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Urbane, a gifted speaker, and a man who seems to light up the room with his classy wife and great looking children, Barack Obama could be the black and white version of John F. Kennedy. Unlike Kennedy, Obama's electoral mandate is overwhelming. (Kennedy's critics claim that his father, Joseph, bought the election, and Cook County, Illinois, voter fraud may have also turned the election to JFK.) In any case, both men, Obama and JFK, engender an almost cult-like following.

In the end, it could be said that JFK's legacy was saved by his assassination and elevation to mythic martyrdom. His 1,000 days were characterized by an adoring press, an international love affair with the gorgeous Jackie and a public who could not get enough ofJFK's charming ways. As a chief of state, however, JFK fared none too well. He was more or less a passive observer to Rev. King's march on Washington, and his domestic program would be the pride of any modern Republican. In foreign affairs, he nearly started a nuclear war with the Soviet Union.

What has JFK's legacy to do with Barack Obama? The similarities between the two are obvious. Both embody a somewhat idealistic (some would say naive) view of American politics. JFK rode into office after eight years of a Republican administration that seemed to have burned itself out.Obama , like JFK, was ran a campaign based on the promise of change. More importantly, however, was their appeal to the emotional notion that a new generation of leaders could actually change a moribund and money-driven political system in a vast and diverse republic, the United States of America.

It does not now (nor did it back in Kennedy's time) seem to matter that our country is somewhat impervious to change. My generation began to mature with the hope and promise of John F. Kennedy. Kennedy was more like a prince than a politician. His wife and family were the closest we would ever get to an actual royal family. His inauguration speech was the most thrilling and hopeful that Americans had heard since FDR. JFK began his presidency seemingly above the bickering and political deals, until his political fence-mending visit to Dallas that day in 1963 ended my generation's swoon in Camelot and gave us LBJ, Vietnam and the voter's rejection of Democrats that resulted in Richard M. Nixon.

So how will Obama's astonishing honeymoon with the press, the American electorate, and public opinion overseas affect everyone's view of the American presidency? Will it be business as

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