Barack Around the Clock Everyone's talking about Barack Obama, now that he's formed a presidential exploratory committee and all but said that he's running for president. Could he beat Hillary? Does he have enough experience? It's a little weird that he smokes, isn't it?

Of course, now that the media has built him up, it will now proceed to nibble away at him. E.g.: In the Boston Globe, Joan Vennocchi points out that, though often compared to JFK, Barack Obama is no JFK.

I'm not ready to climb aboard the Obama bandwagon. New is nice, but in perilous times, new is not enough. Neither is hope, the other underpinning of Obama's nascent presidential campaign.While Obama has a good model to follow, he has a way to go before he deserves billing as the next JFK.

And thus is conventional wisdom made.

Of course, Barama has never compared himself to JFK—not that I know of, anyway—and seems too modest a person ever to do that. Wouldn't it be nice if we could drop the JFK paradigm—come on, Boomers, let it go—and consider the man on his own terms?  ¶ 8:07 AM