Barack Kennedy?

This election cycle, many people seem to be obsessed with the notion of comparing Sen. Barack Obama to President John F. Kennedy and Sen. Robert Kennedy, including the Kennedys. While comparisons of the Democratic nominee and the late Kennedy brothers are nothing new, what is new is that they are being made by the Kennedy’s rather than the candidate’s top aides.

President Bill Clinton and his campaign communications team presented him as the natural heir to President Kennedy during both the 1992 and 1996 campaigns. It made since at the time as well; Clinton was youngest and arguably most charismatic nominee either party had seen since Kennedy. George Stephanopoulos made sure that there was no media outlet without a copy of the picture of a young Bill Clinton shaking the hand of then-President Kennedy. Clinton said often that Kennedy was his political hero as a young man. Once in office, Clinton prided himself on his work with Sen. Ted Kennedy, the late president’s youngest brother (former First Lady and Sen. Hillary Clinton did the same once she took office in the Senate).

While Al Gore never tried to position himself as a successor to Kennedy, he did cast himself as Clinton’s hand-picked successor. However, in many ways this worked to his advantage as many had already associated Clinton with Kennedy.

In 2004, John Kerry’s campaign began making Kennedy connections to their candidate as well. However, they focused on biographical connections rather than drawing connections between the two men’s age and perceived charisma. This was most likely because Kerry was not young at the time of his candidacy (and rumors of Botox injections also through out any hope of him being perceived as young) nor was he perceived as charismatic (he in fact was perceived by many as an Ivy League snob). The Kerry campaign aides had plenty to work with though. Both men were of Irish-Catholic descent with fathers who served in the diplomatic CORE. Both were graduated of Ivy League schools and had distinguished, wartime military records as naval officers. Finally, both men were senators from the state of Massachusetts (Kerry also serves as a senator with Ted Kennedy) and both men had the initials JFK.

Now again in 2008 parallels are being drawn between the Democratic nominee and the late President Kennedy. This time however, Obama’s campaign staff hardly has to lift a finger, the Kennedy family is doing most of the work. Ted Kennedy has served as the family patriarch since the assassination of his brother, Robert, in 1968 and Caroline Kennedy is the sole surviving child of John. So when the two of them took the stage with Rep. Patrick Kennedy (Ted’s son) back in January to endorse Obama, Obama’s top campaign aides had to be doing cartwheels.

A day before the endorsement event, Caroline Kennedy had written an op-ed for the New York Times titled “A President Like My Father” in which she stated that Obama was the only candidate since her father that she felt could inspire people the way her father did. What’s more is that she credited Obama with inspiring her children who in turn inspired her to be a part of Obama’s campaign.

At the endorsement event, the Kennedy’s constantly drew parallels between the late president and Obama. However one theme was constant throughout the entire event: that both President Kennedy and Sen. Obama have the capacity to inspire people of all ages. With two generations present on stage and numerous references to an inspired generation of “young people” the Kennedy’s made it clear that in their opinion Obama, like their father and brother, is a candidate for people of every age.

Not mentioned as much as the endorsements of Caroline, Patrick, and Ted are the endorsements of Robert Kennedy’s children and widow. Robert Kennedy Jr., Kerry Kennedy, and Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend all originally endorsed Hillary Clinton and were frequent guests on cable news shows in her defense. However both Max Kennedy and Rory Kennedy Bailey (also children of Robert) endorsed Barack Obama. Most significant, and perhaps the least covered, however is the early endorsement of Ethel Kennedy for Barack Obama who said in her Huffington Post endorsement, “Barack is so like Bobby…With courage, caring, and charisma, Senator Obama is leading us toward a kinder, gentler world.”

For forty years a generation of progressive baby-boomers has been waiting for a presidential candidate to pick up the torch of hope and inspiration they felt was lost with the assassinations of Kennedy brothers. Now the Kennedy family (or most of them at least) has said that Barack Obama is the person to pick up that torch—in fact they all said he already has.

So what does all this mean now that we are in the general election and past the primary? Mobilization. While few people would have been drawn from the undecided center by a simple press release endorsement by Ted Kennedy, the Kennedys endorsing Obama brilliantly used the political capital of their fallen patriarchs. Undecideds are not voters who are looking for a polarizing figure, they are looking for a figure that can unite the country—they want a “rally around the flag” president without the tragedy of a “rally around the flag” event. Both John and Robert Kennedy were those figures (or at least that is how their folklore is remembered today). Undecideds looking for unity and people who stopped voting because are disenchanted by the polarizing political process of today now have a candidate to rally around. Young people who couldn’t get excited about a candidate in the past now have people telling them that this man is not just the John Kennedy of their generation or the Robert Kennedy of their generation but both the John and Robert Kennedy of their generation and that may just be the thing to get the youth vote out of the cave.

Los Angeles: TitleTown USA

Recently, Sports Center has been profiling various cities across the country looking to crown a new city as “TitleTown USA.” While this miniature competition is most likely a time-filler for the program in the midst of the slow drawl of the American summer sports scene (baseball, NASCAR, and Olympic trials), it is fun competition that is well overdue. For years Green Bay has claimed the name of “TitleTown USA,” a claim that is pretty bold when one considers that the city hosts only one major sports team—the Packers. The name was claimed by the city because of the Packers dominance of the NFL in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1960s however since 1968, the team has claimed only one championship (Super Bowl XXXI).

Many Green Bay fans and residents were incensed when ESPN announced the competition. As soon as ESPN whittled the competition down to its top twenty teams they began flooding the sports blogosphere with their predictions of how the top twenty would eventually be ranked—all of which have Green Bay ranked as first. Most of these lists with Green Bay at first have Los Angeles ranked somewhere between five and ten. This is understandable as the Green Bay fans, bitter over the fact that they have finally been called out on this, are simply trying to discredit the city that has the truly has the right to claim the name “TitleTown USA.” But, what is most disturbing is the lack of support for Los Angeles to claim the title and even more so, the poor reasons given for Los Angeles to claim the title by those supporting the city.

Now, if you know me at all, you know I am quite possibly the biggest homer ever born. The San Francisco 49ers are the only one of my teams that is not from Los Angeles. Yes, I know I come dangerously to close to committing a mortal sin in the sports world by rooting for a Bay Area team while being from Southern California but my reasoning is simple. When the Rams left Los Angeles (really Anaheim) like the feckless wimps that they are, I shifted my alliance not only to their rivals but to a team with family connections (I have family members in the Bay Area who are huge 49ers fans). That being said, I now offer my completely biased (no that is not a typo I meant biased) opinion as to why Los Angeles truly is TitleTown USA. Granted, it shouldn’t be hard considering almost three-quarters of the top twenty teams are one-team-towns.

(I think I’m going to have to start with the most obvious reasons and then work my way down the list.)

Clearly, the most obvious reason why Los Angeles is TitleTown USA is UCLA. UCLA has won more NCAA team championships than any other collegiate team with 103. While cynics are quick to point out that this count does not include football since the NCAA does not officially grant the football championship trophy, UCLA still has more than any other team, still is the first team to 100, and their count goes up to 104 (UCLA shared the title with Ohio State in 1954, finishing first in the Coaches’ Poll) if you do add football to the totals,. But let’s break down that number a little to show UCLA’s dominance in some of the individual sports. First and foremost is Men’s Basketball; with eleven titles, it is clearly the most successful program in the history of the sport. Ten of those titles came in a twelve year span and seven were won consecutively. The mastermind behind those titles, John Wooden, is widely considered the best coach ever in any sport (even by USC head football coach, Pete Carroll). The program also produced the two best men’s college basketball players ever in Lewis Alcindor (a.k.a. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) and Bill Walton. But basketball is not the only sport that UCLA has dominated over the years, they have won 19 Men’s Volleyball NCAA titles (in fact in the 39 years that the NCAA has awarded a title in Men’s Volleyball, LA or LA-area teams have won the title 30 times—Pepperdine 5, USC 4, Long Beach State 1, and UCI 1). UCLA has also dominated in Softball with ten titles, Track and Field with eleven titles, Men’s Tennis with sixteen titles, Men’s Water Polo with eight, and Women’s Gymnastics with five in the last eleven years. Furthermore, UCLA has sent more athletes to the Summer Olympics than any other school in the country.

As much as it pains me to say it, the second most obvious reason for Los Angeles to win the title is that school downtown, USC. Please keep in mind that as I write about this school’s athletic success I am dying a little bit inside. Only two college football program have more national title’s than USC in the modern era and neither of them have won a title in the last fifteen years (two more teams have won more titles if you include the pre-modern era but neither of those teams have one since 1927). USC is also tied for most Heisman Trophies won with seven being taken home by their players. However, like UCLA, USC’s dominance is not limited to one sport alone. In all, USC has amounted 88 NCAA National Championships and 97 if you include football. Prior to UCLA’s dominance in Track and Field, USC won 26 titles. They also accumulated twelve titles in Baseball (eleven under coach Rod Dedeaux) and seventeen titles in Men’s Tennis. While no school has more Summer Olympic athletes than UCLA, no school’s athletes and former athletes have come home with more Olympic gold than USC.

On the professional side of things, you can’t think of the NBA without thinking of the Lakers. They have appeared in the NBA Finals more than any other team (29 times, 23 in Los Angeles) and have won the second most championships (14, 9 in Los Angeles, second only to Boston). Over the years, the Lakers have shown what it means to have a dominant center down low, starting with George Mikan in Minneapolis and continuing with Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabar, and Shaquille O’Neal in LA. Jerry West was Mr. Clutch, Magic Johnson created Showtime, and Kobe Bryant proved himself as one of the greatest guards of all time in Los Angeles. But nothing tops perhaps the most beloved member of the Lakers Family, the voice of Chick Hearn, the greatest basketball broadcaster of all-time who coined terms like “no harm, no foul,” “brick,” “he throws up a prayer,” “triple-double,” and “Slam Dunk.”

As far as baseball goes, Los Angeles has two teams (well only sort of, but the Angels started off as the Los Angeles Angels and right now are called the Los Angels so who cares what they were called when they won their World Series title in 2002). Regardless, since the Yankees fall from absolute power at the turn of the century, the only other consistent threats to win the pennant in the American League have been the Red Sox and Angels. And when you think of the greatest AL-NL rivalry in baseball, you immediately think of Yankees-Dodgers. Sure, it’s a carry over from the Dodgers’ days in Brooklyn but there still is no team in baseball I hate more than the Yankees. In addition, the Dodgers have been the World Series more than any other National League Team and are fifth on the list of most World Series titles with six (five in LA). One of the greatest moments in modern baseball history is Kurt Gibson’s walk-off homerun in Game 1 of the 1998 World Series, only the Dodgers broke their own record of four straight Rookies of the Year between 1979 and 1982 by getting five between 1992 and 1996, and only the Dodgers have Vin Scully to call their games.

Now for the miscellaneous reasons:

No other city has a cross-town rivalry as intense and heated as the rivalry between UCLA and USC.

As for past championships, Los Angeles actually is home to two Super Bowl titles since the Raiders won two of their titles while in Los Angeles.

Los Angeles is one of only two cities to host the modern Summer Olympics twice. In 1932, Los Angeles was the first city to create an “Olympic Village” for the athletes and in 1984 Peter Ueberroth and the organizing committee pulled off the most successful Summer Olympics ever.

Hockey has somehow managed to thrive in Los Angeles and hosted Wayne Gretzky as a King for most of his career. Plus, the Anaheim Ducks (an LA-area team) brought the West Coast its first Stanley Cup ever.

The Galaxy, in addition to winning the MLS twice, have rejuvenated professional soccer in this country by signing David Beckham.

And finally, because you knew I had to somehow shamelessly pull LMU into this argument, perhaps no other team has been a “champion of people’s hearts” quite as much as the 1989-1990 LMU Lion’s Men’s Basketball Team, led by Bo Kimble, as they defied all odds and marched into the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament after Hank Gathers, their captain and teammate, died suddenly during a game just weeks before.