Kennedy, Rockefeller, Romney and the 1960 Trashing of Wealth

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Wed, 2012-07-11 23:22 -- John Batchelor
Monday, July 9, 2012

OFA launches a familiar theme against the villainous plutocrat MR, restating for the five hundredth time that MR is rich rich from plundering the American working man and making deals with the Red China devils. Arrest the usual suspects. Reading over Theodore White's original "The Making of the President 1960," to gain clues as to what works and what doesn't with regard negative advertising on rich people. Sixty-two years ago, the oppo pace was morbidly slow, however the ambition and firepower was the same scale, with surprisingly young players. The White House was open, and the Democrats lined up to play daggers at each other, Stuart Symington, Hubert Humphrey, Lyndon Johnson, Jack Kennedy, all waiting to see if Adlai Stevenson would try again. Richard Nixon played his cards alone, watching to see how Nelson Rockefeller aimed to buy the nomination. No particular generalities work, however I concentrate here on how Symington and Humphrey both aimed to elbow aside Kennedy because of his youth, inexperience, silver spoon, arrogance, mysteriousness -- and that cranky bully of a father, Joe Kennedy. Nixon aimed to elbow aside Rocky by mentioning five million times that the nomination must be earned not purchased. The rich kid trashing worked with Rockey and failed with Kennedy, and we know the end of the tale, both Kennedy and Nixon became troubled presidents; and Rockefeller because a troubled vice-president to an unelected president (Ford). Strange days. What I take from this faraway fairy tale of 1960, is that the American voters will not toss aside a rich kid. They will find a way to use him or her. OFA is counting on branding Romney as a villain entirely on the basis of his earned wealth. It would be an easier sell if Romney had inherited, like Rockefeller and Kennedy. The earned part of Romney's legend may be a sticking point for the OFA game.