The Kennedy Mystique is alive and well, but where?
As the Caroline and Ted Kennedy announcements came out I remember feeling that it would be a help to Senator Obama. I do believe it was. I watched the MSM last night and channel surfed from MSNBC, CNN, and just to see if Carl Rove finally was going to put FOX on his official resume and thus his tax form, I checked that site as well.
I do believe the media has declared the death of the Kennedy mystique prematurely. Although the MA state vote did not go to Obama, I do not believe it was the reason for the endorsement. No one knows the peculiarities of the Kennedy family and most especially Ted Kennedy better than the MA voter. We know him. We respect him for what he does and has done for us through many years of hard work. We do not however, look to Ted for the future direction of the Democratic party. Nor do the people of MA see the family itself the same as the democratic party as a whole may.
Having said that, I do feel that had there been more time between the Obama/ Kennedy connection there may have been more growth in the Obama numbers even in MA. This I feel is due to the time lag needed for the “mom you’ve got to vote for him” Obama phenomena that seems to be rampant country wide and seems to have hit even the First Family of California.
Maria Kennedy Shriver Schwarzenegger coming from her children’s “riding lessons” right to the Obama California speech where she, the first lady of California and a very popular one , endorsed Obama . I heard it from heard own lips., “my kids told me … you have to see this guy.”
And there you have it in a nut shell. The Obama/Kennedy/”O’mama you gotta “connection. This is no theory born of ivy towers and think tanks. This is real and it know no class status. It knows no geography. From college kids in MA state colleges coming home to see Obama and opening up the debate with mom, to kids coming home from equestrian events with the “first MOM” in California the nag and debate goes on. And it is good.
As the return came in last night from southern states one thing stood out to me. The % of white people who voted for Obama increased from the % in SC. This is the Kennedy Mystique. From the first time America saw A Kennedy holding, really holding, like a father really holds a child, a child of color, a black child, something in white America woke up. At least in some of white America. the best of part of us.
And when Bobby Kennedy announced on TV, and I remember it though I was young, that MLK was gone, killed, murdered, and you could see it. You could see or I could feel from him and the love lost, the opportunity lost.
And now, we see, or we the elders Hope we see. The younger one ” most definitely do see” the opportunity. The Hope.
So as the “games” continue be mindful of this new Obama/Kennedy/”O’mama’ you gotta” connection. I do not think we have seen the end to it but the beginning. The Kennedy Mystique continues albeit in a new form, in a new generation.
Let the family debates continue. It is good for the party. It is great for the family. And whoever wins, unite behind that which makes you a family, that which makes you a party. And start nagging the republican MOMS.
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