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National Politics Thu Jun 11 2009
Who Hyped the Kennedys / Was it You? / it Wasn't Me...
It might be a function of my age, under 40 or my political perspective, Republican but I have never gotten the appeal of the Kennedy's today that much.
With Chris Kennedy planning to run for the Democratic nomination in Illinois we were treated to this thought from Rep. Pat Kennedy from RollCall
"A couple hundred grand to Barack and playing hoops on the court with Barack, and you weigh that political capital next to the endorsement of my family for Barack at the critical juncture for his campaign when he did," Rep. Kennedy said. "And to me, if that were a fight, they'd have to stop it because it's a slam dunk for the Kennedys."
What makes you think the President is going to spend any political capital on the Illinois Senate Primary? If you were him, would you?
But I guess the idea that the President owes you (if you are Alexi or a Kennedy) is kind of silly on it's face.
Are the Kennedy's really that relevant anymore? It's been 40+ years since 1968 and since then you have had Teddy with some awkward moments and a congressman here a Lt. Governor there and that's about it.
You could argue that the Bush's and the Clinton's have been much more successful political dynasties in terms of power if not popularity.
It seems that Chris Kennedy is counting at least in part on some star power from the family name and I suspect that will help him some. But in general Democratic Senate nominees in this state have had some elected office experience before nomination, Obama, Braun, Durbin all had some elective service under their belt.
You may like Alexi, you may not (again, I am not going to be voting in this primary) but he has had the advantage of some vetting. As we saw with both Blair Hull and Jack Ryan there is some advantage to that. Imagine how different history might be today if the stuff about Hull's or Ryan's divorces had come out at different times.
I think he is going to regret ever running, I know I will be entertained watching...
Agree totally / June 12, 2009 11:58 AM
Kennedys? Yawn. Can't wait for the Baby Boomers to die out so we can stop dealing with the detritus from their shitty coming-of-age decades.