Posted on 09/08/2002 1:01:54 AM PDT by MadIvan
FOR an ambitious politician with a proud pedigree, the insults could not have been more painful. His wife was a nobody, while he was a whiner who was “running home for dad”.
The barrage had such an impact that the upstart Andrew Cuomo, would-be governor of New York, was left with little choice but to withdraw from the race. His humiliating retreat last week marked a further decline in the fortunes of the once-great Kennedy clan, to which he is related by marriage.
With the Bush dynasty in the ascendant and a Clinton dynasty in the making, the magic is fading from the name that captivated America. The Kennedys have been sidelined as a political force, while Jeb Bush, George W’s brother, is tipped to run for president in 2008 against a newly formidable Hillary Clinton.
Cuomo, 44, could be forgiven for believing he had a glittering career ahead of him. His wife Kerry is the daughter of Robert F Kennedy, the former attorney- general who was assassinated in 1968 while running for president. Cuomo’s father, Mario, had a personal lock on the New York governorship from 1982 to 1994.
Yet Cuomo found himself in a bitter campaign, in which his family connections were ridiculed. One of his political opponents sneered that nobody had ever heard of his wife and a television commercial starring Senator Edward Kennedy and Martin Luther King III bombed.
Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, another daughter of Robert Kennedy, who is campaigning to become governor of Maryland, has also been basking in the family name on television.
“I grew up in a family that always taught the importance of public service,” she claimed proudly in an advertisement.
More like public excess, public indulgence, public parasitism - Ivan
Voters were stubbornly unimpressed and her lead slipped from 15 points at the beginning of the campaign to a low of three points a few weeks ago. She remains favourite to win in November but is no longer a shoo-in in a state where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by two to one.
Instead KKT, as she is known, has stumbled through the campaign, coining the word Hispanish among Latino voters, getting the name of a celebrated racehorse wrong and introducing her running mate as an ambassador rather than an admiral.
What memories voters have of the Kennedys’ Camelot are now seriously tainted. Even JFK, assassinated in 1963, has been knocked from his pedestal by revelations about his sex life and ties to the mob, while Senator Edward Kennedy, his brother, has never lived down the drowning of Mary Jo Kopechne in his car at Chappaquiddick in 1969.
The family’s hopes now rest on Mark Shriver, JFK’s nephew, who is standing for Congress in Maryland and whose low-profile campaign may ease him to victory.
Apparently he is doing an incredible shrinking man act.
Mind, he had a better starting position for that than his opponents. . .
When she was introducing him she called him "Charles Lawson". His name is Larson. She also, at one point, called him the "most highly decorated admiral in Navy history". He ain't.
As Lt. Gov., she had one primary respondibility - crime. As of right now, there are two federal investigations into two separate aspects of the organizations for which she was/is responsible.
Charisma, charm, good-looks, JFK's name....if he ran for President, have would have won. JFK Jr. was sharper than Gore and was not nearly as far of a left-wingnut as Gore, and Gore came with 537 votes of winning.
Boy, isn't that the truth. I remember reading a book about the administration and the assassination. It turns out that some former aide of JFK who was with the family after the shooting admits now that the famous "JFK Jr salute" to his dad's coffin was totally staged. The aid said that they had to work with John Jr. for hours to get him to salute at the right signal and with the correct hand. They then tipped off the willing media hacks to have the camera ready to roll and focused on John Jr at the right moment.
It was an Orwellian fraud.
In hindsight, I think that a good portion of the "left drift" that occured in the 60's and 70s was the result of the fact that the lefties had total control of TV and it took the conservatives a few decades to actually figure this out and learn to counter it.
Absolutely...if JFK Jr had ever run for president, he'd have won hands-down. The media would have had multiple orgasms over him, and all of the female voters in the country (excepting for a small percentage of devoted conservatives) would have voted for him too.....it would have been a landslide.
That having been said, one of my first thoughts upon hearing of the crash was, "that is the end of the Kennedy dynsasty". The myth was always based on the idea that JFK's brother (RFK or Teddy) or his son would someday rise up and take the office that was vacated by the fallen King Arthur/JFK. RFK's death, Teddy's obvious shortcomings, and then JFK Jr's death slammed the lid on the myth.
Without a younger man to pull the sword from the stone, its over.
That was Joseph Jr. He also suffered from the Kennedy hubris about anything with a motor on it. His aircraft, a B-24 bomber, was an experimental quasi-TV bomb. The aircraft had a primitive TV system, and equally primitive radio control. The idea was that the crew would get the thing off the ground, fly it to near it's target, bail out, and a following aircraft with a receiver and specially trained crew would fly the explosive loaded aircraft into high value targets.
Naturally with the TV camera, the TV transmitter, radio control transmitter and receiver, and radio control of the flight controls....there was a lot, for it's day, of wiring, batteries, motors, ect.
Hence the need for an on-board electronics officer, who would also bail out.
Well on that fateful day, the officer refused to board the aircraft. Let me say this again. During wartime, a United States Officer, a captain no less, refused to board the aircraft. He said that there were particular problems with the systems, and that the aircraft was unsafe and told Captain Kennedy not to fly.
Kennedy flew, and he and the rest of the crew were killed instantly in a mid air explosion, way before they began their approach to the target. As predicted and feared by the electronics officer.
So, weather it is drunk driving, skiing downhill backwards, flying in conditions you aren't skilled nor qualified to fly in, or just believing you know more than a fellow officer with technical training, the Kennedy’s leave death and destruction in their wake.
Have you ever noticed how illicitly-gained fortunes become legitimate once they are passed to the next generation?
She's gonna win. Make no mistake about it. The media,the SOW gang,the blacks,the Jews,and the white collar feral gooberment workers will see to this. They will all vote for her,the living and the dead. We will then be subjected to years of speculation about how brilliant she is,and how she would make a excellent president.
Bubba-1 doesn't dislike Mini-Mario. He was a Bubba-1 political appointee with a high position. What happened is that Mini-Mario decided to run for governor of NY,and Bubba-1 and Bubbette! will NOT allow anyone to be a danger to their power. With his Cuomo and Kennedy connections,he could have easily outshone Bubbette! as THE most powerful political figure in NY,and they couldn't have this.
BTW,this MIGHT also mean that Bubba-1 plans on running for Governor of NY himself during the next cycle. He couldn't take a chance on somebody like Mini-Mario already being there to run against him.
So what? How did this hurt Patches Kennedy? He was voted the "most stupid congressmemer" by his peers,and this was against people like Major Owens,Sheila Jackson-Lee,etc,etc,etc. That's really saying something.
John-John was handsome,charming,and well-liked by the idiots who manage the media. Like all the other Kennedy's,his money bought him all the brains he needed to tell him what to think. The fact that he had the IQ of a turnip wouldn't have hurt him at all.
Praising with "faint damns"? There are hard lumps in my cats litter box that are smarter than Goober. None the less,you are right. If JFK Jr has run for president,he WOULD have been elected. Most likely in a landslide.
Never mind that.... Isn't Little Cuomo the guy who oversaw millions in missing HUD money? Was that ever thrown in his face by his opponent?
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