Citizen Brand

Of Bobby and Barack

It took 40 years.  America has fought four wars, one of which is still raging.  The world is a remarkably different place in June of 2008 versus June of 1968, but there is one very strong connection.  Barack Obama is the true heir to the presidency that should have been.

My personal political hero is Bobby Kennedy.  It has taken me four decades to find a candidate that I believe will make the kinds of changes we need.  Bobby Kennedy would have been a much different president than even his brother was.  Barack Obama will be a much different president than any we have had in the four decades since that turbulent year of 1968.  A year that shaped a generation's thinking and actions, including yours truly.

And yet Obama will mean much more than even RFK could have hoped to mean.  His is a truly historic campaign as was that of his worthy competitor, Hillary Clinton.  But the Clinton campaign did not comport itself consistently as one that deserved the historic tag.  It was at times difficult to watch and listen to the Clinton campaign.  In 1992, the Clintons represented change.  It was a change that was never fully realized as scandal and impeachment politics sidetracked the promised progress.

And now there are two.  McCain and Obama.  An aging war hero versus the young gun.  Two United States Senators.  Two men once again when many expected the first woman to grace the presidential stage.  The questions begin.  Can Obama convince Hillary's female and white male base to stay in the Democratic fold? Will the hundreds of thousands of young Americans who have been energized by Obama stay tuned and vote in November?  Will John McCain figure out a way to distance himself from his promise to stay in Iraq for 100 years?  Will Obama pick Hillary for VP?  Would she take it or tell him to take a hike?

But those are the questions of practical politics.  Obama has raised our sights to look beyond the mundane day to day politics.  He is challenging us to step up, get engaged and embrace real change.  He is a reminder to this child of the 60's of a time when politicians could be respected and be believed.

It took 40 years.

RFK

I have been a lifelong Democrat.  My family, dating back to my grandfather, Ross Swenson, have always been Democrats.  I am also a fourth generation Kansan.  Kansas is considered a Republican state, but has had a unique history of electing Democrats as Governor, to Congress and a few other statewide offices.  So the election of 2006 is very interesting to me right now as the Democratic Party seems to have found its voice again.  We shall see.

Regardless of how you tend to vote, if you are a political junkie as I am, you will likely view the release of the movie, Bobby, as something to anticipate.  It is the story of a night when you can truly say history was changed.

It was June 4, 1968 and Robert F. Kennedy had just won the California presidential primary giving him the momentum he needed to capture the Democratic nomination for President and a date in November against the Republican nominee, Richard Nixon.  RFK's was a candidacy of destiny.  He was in part fulfilling the unfinished Presidency of his brother John.  But he had his own agenda and his own voice that was finally being heard.  And as he spoke from the podium of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles that late spring evening, his voice was sure and his destiny seemed certain.

But it was 1968.  We were just weeks removed from the assassination of Martin Luther King.  It was Bobby Kennedy's voice that terrible night that tried to calm the nation.  We were a nation in turmoil.  We were in a war that had lasted too long.  We had internal strife over that war in Vietnam.  We had internal strife over racial issues that had been going on since the Civil War more than a hundred years before.  It was a time we needed a voice of reason and calm to help guide us through the confusion.

I was 12 years old the night Bobby Kennedy was killed in the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles.  I went to sleep that night after hearing part of his victory speech claiming the California primary.  I awoke the next morning to the news that he had been shot and was near death.

Just two months before that, Bobby Kennedy shook my hand.  In 1968, at the age of 12, when an iconic figure such as Robert F. Kennedy shakes your hand, you do not ever forget it.  I remember that moment right now as if it were yesterday.

I wonder how a 12 year old thinks about our political leaders in 2006.  I fear that they don't have the same feelings that I had for Bobby Kennedy in 1968.  He was my first, and still, greatest political hero.  I believe to this day that our country and our world would have been different had he been elected President in 1968.

I will watch the movie Bobby when it comes out with a mixture of sadness and wonder.  It's a movie about the night RFK was killed which is sad.  But it will allow me the time to think about what might have been.  And it will reinforce to me how important it is for all of us to stay involved in our electoral process and vote for the people we think can make a difference.

Bobby Kennedy was shot on June 4, 1968 and history was forever altered.  But it also forever made me politically active.  For that, I have him to thank.