Back Talk

Edward Kennedy said “the country needs a leader who can bring people together and create change.” The only change in store for America in the wake of an Obama presidency is one more giant step toward Socialism, but that is not the main thrust of the bafflement I have regarding the Kennedys. The Ted Kennedy phenomenon is one of those developments that occurs where, if one read a summary of it without knowing the identity of the subject, he would think it was an episode about a leader in a South American or third world country. Ted Kennedy is a scion of a wealthy and powerful family and an elder respected elder of one of our major political parties. This man, had he not been a Kennedy, would have surely served prison time for manslaughter when he caused the death of Mary Joe Kopechne in 1969. He drove his car off a Chappaquiddick bridge with Mary Joe in the passenger seat. He did not try to save her, he did not walk across the road, knock on a door and call the police or an ambulance, he, instead, merely walked home. He did not report the incident until the next day because the long night had given him plenty of time to realize there was no chance of plausible deniability, and he was able to talk with his lawyer and his personal manager about strategy. Our leftist media gave him a virtual freee pass; in his recent book, “Whitewash,” Brent Bozell tracks the almost non-existent press coverage of that disgraceful event from that time until now, no questions, no criticism, nil. Astonishing.