
Images of passing the torch can be stirring.
John F. Kennedy reached heights of inaugural oratory in 1961 when he declared that "the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans." Three decades later, when Bill Clinton won the presidency, a Newsweek headline proclaimed "THE TORCH PASSES." The article underneath glorified "a film clip that made its way into a widely seen campaign ad: a beaming, 16-year-old Bill Clinton on a sun-drenched White House lawn, shaking the hand of his and his generation's idol, John F. Kennedy."