Barack Obama has long been compared to John F. Kennedy in the way he stirs and inspires a crowd. In his acceptance speech, he again brought to mind the eloquence and magnetism of JFK, even more than Martin Luther King Jr. on the anniversary of his “Dream” speech.

The fact that any political candidate could fill a professional football stadium, by itself, is extraordinary. He is, of course, the first candidate to stage his acceptance speech outside the convention hall since JFK in 1960. No other candidate could have pulled off this feat – getting people to spend hours getting into and staying at an event, no matter how historic, that isn’t a Super Bowl.

So how else is he like JFK? Let me count the ways, both good and bad.

I was struck by the similarity in a recent re-reading of David Halberstam’s The Best and the Brightest, his epic about the Vietnam War and the people in Kennedy’s administration. He writes that the 35^th president “paid great attention to style; style for him and for those around him came perilously close to substance. He did not like people who were messy and caused problems, nor did he like issues that were messy and caused problems.”

Obama has proved to be the most stylistic presidential candidate since Kennedy and has been criticized for not dealing more specifically with matters of substance.

Until Thursday night, the knock on Obama was for campaigning in generalities. Obama tried to fill in some of the gaps in his acceptance, but he largely used the speech to state his goals, what he would do. Yet unaddressed is how he will accomplish these goals, and we probably won’t know that until he gets into office.

Again, from Halberstam, writing about Kennedy: “He had, both as a congressman and senator, avoided attachment to particular programs, issues or causes.” That sounds like Obama, who has led on little legislation in the U.S. Senate. His runningmate Joe Biden cited his leadership on ethics reform.

JFK’s time was, of course, almost 50 years ago. Halbamstam writes: “With television emerging in American politics as the main arbiter of candidates, his looks were striking on the screen, and he was catapulted forwarding his career by his capacity to handle the new medium.”

Obama has mesmerized people who see him and hear his speeches. But he has drawn millions more who view his speeches on TV. Plus, he has shown his sophistication in handling the new medium of these times – the Internet and text messaging.

Kennedy was cool and above the fray. So is Obama. But like Kennedy, he knows who he is (though he spent some time figuring it out.) Halbamstam tells the story about someone asking Kennedy if he was exhausted by the campaign. He answered that he was not, but he felt sorry for Nixon, his opponent. Why?

Kennedy replied: “Because I know who I am and I don’t have to worry about adapting and changing. All I have to do at each stop is be myself. But Nixon doesn’t know who he is, and so each time he makes a speech he has to decide which Nixon he is, and that will be very exhausting.”

Obama’s appeal to young people has been likened to Kennedy, the father of the Peace Corps that attracted young people to public service. Obama has appealed to the idealism of the youth as probably no candidate since Kennedy.

A recent poll commissioned by Emily’s List shows Gen Y voters – aged 18 to 27 – are intensely and personally invested in this presidential election and women in this age group prefer Obama by an incredible 30-point margin (62 to 32 percent).

Finally, Obama’s laundry list of goals in his acceptance speech reminded of Camelot. Surely, if he does all he said he wanted to do, it will be Camelot. He vowed to cut taxes for working class families, end the war in Iraq, find Osama bin Laden, and break America’s dependence on Mideast oil within a decade – ambitious thinking reminiscent of Kennedy’s man-on-the-moon goals.

John McCain may chide Obama by calling him a celebrity, but it’s not bad for democracy to have a politician who stirs the dreams and aspirations of ordinary people and gives them hope – as Kennedy did. 

Some people feared Obama had peaked and wouldn’t be able to crank it up a notch at his acceptance speech, but he rose to the occasion.

Whether or not he wins this election, it could be 48 more years before we see a political candidate with this kind of star appeal.

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