For someone to be a martyr or liberals is a no-win situation. Either a person is a martyr for whining to high heaven, or a martyr by virtue of dying for any arbitrary reason, stupidity included.
If he were to die young, the press would treat him like JFK. They'd idolize him, non-stop. We'd never hear the end of it for 50 years, just like JFK. I think the shine's finally coming off Camelot for most folks, but there are still some holdouts.