THE 77TH TROMBONE

In Meredith Willson's 1957 musical, "The Music Man," the lead character sings of the day when a group of famous bands marched through River City, Iowa, with 76 trombones.  Last week Iowa got its 77th, an Illinois senator who rewrote the words to the Clinton Salute.  So we have, at least until tomorrow's New Hampshire primary, a new Democratic front runner.    

Iowa, as all the reporters told us, isn't typical of the country.  Neither is New Hampshire, with its huddled masses yearning to breathe ski.  But these states get the vote train going, and spotlight the emerging leaders.  They also raise questions, and frankly, it's time to start asking them.  The headline is not that Barack Obama may be "the first."  That's the sub-head.  Jackie Robinson was the first, but we knew he could play superb ball.  The headline is that Obama may be president.  And what do we really know?  

Iowa made me think back to a year I often write about - 1960.  I was a student at The University of Chicago, and a campaign intern for Senator Paul H. Douglas, a national-defense Democrat in a time when they existed.   But, during the summer, I came east to be a camp counselor in upstate New York.  One night, when all were asleep, I squeezed a small radio to my ear and listened as the Wyoming delegation to the Democratic convention handed John F. Kennedy the votes to make him the party's nominee for president.  The next morning I told another counselor that Kennedy had won.  She replied, "For who?"

I've always remembered that reply.  "For who?"  Many today don't realize how controversial Kennedy was, how little enthusiasm he drew from many American precincts.  So, let's set the stage.  It's important because it applies to today.  Kennedy ran 15 years after the end of World War II.  There were men who'd clawed their way up Mount Suribachi, on Iwo Jima, who were only 33 years old in 1960 .  He'd been a lieutenant in that war.  The man he sought to replace as president, Dwight D. Eisenhower, had been a five-star general.  Kennedy had served 14 years in Congress, more than seven as a senator, but his record was not stellar.  He'd written a Pulitzer-prize-winning book, "Profiles in Courage."  He'd also written "Why England Slept," an analysis of failed British policy in the prelude to World War II.  The Cold War was raging.  Kennedy ran three years after the Soviet Union beat us into space with its first satellite, Sputnik.

Many worried openly about Kennedy, comparing him to the three presidents they'd known - Roosevelt, Truman and Eisenhower.  "Are you ready, senator?" was the question most asked.  It was prescient, for President Kennedy's first year in office was nearly disastrous.  It was marked by the Bay of Pigs, his failure to deal effectively with Soviet leader Khrushchev at a conference in Vienna, and, finally, by the construction of the Berlin Wall, which he was powerless to stop. 

Flash to today.  Barack Obama seeks the highest office at a time when America faces chilling threats, when another 9-11 looms, when the pace of science may soon place nuclear weapons in the hands of religious fanatics.  And yet, he has a twentieth the record and experience Kennedy had when Kennedy ran. And there were doubts about Kennedy.

Senator Obama is an inspiring figure.  He speaks grandly, and beautifully.  He's a pleasure to hear, as he talks about hope.  Well, hope is a fine word.  And phrases about "change" are equally fine. But we recall a comment by Douglas MacArthur about another turn of phrase that was popular at one time. "Whoever said the pen is mightier than the sword," MacArthur remarked, "obviously never encountered automatic weapons."

And that is the point.  So far, Barack Obama has proved more distinguished as a candidate than as an office holder.  And, so far, his campaign is more a religious crusade than a political program.  Hope will not stop nuclear weapons.  Change may be good, if it's spelled out.  But let us never forget that some of the "old ways" that the Barackians curse made this nation the most powerful on Earth.

There are also disturbing contradictions.  For a man who speaks of change, Obama's acquisition of Zbigniew Brzezinski, Jimmy Carter's national security sidekick, as a major foreign-policy adviser, hardly gives reason for cheer.

Some years ago C.P. Snow, the British writer, wrote of a humanistic culture and a scientific culture, and lamented that the two never spoke to each other.  I get very much that same sensation today.  Obama may become lord of the humanists, the hopers, the feelers and the touchers.  But the centrifuges spin in Iran, the Chinese navy expands, Russia is resurgent and arming.  Obama speaks magnificently about the audacity of hope.  What is needed now is a group of tough, politically incorrect reporters to nail him down on the complexity of competence.

Posted on January 7, 2008.