For Obama, a Most Congenial Spot

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.