Comment

It’s been a while since the word ‘Camelot’ was used in American politics. Camelot was the castle and court of the legendry King Arthur, who sent out his gallant knights to bravely fight for big-ticket ideals like honesty, truth, etc. But it wasn’t until the tragically short regime of President John F Kennedy that the aura of the Arthurian kingdom hovered over the White House.

And that mood hasn’t really been spotted since in the country. That is until earlier this week, when something halo-like was seen glowing over the short-cropped hair of Senator Obama.

It was almost as if the Kennedys were passing on the baton of the hallowed and charismatic president to the first-term Senator from Illinois.

The first salvo was fired in an emotional piece this Sunday in The New York Times by Caroline Kennedy — JFK’s daughter — called A President Like My Father.

The second salvo was the next day at a rally at the American University in Washington DC when both she and her uncle, Senator Edward Kennedy — a ‘Democrat icon’ — officially endorsed Senator Obama’s candidature for the Democratic Presidential nominee.

It was official: the two Kennedys (and yes, a third: Patrick, Edward Kennedy’s son, a representative of the House) gave the keys of Camelot to Obama.

Apparently the idea of Camelot and JFK was an epitaph on the Kennedy administration, conjured up after a remark made by Jackie Kennedy to historian Theodore White a few months after her husband’s assassination in 1963.

She told White that JFK often played the record of the Broadway musical Camelot, particularly the song Don’t let it be forgot, that once there was a spot, for one brief shining moment, that was known as Camelot.

While White’s article in Life magazine in 1963 started the whole Camelot analogy, that the ‘brief shining moment’ may indeed have been just a mere blink during the Kennedy Presidency. There were many downsides to it, like Vietnam, Bay of Pigs, and Marilyn Monroe.

White wrote in 1981, in his book, In Search of History: “the magic Camelot of John F Kennedy never existed”. But Kennedy raised key issues that are as, if not more valid today. According to White, JFK “posed for the first time the great question of the sixties and seventies: What kind of people are we Americans? What do we want to become?”

These questions are now being asked with even greater urgency by Americans these days. Perhaps, it has to do with the downbeat mood of this country.

The looming recession, falling dollar, quagmire in Iraq appear to have brought about a collective existential crisis of sorts. Even Hollywood seems to reflect this.

From the recent blockbuster post-apocalyptic, thriller I Am A Legend, starring Will Smith, to the latest box-office winner Cloverfield, about a monster destroying New York city, to Oscar nominees like There Will Be Blood and No Country For Old Men, the films are bleak.

It’s the right time for a latter-day Sir Galahad to come to the rescue, with hope and inspiration as his weapons and the mantra of change on his lips.

Senator Obama has obviously read the script. His words about unifying the country and the need for change have found resonance with the American youth and, of course, with the Kennedys. Some of his supporters see him like a black knight in shining armour. They have even coined the word ‘Obamlot’.

With all this, I couldn’t help thinking of our own ‘brief shining moment’ when Rajiv Gandhi, then just 41, became prime minister after a landslide victory.

People even began associating his ‘court’ (several of them public-school-educated) with Camelot. The moment passed of course, its passing speeded on by the Bofors scandal. But for a brief spell, this particular Gandhi’s youth, good looks and winning smile won people’s hearts.

Now we are seeing that mood in the US, where, come to think of it, JFK and Senator Obama share manyattributes, especially that million dollar smile.

Email: jain_madhu@hotmail.com