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VIN SUPRYNOWICZ: His monument stands all around us
Las Vegas Review-Journal ^ | 30 aug 09 | Vin Suprynowicz

Posted on 08/30/2009 6:02:03 AM PDT by rellimpank

The most revealing moment in Edward "Ted" Kennedy's political life came Nov. 4, 1979, just three days before he would officially launch his challenge to a sitting president of his own party, Jimmy Carter. In a televised interview, CBS News correspondent Roger Mudd asked the already stout Massachusetts senator a "giveaway" question, a question about as tough as a quiz show host trying to help break the ice with a nervous contestant by asking, "What color is grass?"

Roger Mudd asked: "Why do you want to be president?"

Ted Kennedy, 47, was about to challenge an incumbent president of his own party, with whom his ideological differences were minimal. Why not wait just four years more? Dividing one's own party in such a way must always weaken the party, creating an opening for the other party's challenger in the general election (Ronald Reagan, in this case) no matter who wins the primary.

Any mature politician considering such a move -- any thoughtful man who had seen two elder brothers assassinated for their trouble in seeking that office -- would have asked himself, not once or twice, but a hundred times, "Do I really want to do this? Is seeking the White House -- heck, even winning the White House -- the best thing for my family, my country, my party, for me? What can I accomplish that Jimmy Carter cannot, and how important is it?"

(Excerpt) Read more at lvrj.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: democrats; kennedy; suprynowicz; vin
--the weekly Vin--
1 posted on 08/30/2009 6:02:04 AM PDT by rellimpank
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To: rellimpank
I remember Roger Mudd’s interview. Mudd said later he tossed the question to Ted as a softball and didn't expect the meltdown.
2 posted on 08/30/2009 6:12:52 AM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks
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To: rellimpank

Teddy couldn’t give his real answer.

“I’m a Kennedy! I’m entitled!!”


3 posted on 08/30/2009 6:25:20 AM PDT by Mojave (Don't blame me. I voted for McClintock.)
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To: rellimpank

I thought of the Mudd interview when Caroline Y’Know Schlossberg tried to explain why she wanted to be a Senator.

Neither one of them had anything to say because neither one had devoted ten seconds to thinking about it. No need to do any thinking when one is simply Entitled.

The Kennedys have never had to think, only to plot, plan, scheme, and act. They decided, decades ago, to be leftists. Corner any of them and ask for the reason that being a lefty is a good thing, and you get the same meaningless gibbering that Roger Mudd got from Teddy, and the Daily News reporter got from Caroline.

Bill Buckley went on the Tonight Show after the Mudd interview, and said, “This has to be the most inarticulate man who has ever gargled.”


4 posted on 08/30/2009 6:28:22 AM PDT by Arthur McGowan
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To: rellimpank

This is a keeper!


5 posted on 08/30/2009 6:28:32 AM PDT by ishabibble (ALL-AMERICAN INFIDEL)
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To: rellimpank

As the Instapundit says: Read the whole thing.

Wow.

If I hear “lion of the Senate” one more time . . .


6 posted on 08/30/2009 6:38:15 AM PDT by StAntKnee (I keep thinking I'm gonna wake up from this dream theatre of the absurd.)
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To: rellimpank
Fabulous article.

Money quote: "He(obama) is the perfect creature of the arrogant leftist academy -- actually believing in the magic power of rhetoric to alter reality, seeing no need to test out such theories on some little hamburger or yogurt stand before attempting to micro-manage the largest economy in the world."

7 posted on 08/30/2009 6:50:05 AM PDT by Sisku Hanne
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To: rellimpank
Are we now governed by some kind of feudal aristocracy, after all?

Yes and it gets worse every day.

8 posted on 08/30/2009 8:23:33 AM PDT by Nuc1 (NUC1 Sub pusher SSN 668 (Liberals Aren't Patriots))
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To: rellimpank

Of the many Suprynowicz columns I have read over the past three or so years, this one is, without doubt, the most powerful and searing (take that John Kerry) one yet. Another one that will leave a BIG welt!


9 posted on 08/30/2009 9:31:22 AM PDT by miele man
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