Rush was fishing around for an explanation of why President O’Bama was in Ireland exporing his White roots. He connected it with U.S. politics but didn’t make the obvious connection (at least until I stopped listening).
President O’Bama said it clearly – that there are 10s of millions of people in the United States that claim Irish ancestory.
Now what recent U.S. President inspired an almost religious zealotry among Irish people in the United States around 1960 or so…..
JFK of course. I recall my father being deeply conflicted when voting in the 1960 presidential election. He had never voted Democrat in his entire life. He was a college graduate from Ohio State U who grew up in upstate NY where his dad owned a successful grocery store. He had a white-collar salaried job. Definitely not FDR material. But he was also a devout Roman Catholic and his entire family (both sides) had deep Irish roots that went back to the 1500’s. In the end he sided with the church. He came home that Tuesday night in November 1960 and confessed to my mom that he’d voted for Jack Kennedy and hoped he’d made the right choice.
Don’t expect history to repeat itself just because Obama sips a glass of Guinness. Irish-Americans have some advice for President O’Bama. In the now immortal words of Loyd Bentsen to Dan Quayle in the 1988 debates, “Senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy”.