Michael Parker, retired from the paper after the fiasco.