Kennedy abandoned pursuit of presidency after '80 campaign? Not so

Among the revisionist myths aired after Ted Kennedy's death, one that comes around frequently -- that after Kennedy's disastrous run for president in 1980, he gave up his dream of restoring Camelot at the White House and focused on becoming a great legislator in the Senate. Two examples of why this isn't true --

First, from the "People" column of Time magazine, Feb. 2, 1981, of Ted and Joan Kennedy announcing plans to divorce. Note the timing of the announcement --

With the exception of Rose Kennedy, 90, who was informed early Wednesday, and a few intimates, no one expected the announcement they were to issue 24 hours after Ronald Reagan took office. ...

... Clearly with an eye toward the '84 campaign, with Kennedy wasting no time shedding what he perceived as baggage.

Even after Kennedy decided against challenging Reagan in 1984, speculation continued that he would seek the presidency a second time, in 1988, until Kennedy announced otherwise in December 1985. As reported by the Associated Press on Dec. 20 that year --

BOSTON -- Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's much heralded bid for the presidency ended before it began with the leading Democrat's surprise announcement that he will not be a candidate for the White House in 1988.

"I know that this decision means that I may never be president, but the pursuit of the presidency is not my life. Public service is," Kennedy said in an unusual, paid political announcement televised Thursday evening in his home state of Massachusetts. ...

Rest in peace, Senator Kennedy

Didn't agree with his politics but interviewed the man several times over the years, mainly during my time as political reporter at the Cape Cod Times, and he was invariably gracious. He will probably always loom large to me if for no other reason than being the brother of JFK, my boyhood hero.

At left, a photo I took of Kennedy in April 2003, meeting with the troops at Otis Air National Guard Base on Cape Cod a few weeks after the outbreak of war in Iraq.

Report: Kennedy's cancer not in remission

Looks like Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was prematurely optimistic about the prospects of his ailing colleague, according to a story in Tuesday's Cape Cod Times --

U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy's office says a report that the Massachusetts Democrat's brain tumor has gone into remission and he is returning to the Senate full time next month is unfounded.

A Boston staffer who did not wish to be named for this story said the senator continues to balance a treatment regimen with work, adding that his schedule is determined on a day-to-day basis.

A Washington, D.C., publication, The Hill, reported yesterday that Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Kennedy's brain cancer is in remission and he would return to the Senate full time in early June.

Once again, Caroline has dropped out

So says The Daily Beast after a night of conflicting news

Update, to add snarky comment -- Caroline we hardly knew ye

Caroline Kennedy withdraws from consideration for NY Senate seat

... as reported by the Daily News. Not surprised it all, her heart wasn't in it.

Report: Caroline Kennedy mulling NY Senate seat

This according to The Note from ABC News --

Another Senator Kennedy? The crazy speculation about Hillary Clinton's Senate seat may not be so crazy after all. A Democrat who would know tells ABC News that New York governor David Paterson has talked to Caroline Kennedy about taking the seat, which was once held by her uncle, Robert F. Kennedy. It’s not exactly shocking that Paterson would reach out to one of the most highly respected public figures in New York, but this is: Sources say Kennedy is considering it, and has not ruled out coming to Washington to replace Hillary Clinton in the Senate.

A few years ago, the famously private Caroline Kennedy would be the last Kennedy expected to serve in Congress, but of course, she took on a much more high-profile role during the presidential campaign and, if she does it, would be more than New York’s junior Senator; she’d have closer ties to the Obama White House than any of her colleagues, a direct line to the East Wing.

When Robert Kennedy, Jr. took himself out of the running for the seat earlier this week, he told Jonathan Hicks of the New York Times, “Caroline Kennedy would be the perfect choice if she would agree to it.” And one more thing: We hear that President-elect Obama has made it clear that he thinks Caroline Kennedy would be a great choice.

If this actually happens, I wouldn't be surprised. Caroline Kennedy is the Kennedys' last hope, at least when it comes to politics.

Of politicians and perfection

From last night's "60 Minutes" segment on Mitt Romney, as reported by Mike Wallace --

Wallace: "The rap on you, of course, is that you are too smooth, too handsome, too polished. Are you really known as 'Matinee Mitt' ...?"
Romney: "That's the rap on you, Mike ..."
Wallace: "No, no, no ..."
Romney: "... Too smooth, too polished ..."

Then, as to be expected, the rapid-fire edit away from the conversation before the inevitable smile from Romney to show he was having a little fun at Wallace's expense. When I first saw the exchange in the previews that open the show, I thought Romney was criticizing the media, as epitomized by Wallace. It wasn't until I watched the actual segment that I realized Romney was being irreverent, just as he'd done when Jay Leno posed a similar question on "The Tonight Show."

The "too smooth, too polished, too handsome" rap could also be leveled at another presidential contender from Massachusetts, albeit one from decades ago -- John F. Kennedy. Difference being, Kennedy was a Democrat, though I doubt he'd be one today.

Smooth, polished and handsome isn't acceptable in actual politicians running for president, only for a long-dead icon who provided the template.

Unacknowledged birth of punk rock

First encountered this awesome photoshop revisionism of "Sparky" Ruby's decision to off Oswald on national TV in a Missouri poster shop several years ago, but held off due to its steep $10 price tag.

Tip of the hat to fellow Bay State blogger at wavemaker for this one, and for pointing out that the graffiti on the wall behind Oswald was the emblem for the punk band Dead Kennedys.

Yeah, and it cost him a PT boat

John F. Kennedy "believed that the use of military force should be a last resort" -- excerpt from a March 2 op-ed in the Boston Globe by Graham Allison, director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and author of "Nuclear Terrorism: The Ultimate Preventable Disaster."

The last Kennedy willing to fight

... the USS John F. Kennedy arrives in Boston yesterday for its final port call on the hometown of its namesake -- great photo on the front page of today's Boston Globe.

History lesson for Patrick Kennedy

... the headline of an op-ed of mine running in yesterday's Providence Journal and found by following this link ...

In recent remarks on Iraq from the floor of the House, Kennedy quoted his uncle, the late Robert F. Kennedy, in criticizing Lyndon Johnson's handling of the Vietnam War. Fair enough -- until Kennedy claimed that from March 1968, when RFK make the remarks later cited by his nephew, another five years would pass "before an American president" began withdrawing US troops from Vietnam.

But as I point out in the op-ed, Johnson's successor, Richard Nixon, didn't wait five years to start pulling American troops out of Vietnam -- he waited five months.