<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR>Jan 18, 2009
</TR><!-- headline one : start --><TR>The Obama mystique <!--10 min-->
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><!-- Author --><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Paul Zach, US Bureau
</TD></TR><!-- show image if available --><TR vAlign=bottom><TD width=330>
</TD><TD width=10>
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"-->Cleveland (Ohio) - The United States is in the grip of one of the worst economic crises in memory, but the mood in the country is upbeat this weekend, just days before Mr Barack Obama is sworn in as its 44th president.
Indeed, the US has not been as excited about a new leader since Mr John F. Kennedy was sworn in nearly 50 years ago.
'I'm glad Obama won,' my ultra-conservative, die-hard Republican financial planner told me recently. 'I couldn't vote for him, but I'm glad he won.'
An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll released last Thursday showed some 77 per cent of Americans felt positive about Mr Obama, and only 14 per cent, negative.
Indeed, it may be my imagination but more cars seem to have sprouted 'Obama For President' bumper stickers since the election ended.
One house a few blocks from my home in the staunch Republican suburb of Cleveland still has its lorry-size 'Obama For President' sign on its lawn.
Mr Obama's face is everywhere. Shelves at Wal-Mart and Target as well as book stores are filled with all manner of special commemorative magazines, books and coffee-table tomes about his life and accomplishments.
TV and radio commercials and newspapers are running advertisements ad infinitum for 'limited edition' Obama plates, coins and other collectibles.
'If you call right now, you'll receive this brand-new, uncirculated, Barack Obama half dollar, absolutely free of charge as a bonus!' one is saying, even as I write this.
Topps, known for its lines of baseball cards, has issued a set of 90 Inaugural Edition President Obama trading cards. There are also Obama comic books, action figures, bobbleheads, yo-yos, piggy banks, toilet paper and sex toys.
One enterprising American, Mr Bahman Shafa, has even opened an Inauguration Superstore in Washington.
Fashion designers also predict that the new First Lady will have an impact on their industry. Outfits worn by Mrs Michelle Obama are already being snapped up as soon as they hit shops.
The buzz all bears striking similarities to Mr Kennedy's inauguration on Jan 20, 1961.
Although I was still one day short of my 10th birthday then, I vividly remember how JFK's youth, good looks and attractive family fired the country's imagination.
It was a time when children like me were scared to death by the 'duck and cover' drills we did in primary school in the event of a nuclear attack on the US by Russia - as if they would help.
I was in fourth grade at St Mary's of Czestochowa Catholic School in Cleveland, but even our parents felt that if anybody could save us from any threat to our future, it was Mr Kennedy.
Now with America's children facing financial catastrophe, Mr Obama's hopeful messages and visage are resonating. Even Obama music samples JFK's.
Frank Sinatra cut a special recording of High Hopes from the blue-eyed singer's 1959 movie, A Hole In The Head.
'Everyone is voting for Jack/ 'Cause he's got what all the rest lack... 'Cause he's got High Hopes...' it went.
That notion - and JFK himself - was invoked by Will I Am in his rap song for Obama, 'Yes We Can'.
At 43, Mr Kennedy was the youngest president ever. Mr Obama is only four years older.
Mr Kennedy's wife, Jacqueline, or 'Jackie', kick-started the fashion revolution of the 60s. Michelle is already ignitinf g one oher own.
The Kennedy kids - Caroline, who was four at the time her dad became president, and one-year-old 'John-John' - were the youngest to move into the White House. The Obama daughters - Malia, 10 and Sasha, seven - will be the youngest to move in since them.
JFK was the first Roman Catholic elected president. That thrilled us Polish Catholic school students and families to no end.
Our fourth grade nun even let us watch his inauguration live in black-and-white on a TV in class that Friday morning, 48 years ago.
Likewise, schools in the primarily African-American inner city of Cleveland are putting TVs in their classrooms so students can watch Mr Obama sworn in on Tuesday - in colour of course.
What really remains in the minds of those of us who were young when JFK became president was his inaugural speech. Many of the words he spoke that day have entered American lore.
'Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans...' he began.
'And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country,' he ended.
On Tuesday, the words of Mr Obama - who's as mesmerising a speaker as Mr Kennedy - will also go down in American history books.
As The Washington Post noted on its front page on my 10th birthday in 1961: 'Eloquence, pageantry mark historic transfer of nation's leadership'. If you could see my face, I am sure you would notice a childlike gleam in my eye as I read the front pages of newspapers when I turn 58 on Wednesday.
</TR><!-- headline one : start --><TR>The Obama mystique <!--10 min-->
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><!-- Author --><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Paul Zach, US Bureau
</TD></TR><!-- show image if available --><TR vAlign=bottom><TD width=330>
</TD><TD width=10>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"-->Cleveland (Ohio) - The United States is in the grip of one of the worst economic crises in memory, but the mood in the country is upbeat this weekend, just days before Mr Barack Obama is sworn in as its 44th president.
Indeed, the US has not been as excited about a new leader since Mr John F. Kennedy was sworn in nearly 50 years ago.
'I'm glad Obama won,' my ultra-conservative, die-hard Republican financial planner told me recently. 'I couldn't vote for him, but I'm glad he won.'
An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll released last Thursday showed some 77 per cent of Americans felt positive about Mr Obama, and only 14 per cent, negative.
Indeed, it may be my imagination but more cars seem to have sprouted 'Obama For President' bumper stickers since the election ended.
One house a few blocks from my home in the staunch Republican suburb of Cleveland still has its lorry-size 'Obama For President' sign on its lawn.
Mr Obama's face is everywhere. Shelves at Wal-Mart and Target as well as book stores are filled with all manner of special commemorative magazines, books and coffee-table tomes about his life and accomplishments.
TV and radio commercials and newspapers are running advertisements ad infinitum for 'limited edition' Obama plates, coins and other collectibles.
'If you call right now, you'll receive this brand-new, uncirculated, Barack Obama half dollar, absolutely free of charge as a bonus!' one is saying, even as I write this.
Topps, known for its lines of baseball cards, has issued a set of 90 Inaugural Edition President Obama trading cards. There are also Obama comic books, action figures, bobbleheads, yo-yos, piggy banks, toilet paper and sex toys.
One enterprising American, Mr Bahman Shafa, has even opened an Inauguration Superstore in Washington.
Fashion designers also predict that the new First Lady will have an impact on their industry. Outfits worn by Mrs Michelle Obama are already being snapped up as soon as they hit shops.
The buzz all bears striking similarities to Mr Kennedy's inauguration on Jan 20, 1961.
Although I was still one day short of my 10th birthday then, I vividly remember how JFK's youth, good looks and attractive family fired the country's imagination.
It was a time when children like me were scared to death by the 'duck and cover' drills we did in primary school in the event of a nuclear attack on the US by Russia - as if they would help.
I was in fourth grade at St Mary's of Czestochowa Catholic School in Cleveland, but even our parents felt that if anybody could save us from any threat to our future, it was Mr Kennedy.
Now with America's children facing financial catastrophe, Mr Obama's hopeful messages and visage are resonating. Even Obama music samples JFK's.
Frank Sinatra cut a special recording of High Hopes from the blue-eyed singer's 1959 movie, A Hole In The Head.
'Everyone is voting for Jack/ 'Cause he's got what all the rest lack... 'Cause he's got High Hopes...' it went.
That notion - and JFK himself - was invoked by Will I Am in his rap song for Obama, 'Yes We Can'.
At 43, Mr Kennedy was the youngest president ever. Mr Obama is only four years older.
Mr Kennedy's wife, Jacqueline, or 'Jackie', kick-started the fashion revolution of the 60s. Michelle is already ignitinf g one oher own.
The Kennedy kids - Caroline, who was four at the time her dad became president, and one-year-old 'John-John' - were the youngest to move into the White House. The Obama daughters - Malia, 10 and Sasha, seven - will be the youngest to move in since them.
JFK was the first Roman Catholic elected president. That thrilled us Polish Catholic school students and families to no end.
Our fourth grade nun even let us watch his inauguration live in black-and-white on a TV in class that Friday morning, 48 years ago.
Likewise, schools in the primarily African-American inner city of Cleveland are putting TVs in their classrooms so students can watch Mr Obama sworn in on Tuesday - in colour of course.
What really remains in the minds of those of us who were young when JFK became president was his inaugural speech. Many of the words he spoke that day have entered American lore.
'Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans...' he began.
'And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country,' he ended.
On Tuesday, the words of Mr Obama - who's as mesmerising a speaker as Mr Kennedy - will also go down in American history books.
As The Washington Post noted on its front page on my 10th birthday in 1961: 'Eloquence, pageantry mark historic transfer of nation's leadership'. If you could see my face, I am sure you would notice a childlike gleam in my eye as I read the front pages of newspapers when I turn 58 on Wednesday.
