On the Scene

PRESIDENT CLINTON came here October 29 to visit one of the shrines of the Democratic Party, the John F. Kennedy Library, where a new museum was opening. The Kennedy family was using the occasion to further what is arguably the longest-running and most successful public-relations campaign in modern history—the creation and propagation of the legend of JFK. The new museum gives you an idea of why the Kennedy mystique has proved so enduring. There are two 230-seat theaters, and two smaller theaters. Laser discs are continuously spinning to display, among other things, a documentary on JFK’s youth and video presentations on everything from the KennedyNixon debates to presidential news conferences. “Seated in an open theater,” the press kit boasts, “visitors ‘attend’ the Inauguration of the 35th President of the United States, and see John F. Kennedy deliver his memorable and challenging Inaugural Address.” There are replicas of numerous places of importance in Kennedy’s career, including the Oval Office “just as it looked during President Kennedy’s televised address to the nation on June 11, 1963.”

So successful has the PR campaign been that the idea of President Kennedy’s greatness has become, in many quarters, non-controversial. Tom Brokaw, for example, was the master of ceremonies at the dedication. Brokaw, it is fair to say, would not be caught dead hosting a political fundraiser, or a testimonial to any other contemporary political figure. But for this occasion, he took the redeye back from Los Angeles, where he had been anchoring the NBC Nightly News from the scene of the California brushfires. It is in the nature of an MC’s job that Brokaw found himself introducing Representative Joseph Kennedy II as having “brought the same energy and the same commitment to the working class” of his congressional district as JFK had. He introduced Caroline Kennedy as “the daughter that every parent longed to have.” “Madam President,” he called her, a reference to her role as head of the JFK Library foundation. As for Senator Kennedy, Brokaw said he is “widely regarded as the Senate’s senator.”

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PRESIDENT CLINTON came here October 29 to visit one of the shrines of the Democratic Party, the John F. Kennedy Library, where a new museum was opening. The Kennedy family was using the occasion to further what is arguably the longest-running and most successful public-relations campaign in modern history—the creation and propagation of the legend of JFK. The new museum gives you an idea of why the Kennedy mystique has proved so enduring. There are two 230-seat theaters, and two smaller theaters. Laser discs are continuously spinning to display, among other things, a documentary on JFK’s youth and video presentations on everything from the KennedyNixon debates to presidential news conferences. “Seated in an open theater,” the press kit boasts, “visitors ‘attend’ the Inauguration of the 35th President of the United States, and see John F. Kennedy deliver his memorable and challenging Inaugural Address.” There are replicas of numerous places of importance in Kennedy’s career, including the Oval Office “just as it looked during President Kennedy’s televised address to the nation on June 11, 1963.”

So successful has the PR campaign been that the idea of President Kennedy’s greatness has become, in many quarters, non-controversial. Tom Brokaw, for example, was the master of ceremonies at the dedication. Brokaw, it is fair to say, would not be caught dead hosting a political fundraiser, or a testimonial to any other contemporary political figure. But for this occasion, he took the redeye back from Los Angeles, where he had been anchoring the NBC Nightly News from the scene of the California brushfires. It is in the nature of an MC’s job that Brokaw found himself introducing Representative Joseph Kennedy II as having “brought the same energy and the same commitment to the working class” of his congressional district as JFK had. He introduced Caroline Kennedy as “the daughter that every parent longed to have.” “Madam President,” he called her, a reference to her role as head of the JFK Library foundation. As for Senator Kennedy, Brokaw said he is “widely regarded as the Senate’s senator.”