A Lion Departs

About 45 years ago, with JFK making his Presidential run, Ted Kennedy was in charge of the campaign in the western states. That was a fascinating campaign. It was the first campaign to exploit TV coverage. JFK was genuinely charismatic, cool, sure of himself and actually funny. The three Kennedy brothers were obviously intelligent and secure in their own persons, unlike the paranoid Richard Nixon, their opponent. As in Obama's last election, the Democrats had the support of young, who didn't buy into anti-Catholic rhetoric.

When Ted Kennedy barnstormed through Los Angeles and Orange Counties, I was given the unpaid job of driving his advance vehicle, a caliope, from site to site, helping to build a crowd for each of Ted Kennedy's arrivals. They crowds proved huge, and Ted fed on that. He was only a few years older than I was, maybe in his early thirties, handsome as the Devil, full of energy, rich and famous. He'd bound onto the stage surrounded by the beautiful young women--the sort who always accompanied Kennedys--we called "Kennedy girls." Then he'd give a rip-roaring speech that ended with a chant: "Let's put Jack in the White Shack!" The crowd would go nuts.

Ted Kennedy, the least of the brothers, soldiered on, his life on the line, after seeing Martin, Robert and John assassinated--deaths that altered the curve of American history, sending us Nixon, the Southern Strategy, and the rise of empty Presidents of no substance: Reagan and two Bushes. Ted Kennedy became a major factor in just about every piece of progressive legislation passed in forty years, pushing voting rights for Blacks and equal rights for gays and women. Right to the end he was the best voice the Democrats on the Left had. This would have been true at any time, but in fact Ted Kennedy has died just when we need him most.

So it goes. Ted Kennedy, well done.