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Brown Coakley race has echoes of 1952: JFK attended tea parties as Lodge promoted Ike
The New York Times Archives | January 18, 2010 | nwrep

Posted on 01/17/2010 5:56:37 PM PST by nwrep

The Brown-Coakley Senate race has echoes of another time, another era when a Mass. Senate race generated extraordinary enthusiasm and created a seismic shift in voter attitudes that came to define a lasting political realignment.

In 1952, a young Irish Catholic Democratic Congressman named John F. Kennedy took on sitting Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, who had previously defeated three similar Irish Catholic candidates. Lodge, of course, was from one of the "first families" of Massachusetts, and with his WASP pedigree and Republican heritage, typified New England political structure of the time.

However, solidifying the trends of the previous decades, New England in general, but Mass. in particular was turning Democrat, and the young JFK was eager to tap into and exploit this trend.

Lodge took this challenge in stride, but from the New York Times reports of the time, did not campaign hard, instead spending most of his time promoting the Presidential candidacy of General Dwight Eisenhower, and angling for the VP slot on the ticket.

According to the New York Times article from November 2, 1952:

Mr. Lodge was busy all spring furthering the General's candidacy, and Mr. Kennedy was busy attending tea parties around Massachusetts in the interest of making himself better known. This is Mr. Lodge's fourth Senate campaign; he has defeated his previous challengers by substantial margins.


TOPICS: News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Massachusetts
KEYWORDS: eisenhower; henrycabotlodge; jfk; lodge; ma2010; scottbrown
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1 posted on 01/17/2010 5:56:37 PM PST by nwrep
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To: nwrep

Henry Lodge...Now *there’s* a blast from the past.


2 posted on 01/17/2010 5:59:10 PM PST by DGHoodini (Iran Azadi!)
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To: nwrep

In my wildest dreams I never thought it would be the State of Mass. To save the Republic.


3 posted on 01/17/2010 5:59:54 PM PST by screaminsunshine
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To: nwrep
Henry Cabot Lodge was one of the most influential Republicans of his day. When he was defeated by the young JFK in an an Eisenhower year, it was the end of an era in Massachusetts politics. A win by Scott Brown Tuesday will mark the formal close of the Kennedy era in the state.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find only things evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelogus

4 posted on 01/17/2010 6:01:00 PM PST by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
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To: goldstategop
Henry Cabot Lodge was one of the most influential Republicans of his day. When he was defeated by the young JFK in an an Eisenhower year, it was the end of an era in Massachusetts politics. A win by Scott Brown Tuesday will mark the formal close of the Kennedy era in the state.

Amen.

5 posted on 01/17/2010 6:01:31 PM PST by nwrep
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To: nwrep
JFK attended tea parties

Oh, JFK was a teabagger?

6 posted on 01/17/2010 6:19:29 PM PST by Right Wing Assault (The Obama magic is fading.)
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To: goldstategop
Why did Nixon pick Lodge as his running mate in 1960? To make himself seem more respectable to the Eastern establishment?

I know someone who is now a fanatic Democrat who was a young Republican attending the University of Tennessee in 1960. He went to meet Lodge when he arrived in Knoxville for a campaign stop and claims that Lodge was drunk when he got there. Whether that's true or not, the Nixon-Lodge ticket carried Tennessee. (Nixon never lost Tennessee the five times he was on a national ticket.)

7 posted on 01/17/2010 6:20:50 PM PST by Verginius Rufus
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To: Verginius Rufus

Nixon picked Lodge as a kowtow to Rockefeller and the liberal wing of the Republican party. It was a stupid pick. He should have picked Goldwater, whose book was the best selling manifesto since Common Sense. Nixon going to see Rockefeller and asceding to his demands was called the American Munich.


8 posted on 01/17/2010 6:27:57 PM PST by cotton1706
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To: goldstategop

Lodge, Jr. was also a VERY liberal RINO, unlike his namesake grandfather, who would’ve been horrified at Junior’s liberalism. JFK’s victory in 1952 was a victory for Conservatism, as JFK was well to the right of Lodge. Had Junior Lodge been more like his grandfather, JFK would’ve lost that race.


9 posted on 01/17/2010 6:33:56 PM PST by fieldmarshaldj (~"This is what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps !"~~)
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To: nwrep
Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles! I just got off the phone with my 88 year-old father; a died in the wool, life-long democrat who was born in and has lived in Mass for over 70 years. HE HAS NEVER VOTED FOR A REPUBLICAN… NEVER. After polite chit chat about the NFL play off games I dared broach the subject and asked him if he was going to vote on Tuesday (every time “politics” have come up in the past he has berated me with tirades about those “evil republicans”). Well, he came right out and told me… “I AM going to vote on Tuesday and I am seriously thinking of voting for Scott Brown.” Needless to say I was and am totally ASTONISHED… ASTONISHED (I did not let him know in the least and kept my heart-felt joy and enthusiasm at his answer to my self so as to not “scare him off”)!

I tactfully asked him WHY he was going to vote for Brown and his answer was: “Because of the healthcare bill Obama is trying to pass.” I carefully agreed with him and reinforced the fact that Obama wants to gut Medicare/Medicaid by taking away 500 BILLION DOLLARS from the system and that if he adds 40 million people to the rolls, especially illegal aliens the health care system would collapse… I told him that Brown is an honorable man and that he is totally opposed to the “healthcare” bill and would vote against it… MY DAD AGREED! I was flabbergasted!

If my own father; a life-long Massachusetts FDR Democrat who has voted for EVERY Kennedy, Kerry/democrat to ever come down the pike, is going to vote for Scott Brown, a REPUBLICAN, BECAUSE OF HIS OPPOSITION TO Obama and his evil healthcare debacle then things are looking VERY promising for Scott Brown and we could all be in for an incredible victory on Tuesday. To this end I am fervently praying.

10 posted on 01/17/2010 6:38:16 PM PST by Jmouse007 (God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, deliver us from evil, in Jesus name, amen.)
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To: screaminsunshine
In my wildest dreams I never thought it would be the State of Mass. To save the Republic.

The Second American Revolution begins, where the first one began.

Partying like it is 1775.

11 posted on 01/17/2010 6:44:10 PM PST by NeoCaveman (usually clean, often articulate, only a slight Cro-Magnon accent except when I want to have one)
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To: Jmouse007; left that other site

WAY TO GO DAD!!!!!!!

A ping to ltos!!!


12 posted on 01/17/2010 6:45:26 PM PST by Brad’s Gramma (Here's a thought!! Donate to the website you are on RIGHT NOW!!)
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To: Right Wing Assault

Brilliant catch.


13 posted on 01/17/2010 6:48:02 PM PST by Lazamataz (America has been dead for a while; It's interesting to watch the cadaver cool.)
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To: nwrep

LOL, great post! 1952, as long as hubby has been alive!


14 posted on 01/17/2010 7:05:23 PM PST by jocon307
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To: Jmouse007

That’s *so* invigorating- to read about! :)


15 posted on 01/17/2010 7:40:56 PM PST by DGHoodini (Iran Azadi!)
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To: screaminsunshine

The Lord works in mysterious ways, indeed.


16 posted on 01/17/2010 7:43:23 PM PST by Axle98
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To: fieldmarshaldj

His Grandfather was a buddy of TR—a progressive. The young Lodge, of course, was an internationalist, but given the elder Lodge’s bent for power politics, he probably would not have disapproved. TR would not have supported the league, but he wouldn’t have taken down the Navy as Harding and Coolidge did, and he would definitively been willing to confront Stalin.

But so far as the younger Lodge, He was the SOb who orchestrated the assasination of the Diem brothers in South Vietnam, which wrecked the whole enterprise.


17 posted on 01/17/2010 9:41:34 PM PST by RobbyS (Pray with the suffering souls.)
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To: RobbyS

HCL, Sr. was friendly with TR, but he was still a stalwart Conservative, regardless (although more of the Paleo variety by today’s standards). Junior marked the change from Conservative Republicanism to liberalism that would ultimately lead to the death of the MA GOP. Even if Brown is elected, that won’t resurrect the party. His is a victory for an anti-Democrat establishment Oppositionist coalition, but not the state party.


18 posted on 01/17/2010 9:54:46 PM PST by fieldmarshaldj (~"This is what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps !"~~)
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To: fieldmarshaldj

Massachusetts does seem to like divided government. Patrick’s poor performance in office ought to be a caution that might persuade the Independents to give Brown a chance.


19 posted on 01/17/2010 10:08:56 PM PST by RobbyS (Pray with the suffering souls.)
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To: Right Wing Assault

No, they were tea parties of the old-fashioned kind:

http://media2.myfoxboston.com/html/galleries/09/ted-kennedy-family/1/lg/PC518.htm

(I can’t post the photo directly due to copyright restrictions.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate_election_in_Massachusetts,_1952

A famous innovation by the Kennedys in the 1952 Senate race were a series of “tea parties” sponsored by Kennedy’s mother and sisters in the fall. Congressman Kennedy attended each of the tea parties and shook hands and charmed the voters (usually female) who were present; it is estimated that a total of 70,000 voters attended the tea parties, which was roughly his margin of victory over Lodge.


20 posted on 01/17/2010 10:25:47 PM PST by Deo volente (Sarah Palin was right. There ARE death panels in the bill.)
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