Picture this: A young Kennedy is leading in the polls. He’s handsome, telegenic. The Democratic Party has been keen on promoting him with plum speaking spots on national TV. But he stumbles when forced to articulate a message, losing his primary to another Democrat who had a more conventional, which is to say less name-driven, rise in politics.
I’m talking about Joe Kennedy III, who decided to run a primary campaign against incumbent senator Ed Markey in Massachusetts six years ago and lost in rather disastrous fashion. Then again, I could be talking about his great-uncle, Ted Kennedy, who looked like he could take down Jimmy Carter in 1980 until CBS News’ Roger Mudd tripped him up with a famous softball: “Why do you want to be president?”
Teddy either didn’t know or didn’t want voters to know, and there was a glimmer of terror in his eyes before he launched into a long, rambling response that didn’t answer the question. Kennedy’s subsequent loss to Carter was quickly framed as the end of his family’s dynasty, as has just about every subsequent Kennedy defeat, of which there have been many.
Now that John Bouvier Kennedy Schlossberg, who we fondly call Jack, has lost his bid for a New York House seat on Tuesday night, we wonder again if the most famous name in Democratic politics has finally lost its appeal.
