The Campaign: Reagan v. Kennedy Legacies

They are the political embodiment of the legendary feuding Hatfields and McCoys, and their legacies are being played out in this year's presidential campaigns.

Since their first debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley last year, Republican candidates have all sought to invoke Reagan, referring reverently to the late president.

Meanwhile, the talk of change being championed by Democratic candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton harkens back to John F. Kennedy's vows to change the era with the "Let's get America moving again" slogan in 1960.

"We're in a very odd period of American history, and I think what it indicates is that we really don't know what direction we're going here," said Raphael Sonenshein, professor of government at California State University, Fullerton.

"It's funny, but it suddenly seems to be this resurgence of `I'm in the mold of.' I haven't seen this much of it ever in a campaign."

And the trend is certain to continue as California moves toward its Tuesday primary, with Republicans debating Wednesday night at the Reagan Library and Democrats holding their own debate tonight at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood.

Last week, Obama went so far as to mention Reagan himself and incurred the wrath of Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, for invoking a name that is anathema in traditional Democratic circles.

The incident underscores the fervor with which each party is trying to identify with Reagan and the Kennedys and how they will bitterly renounce any acceptance of the other.

"Is there ever any rationale for this type of feuding in politics?" said Carole Lieberman, a Beverly Hills psychiatrist whose latest book is on international politics and terrorism.

Past touches voters    

Yet it's the political fighting and rhetoric - politicians enveloping themselves in the mantles of popular past presidents and leaders - that often poignantly touches voters.

"One of the reasons I love Obama so much is that he reminds me of the optimism that President Kennedy and Bobby Kennedy used to arouse in me," said Peter Rothenberg of Northridge, one of the leaders of the Obama campaign in the San Fernando Valley.

"People really engaged and see him as a different kind of politician than what we've had."    

The similarities aren't lost on the Kennedys themselves. JFK's daughter, Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, and her uncle, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, the slain president's brother, endorsed Obama this week.

Younger Obama supporters such as Sandra Cuneo of North Hollywood - who weren't even born yet during the Kennedy years - are hearing of the similarities.

"My mom tells me he reminds her of John F. Kennedy," Cuneo said.    

"It's very strategic on the part of Obama to be running as Camelot, an idealist, patterning his campaign after the way JFK ran his, calling for change," said Jaime Regalado, executive director of the Edmund G. "Pat" Brown Institute at California State University, Los Angeles.

"It appeals to both the young and the old. It's smart strategy."    

Alluding to Kennedys    

In the most recent debate, Obama quoted from Kennedy's inaugural address - "Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate" - to justify why he would talk to such U.S. foreign critics as the leaders of Venezuela, Cuba, Iran and North Korea.

Clinton's own speeches have often alluded to the Kennedys, and she also is running with Kennedy backing, including that of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Political experts say that not only is the extent of the candidates' posturing with historical heroes unprecedented but it raises questions about the state of politics and the country today.

"Maybe it's a function of both parties for the first time in God knows how long having genuinely competitive open races that are going to wind up defining the nature of (each) party," Sonenshein said.

"There's no obvious successor in either party. I can't remember the last time that's been true. People seem to be grounding themselves in these historical figures, and it's very treacherous ground."

And all the political channeling for past political icons has left experts wondering where it will end.    

"If you really want to push this farther, (President George W.) Bush has been comparing himself again and again to historical figures trying to find some grounding for his policies," Sonenshein said.

"I don't think it's working too well, but he's Truman one day, he's misunderstood like Lincoln another day.    

"My guess is when that happens a lot, when everybody is talking about somebody else from the past, that it means that we are really unsure about where we are right now."