To date there have been only two non-Anglo-Saxon white men who were elected President: Eisenhower and JFK. Eisenhower was German. Since he had been the architect of victory in Europe it was impossible to hold his teutonicity against him. Moreover, his ethnicity was more Army Officer, (i.e. WASP) than anything else. It is impossible to visualize Eisenhower in lederhosen, gobbling bratwurst. The other exception, JFK, was nominally Irish Catholic, but he had the cool reserve of a WASP aristocrat. He simply was not Irish Catholic in the way of his father Joseph. Joseph was not pro-German so much as anti-English. Irishmen of that generation saw in Churchill not the face of Western democracy but of British Imperialism. The people of Britain despised Joseph Kennedy. JFK never disowned his father but his familial relation was left tactfully unmentioned during the campaign. Even so, Joseph caused him loss of support among liberals such as Eleanor Roosevelt. I am not a WASP and I cannot do a convincing imitation of one. Am I entitled to be as bitter and alienated as Nora Ephron?…….. Note to Obama: You are perhaps the WASPiest black man in public life today. Good idea. If Eisenhower had a Lutheran pastor who was active in the Bund prior to WWII, voters would have counted it against him. Ditto with JFK: if he had given speeches about all the crimes of British Imperialism, he would not have been President. To the extent that Obama can appear WASPy, he is credible as President. To the extent that Obama is a black man with all those grudges he loses credibility as a President.
