Reagan, RFK e Obama

A primeira é com dedicatória especial para a Livia Borges (texto retirado daqui):

Watching Senator Barack Obama on Meet the Press last Sunday, I suddenly understood how so many people felt about Robert Kennedy in 1967 and 1968. Here is an enormously talented political figure with the capacity to inspire Americans and remind us of why America is the world's hope. Yet Obama, like Robert Kennedy in 1968, is a freshman senator for whom convention wisdom holds that a presidential run should be another cycle away. Many of Robert Kennedy's advisors pleaded for him to wait until 1972, when the field would be clear for him.

Robert Kennedy died before I was born, but he is my political hero because of his capacity for growth, because of his idealism, because of his toughness, and not the least because he chose to run for the presidency when it was difficult rather than preordained. He heeded the call to run at a time when our country was mired in an ill-conceived and and badly executed war.

RFK declared his candidacy at a time when Americans had come to distrust the words of the occupant of the Oval Office. And when Kennedy finally decided to run for the presidency, he chose to appeal to the better angels of America's nature.

Robert Kennedy famously quoted George Bernard Shaw: "Some men see things as they are and ask 'Why?' I dream things that never were and ask 'Why not?'"

Today I find myself hoping that Barack Obama will think of running for the presidency and say to himself, "Why not?"

A segunda uma afirmação de Obama sobre a influência e importância de Reagan na sociedade americana (texto retirado daqui):

But I think, when I think about great presidents, I think about those who transform how we think about ourselves as a country in fundamental ways so that, that, at the end of their tenure, we have looked and said to ours — that's who we are. And, and our, our — and for me at least, that means that we have a more expansive view of our democracy, that we've included more people into the bounty of this country. And, you know, there are circumstances in which, I would argue, Ronald Reagan was a very successful president, even though I did not agree with him on many issues, partly because at the end of his presidency, people, I think, said, "You know what? We can regain our greatness. Individual responsibility and personal responsibility are important." And they transformed the culture and not simply promoted one or two particular issues.

Tudo isto e muito mais no The Daily Dish de Andrew Sullivan.