After Liberal Democrats' leader Nick Clegg's successful appearance in the first candidates' debate earlier this week in the British National Election campaign, some sources began comparing him to Barack Obama and the message for hope that he delivered in winning the 2008 presidential election.

In a paradigm analysis the comparison between the youthful and highly articulate Lib Dem leader and John F. Kennedy's 1960 presidential election over Richard M. Nixon may be more accurate.  

Senator Kennedy as the race's underdog surged to victory based on his telegenic edge over Vice President Nixon, who unwisely spurned the advice of  Republican incumbent Dwight D. Eisenhower to pass up the debates, which gave the youthful Democratic nominee a chance to showcase his platform for change to a national audience getting acquainted with him for the first time.

In the case of Nixon, who was actually only four years older than the more youthful appearing Kennedy, he had become internationally known as Eisenhower's vice president.  Nixon had received vast international media attention for his "Kitchen Debate" with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev in Moscow just one year earlier.  

Democrats are not pefect...and no Democrat would ever say they were. But Democrats are the political force that, more than any other, has moved this nation forward since the 1930's. Economic fairness, education, civil rights, the dignity of the working many, populism, progressivism, these have all been DEMOCRATIC values since the 1930's. And largely remain Democratic values despite intraparty infighting, political ups and downs, and despite all the attempts of Greens and Republicans to paint our party differently.

Where Democrats too often fail is not, as the Greens and Republicans would have it, in lacking ideas. The Democratic Party has been, for 70 years now, the primary source of new ideas for American politics even while Republicans simply try to restore pre-1930's ideas over and over again no matter how often they fail. Where Democrats too often fail is in having a lack of good leadership from within. But when that leadership emerges, great ideas and great policies often result.

This is not about conspiracy theories, assassinations or JFK's death.  This is about his life---in particular, two days in his last year of life that I remember as the high points of his presidency, especially in terms of the future---our future, and beyond.

He is remembered by a single soundbite from his elegant Inaugural (that gets ever briefer each time---an entire generation may now believe that all he said was two words, "Ask not.") Historians may rightly point to the Berlin crisis in 1961 and especially the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.

But on this anniversary of his death, I want to highlight two consecutive days in June 1963.  They stand out on this day in particular because it seems to me, if somehow JFK had learned he had one year to live, he would have done pretty much what he did throughout 1963, and these two summer days would be the summer of his life and legacy.