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Peering into life of a future president

By J. FRANK LYNCH
jflynch@theCitizenNews.com

As you read this, a future leader of the free world is kicking a ball around on a soccer field, taking a piano lesson from the lady down the street or sweating it out on a high school algebra test.

Somewhere in America right now is a little boy or girl who someday will grow up to be president of the United States. What influences are at work in his or her life today that will ultimately lead them down the road to greatness?

That’s the compelling premise behind a new fall TV series on the WB network, “Jack & Bobby,” which airs Sundays at 9 p.m.

It premiered to rave reviews (a rarity for the WB) and after two weeks, I admit I’m hooked as well.

Don’t let the name fool you into thinking this is some pseudo-biographical take on the Kennedy family. Far from it. The names of the two McCallister brothers at the center of the story, 16-year-old Jack and 13-year-old Bobby, provide irony but nothing more, as explained in the first episode.

In fact, a lot is explained in the first episode to set up this present-day story and make us believe that one of the two brothers will grow up and be elected president in 2040.

It’s done with a series of “flash-aheads” to the year 2049, when we presume President McCallister has just completed his second term in the White House. Sharing intimate knowledge documentary-style of the rise of President McCallister are talking heads including a childhood friend, chief of staff, campaign director, vice president and former first lady (who appears in the present-day scenes as well).

The boys’ single mom is a professor at a small Missouri college, where her beyond-the-left political leanings and propensity to smoke weed on a regular basis rub both her sons the wrong way.

In a scene in the second episode, Professor McCallister (played by Christine Lahti) is hosting a meeting of the college Democrats in her home. The camera is concentrated on a young Bobby loading himself down with Kerry-Edwards campaign buttons.

When mom pulls out the pot and starts passing it around to the impressionable college students, the older son Jack races downstairs and orders them all out of the house, then gives his mother a proper tongue-lashing.

That’s the kind of setup the creators of “Jack & Bobby” had in mind when exploring the question: What external forces, starting at a young age, lead someone to make the kinds of decisions that will benefit or hurt them later on in their adult lives?

Clearly, part of the attraction to “Jack & Bobby” is the drama involving this year’s presidential race, particularly the questions surrounding the military service of George W. Bush and John Kerry.

What “Jack & Bobby” suggests, and I think it’s true, is that few people who end up getting elected president actually think that’s such a possibility that they live their lives a certain way from an early age.

George W. Bush came from a life of wealth and political privilege but it didn’t keep him from drinking to the point of alcoholism or dabbling in cocaine and other drugs.

And whatever the circumstances surrounding his service in the National Guard, it’s a certainty that the long-shot chance he’d be elected president one day wasn’t a consideration in his actions.

Similarly, John Kerry also lived a charmed life. But he likely didn’t have his eyes on the White House 35 years ago when he did or did not pursue a Purple Heart after he did or did not receive a self-inflicted wound.

And there was no way Kerry could have known that his service commanding a swift boat in the jungles of Vietnam — as well as his relationship with the men in his command — would be such an issue in 2004.

In both cases, do the actions of two men in their formative years, and especially more than three decades ago during Vietnam, really matter in the present day?

After two episodes, “Jack & Bobby” suggests yes — and no. Some things matter enormously; other seemingly important occurrences in life ultimately prove inconsequential. The truth is there’s no way of knowing.

Should “Jack & Bobby” enjoy a lengthy run on WB, part of the intrigue over the course of the series will be seeing how those influences play out, pro or con, in the life of our young future president.

It may be fiction, but “Jack & Bobby” offers some real-life lessons this political season.