Echoes

This past weekend at my parents' house, I was happily surprised to stumble upon an autographed copy of The Best And The Brightest by David Halberstam in one of the bookshelves. A classic, I can't offer up enough praise of the book, and any attempt would just make me look like the giddy-eyed political n00b I already am.

I decided then and there to reread the book, mainly because: 1) it's always a good idea for an aspiring political writer to return to the greats that came before his time and 2) I have vague memories of the book (it's been 5 years), and I want to confirm/debunk my niggling suspicion that the stories within (a young JFK and his staff interacting with D.C.-establishment-types in re: Vietnam) will have a lot to say about the current state of the US.

Sure enough, on page 8 I found this passage in the opening chapter describing the first encounter between a nascent-national-star Kennedy and uber-insider-backroomer Robert Lovett:

One had a sense of the Establishment [represented by Lovett --ed.] in an election year being like a professional athletic scout watching a championship match, emotionally uninvolved with either competitor, waiting until it was over and then descending to the locker room of the winner, to sign him on, and to offer him the club's facilities -- in this case the trusted, respectable, sound men of the Establishment.

Sound familiar?

Democrat Barack Obama, who has pledged to include Republicans in his administration, already has his eyes on one: former General Colin Powell, who handed him a high-profile endorsement on Sunday.

"He will have a role as one of my advisers," Obama said this morning on NBC's "Today" show. "Whether he wants to take a formal role, whether that's a good fit for him, is something we'd have to discuss."

Hmm.