I think others can beat Scott Brown but Teddy, Jr plays right into Scott’s sweet spot.
Liz Warren lived and worked in the State and because of her willingness to be the public face of fighting the corporate/financial man she had legitimate credentials and a national reputation.
Her biggest problem with us locals was that Washington told us that she would be the Democratic nominee. People resent that.
Teddy, Jr has much less than Liz Warren had to offer yet more of the resentment. Remember, “it’s the people’s seat”.
Too many people will already have had their minds made up before the primary about Jr. and unlikely to change before the election.
Really, who the hell does this kid think he is? In this particular race that message would have legs.
Perhaps being told that if his name was Edward Moore rather than Edward Kennedy his candidacy “would be a joke” would gain traction this time around? After 50 years it’s timely.
Only Scott won’t have to say it. Everyone else will. Including the surrogates for Jr.’s Democratic primary challengers.
What’s to stop Michael Capuano or Stephen Lynch from emasculating this kid? In a very nice way of course. But what or who is there to be afraid of? Who’s to stop it from happening?
Just because his ginger second cousin strolled into his congressional seat last month (whom I’m rooting for to succeed for what it’s worth) there is nothing to indicate that anything close to resembling that scenario will happen in a senate run.
The small margin needed to win, a persnickety electorate, much stronger ground forces for Brown because it will be a special (if opponent is a Kennedy the number of volunteers will double) will require a candidate whose baggage is known and candidacy does not by definition create a national issue on its own.
Addendum Alert!!
The Kennedy kids, (Teddy’s off-spring) may be throwing this out there just to screw-up what chances Vicki has for anything related to this.
In fact now that I think of it I would bet on it.
Therefore, the above post was just an exercise in thought. What if Teddy Jr ran. blah blah blah…
carry on
BTW, good for them. Screw her! He was their dad before he was her second husband. I didn’t make the rules. I mean Camilla Bowles acts properly in her position in a royal family. Why can’t Vicki?
HeartlandDem says
The same reason that Bill Weld does not stand a chance is why Ted Jr. can’t win against Brown……who btw, has not indicated that he will run after the bitch-slapping defeat he helped to create. Parochialism is a huge factor in electoral politics.
There was a unique ground swell of people supporting Ms. Warren with the knowledge that she will fight for “women’s Issues.” Women’s issues are everyone’s issues. The pro-woman vote was energized due to the GOP digging it’s own grave as they went around the twist with the so called “war on women.”
The “women’s vote” factor will likely not even be a card in the deck.
Ryan says
Women will come out for any politician who genuinely speaks to their issues. they’re a savvy group of voters and the past few electoral cycles prove that.
HeartlandDem says
Which is why I stated above, “Women’s issues are everyone’s issues.”
I followed that statement by the reference to the GOP loonies digging it’s own grave…….I do not forsee that dynamic – the loonies being on the fore front denigrating women, for a special election in Massachusetts. Kindly, let me attempt to clarify…….the “war on women” did play nationally and many observers have noted that it may have been a factor (one of many) in the Warren trounce.
ramuel-m-raagas says
I had seen Logan McCarty attend a Progressive Democrats of Massachusetts event. Looks are not everything, but a good-looking Republican will lose to a younger, good-looking PROGRESSIVE Democrat. Logan McCarty is an educator, just like Professor Warren. McCarty and Warren are both Harvard educators. Logan is the people’s professor. He teaches at the extension school, where students not admitted to Harvard College can still learn the same quality of education, and even earn credit and get graded. Brown was funny in 2010 when he won as he joked about the availability of his daughters, but Logan has a sense of humor to match that. Logan and his brother Justin both teach chemistry. They hail from Buffalo, New York, an All America City. Lawyering is a noble profession, but other professions (such as those of the exact sciences) deserve positions, too, in public service. Senator Al Franken won due to US Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s support, but also because of his steady hand in chalk-drawing a map of our country. Logan will wow voters with his ability to draw our periodic table entirely from his sharp memory. I would support Logan McCarty in a special election for United States Senator (D-MA), and in a Democrat primary leading up to such.
eb3-fka-ernie-boch-iii says
I think we have our man.
jconway says
Is this the Bob Massey of this cycle?
Mark L. Bail says
Harvard prof that teaches molecular biology.
Christopher says
…but just being one is not enough and I know nothing about Ted Jr, who btw I’m pretty sure is JKIII’s first cousin, once removed, rather than second cousin. I don’t think carpetbagger is the best epithet, though. The way I see it a Kennedy returning to Massachusetts is by definition not a carpetbagger, and fwiw I’ve never cared about that anyway.
Ryan says
Vicki Kennedy is a woman… so clearly she is undeserving and must be taught to learn her place!
I mean, what has she done? She only graduated law school summa cum laude with a JD, and had a long and well respected career in law.
/sarcasm off
She’s done enough in her life that, were her last name not Kennedy, she’d still be a respected candidate for many a race in this state or others.
That’s not even taking into consideration the fact that she is widely recognized (including by our former Senator) for being the stabilizing force that prevented him from completely flaming out in the 90s, and getting an extra decade of great service from him. I’d say that counts for something, too.
jconway says
I think he was channeling what Joan’ and Teddy’s kids must think if her, not what he thinks of her. And he is right that they freeze out those that aren’t directly in the bloodline. Just ask Sarge Shriver whose aspirations were derailed time and time again. As for Jr I actually have tremendous respect for him for being quietly effective and putting his family first. He has been quite successful in his own right as a businessman and non profit manager, and he has avoided the sex, drugs and rock and roll that follow the family. For those reasons I suspect he will stay out of politics.
That said if he runs he wouldn’t have primary challengers EB3-Walsh would clear the deck just as he did for JKIII-though it will make him a weaker general election candidate. Only Lynchie would stand to gain from a one on one primary against Jr, and that’s a bridge burning campaign.
striker57 says
Ted Jr. would need to do the ground work of spending time introducing himself to voters but the “carpetbagger” tag isn’t going to stick to a Kennedy who grew up in Massachusetts. At 51, Ted is an established advocate and in fact older than JFK and RFK when/if he makes his first run for office.
i’d be thrilled to have him enter the race, primary or no primary.He’d have to earn a win over Brown – I don’t believe anyone is a sure bet to win in a special election – but to dismiss him simply because he is a Kennedy makes no sense to me.
petr says
… cause he’s rarely fair to any one else. You shall, it is said, reap what you sow.
The Kennedy’s have had two patriarchs during their long public tenure, Joseph P Kennedy Sr and Edward M Kennedy. In many ways, though father and son, they could not be more different… and Ted Kennedy’s patriarchy was marked not by ambition, triumph and more ambition as his fathers was, but loss, consolation and more loss. I think, as your above statement implies, that many people are simply waiting for the Kennedy’s to emerge again, but this won’t happen without a solid leader, either like the rapacious and emergent Joseph P (who it was that did much of the ‘freezing out’ of Shriver) or the much more compassionate and forgiving Ted Kennedy. Many people once thought (wished?) that Caroline would take the role but she obviously doesn’t want it and others hoped Joe Kennedy II would, but he has likewise signaled a lack of interest.
Personally, I think the rudderless Kennedy family is a good thing. Perhaps even, in a strange never quite understood manner, what Ted Kennedy intended: They are free of the tyranny of patriarchy (if not from the tyranny of public expectations…) and can make actual choices. They have name recognition, fine, but they still have to earn the positions for which they vie, as this very discussion proves, and, in that striving to earn, will learn some of the things that Ted could not teach directly. I think that Ted Kennedy, who was a rich man who fought for the poor and also a poor man who knew the loss of riches (of family), who came to his egalitarianism through compassion, gave his charges the choices his father never did…
Or, said another way, it’s not your fathers Kennedy family…
David says
I think this is utter rubbish. If anyone’s got any indication that John Walsh “cleared the decks” for JK3, I’d like to see it. Furthermore, if anyone seriously believes that sitting congressmen will dutifully bow out of what is probably their last best chance to join the Senate club just because some guy named Kennedy, about whom very few in MA know anything, also wants to run, well, they must not think very highly of our congressional delegation. If Kennedy wants to run, terrific – let him set up shop in MA and run. I look forward to a spirited primary.
johnk says
Starting at 3:40 …
Some things you always remember, that’s one of them for me.
Don’t know what kind of Senator or candidate he would be, but this is what I think of when someone mentions his name.
johnk says
I guess all the fun in tearing apart a person can stop now.
Ryan says
That video nearly brought me to tears, especially the story about the hill. It almost makes me wish TK Jr. decided to run. Hopefully, he’ll consider running for something in Connecticut if that’s where he considers his home these days.
SomervilleTom says
The suggestion that Ted Kennedy Jr. is a remotely viable candidate is the sort of narcissistic Democratic posturing that makes Scott Brown’s victory all the more assured.
This man is not qualified. He may be a nice guy. He loved his father. Surely it takes more than that to hold this office in these times. The Kennedy era is over. I suggest that Scott Brown will wipe the floor with us — a Ted Kennedy Jr. campaign plays directly to the sweet-spot of Scott Brown’s miserably offensive campaign style, and confirms all the worst accusations of elitism that Mr. Brown used successfully against Martha Coakley and unsuccessfully against Elizabeth Warren.
We cannot win this election by fighting fluff with fluff, and even if we could, the result would be bad for Massachusetts and bad for America. We can and must do better.
This will be a mid-summer election where it will be hard to turn out even party regulars. Political junkies take vacations too, and I predict that about 29 people will vote in the election.
If Ted Kennedy Jr. is the best candidate the Democratic Party can put forward, then we deserve to lose. It’s that simple.
petr says
He’s as qualified as you and I…
Ryan says
but I do disagree with you. It’s no cake walk, but Scott Brown is beatable by any Democrat who takes Scott Brown seriously.
jconway says
And so does Teddy Jr.. He did hint that he may run in Connecticut, and while the deck is stacked pretty high for their three big offices (great progresive Dems at Gov and in the Senate) maybe down the road he could be viable. Besides JK3 is waiting in the wings for the family franchise in the Commonwealth. And for the record I was very dismissive of him at the beggining of his campaign but found him to be an affable speaker and adept at grappling with policy issues. I can be proven wrong.
Teddy Jr. has been a great father and avoided a lot of the personal failings of his forefathers and cousins and I think he knows a life out of politics is partly the reason for his personal success. But my doubts about him as a candidate have no relation to my respect for him.
Christopher says
Must we unnecessarily stoke Ernie’s already inflated ego?
jconway says
This post would never have got to 20 comments if the Kennedys werent involved, dont give him too much credit.