Barack Obama tried to do for race
what John F. Kennedy did for religion.
The Democratic presidential hopeful yesterday attempted in
Philadelphia to quell a firestorm set off by incendiary sermons
made in past years by his former pastor and adviser, and to
challenge Americans to transcend racial prejudices.
While the speech Obama delivered is unlikely to win over
those who oppose his candidacy because of his race, it may serve
a similar purpose as Kennedy's address to Protestant ministers
in Houston in 1960 -- dispelling concerns among some voters
about his core beliefs, analysts and historians said.
``The parallels with Kennedy instantly came to mind,'' said
political scientist Stephen Hess of the Washington-based
Brookings Institution who was a speechwriter for President
Dwight Eisenhower.
Race is ``in some ways a far more significant issue than
Catholicism was for JFK,'' agreed Hess. ``We fought a Civil War
over this one. This was a much more complicated message.''
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