The media says Ted Kennedy handed the passkey to Camelot over to Barack Obama. Which made me wonder, why it wasn't passed to another Kennedy. I remembered today why this didn't happen: the lineage had to go through JFK. Caroline Kennedy never positioned herself as heir. However, her brother sort of, maybe, did. But John, with the striking initials (JFK, Jr.), died in 1999. He would have turned 48 in this year, would be older than Obama and lacking none of the charisma. Would he have been a presidential candidate this year? Probably not, unless he had sought some "office." Heading the now defunct George magazine would not have been sufficient to answer Hillary Clinton's mantra of 30+ years of "experience." But then, perhaps he would have run for the Senate (in New York state) in 2000 and Hillary and Bill would have moved to New Jersey to launch her carpet-bagging political career. However, this was not to be. Hence, yesterday Ted Kennedy outsourced the Kennedy legacy.
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Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton again affirmed the wisdom of Ted Kennedy's choice by indicating she will attempt to seat delegates from primaries in Michigan and Florida that she, Obama, and Edwards promised not to contest. This is a classic example of trying to win ugly. It is clear that for the Clintons, winning is everything. Obama should take note of this. The Clinton legacy should be put into play; he should attempt to divide the family by questioning her support for things that are not popular with the liberal base: NAFTA, "welfare reform," No Child Left Behind, The Defense of Marriage Act. If Bill can "Jesse Jackson" Obama, Obama can certainly raise the spectre of another Clinton presidency full of expediency and a rightward tilt (thereby masking Obama's own fairly centrist positions). In other words, if the former president is running against Obama, Obama should run against that president as hard as possible.
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photo credit: Corbis (Washington Post); Ted Kennedy and John Jr. in 1964
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