The Torch Is….Past

20 January 2010 | By Sonja in Editorials, Health Care Reform, Politics, Sonja, Uncategorized

Where To Pass The Torch?

The more one looks at Martha Coakley, the more you have to wonder where were all the Massachusetts aspirants to the Kennedy Senate seat? Did the Democrats fall into the awful hole of delivering a favor to Coakley because it was her turn?

Obvious by their absence in the race were all of Ted Kennedy’s children, nieces and nephews. Not one of the multitude of Kennedy children or grandchildren was either scandal-free or desirous of carrying on the family dynasty, not even in their own home state. Patrick Kennedy stumped for Martha Coakley at the end of the campaign, but wasn’t invested in her candidacy enough to know her name! He called her Marsha not once, but three times at the same campaign rally. Joseph Kennedy II joined Teddy Kennedy’s wife in an endorsement, but he himself left politics because of uncomfortable public scrutiny. So how helpful was his support? Even with the presence of Kennedy’s widow and the endorsement of the Kennedy clan, Coakley couldn’t pull it out. You might want to measure for yourself the energy level the Kennedy’s brought to a Coakley endorsement in this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kL2pnNNm8M

Of course…who could blame them?

The reality of 2010?

In this election, the Kennedy legacy was old news to Massachusetts taxpayers. Even the state’s deep well of devoted union members proved that they cared more about their shrinking paychecks than tradition. In the early 1900’s the Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys could easily “manage” the outcome of a Boston or Massachusetts election. In 1960, historians are quite confident that Joe Kennedy insured the election of his son, John. Robert Kennedy and Ted Kennedy both enjoyed the boost of the Kennedy money, the Kennedy reach, and above all the Kennedy mystique. However, the second generation of Joseph Kennedy’s offspring haven’t faired as well. Most have steered away from the limelight of elected office. A couple of Joseph Kennedy’s grandchildren have been sent packing because of misbehavior and Carloline Kennedy scandal. Those who have dived in like Joseph II and Kathleen, have left the tiniest of footprints. One of the most piercing blows to the Kennedy name was the public rejection of perhaps the most stalwart and classiest Kennedy, Caroline. When Obama’s team leaked her name as a possible babysitter for Hilary Clinton’s U.S. Senate seat, she was publicly repudiated by the media, and even by Democrats. Caroline Kennedy was described as unprepared and inexperienced, and she was.

Now the last blow. Ted Kennedy’s sometimes overstated senate record and iconic status in the senate is going to ted-kennedy fade into the history books. On election day, voters told pollsters that after four decades, “Massachusetts needed a change.”