Intellect and experience, then and now

By 'raindrop'

If we are really going to discuss Sarah Palin's intellect or experience, we need to go back and look at Teddy Kennedy's intellect and experience when he first started running for office. He was generally considered, if not outright dumb, at least not very smart and certainly totally lacking in any accomplishment.

A while back, I was watching an older documentary about the Kennedy men (the Kennedy women never seem to rate much coverage) and it reminded me how Teddy Kennedy was viewed when his father first decided Teddy should be a U.S. Senator - in and out of the family he was considered not very smart.

To get Teddy started politically, Papa Kennedy arranged to have a loyal Kennedy family friend fill the U.S. Senate seat that had been vacated by John Kennedy's ascension to the presidency; the friend was to hold the seat for Teddy until Teddy reached the legal age to be a senator. Teddy was widely thought (even in the Kennedy family) to be not very smart and not at all accomplished (his only accomplishment to that date was having been born a son of Joe Kennedy Sr.).

The Kennedy family was worried that Teddy wasn't ready for the big leagues, and they were right to worry. It took all of the old man's money and political muscle to put Teddy into that senate seat. Soon, the word got around that Teddy had been kicked out of Harvard for sending a friend to take an exam for him. Of course, Teddy (being the old man's son) was soon readmitted but the news of that cheating and subsequent expulsion could have ended Teddy's political career right then, and would have if he had not been born a Kennedy. However, the press guys and women were in love with the Kennedys, so it would take more than cheating to dim Teddy's star. Soon, rumors of Teddy's high-living looked like that might end Teddy's political career but, no, drinking, womanizing and even letting a young woman drown when he might have saved her life was not sufficient to end Teddy's political life. He was a Kennedy and all things Kennedy were forgiven.

When Teddy decided to run against incumbent President Jimmy Carter for the Democratic nomination in 1980, Teddy couldn't even come up with a rational reason for wanting to be president. People were aghast at his incoherence. Yet, this hard-drinking, womanizing, callous, and intellectually dim man is now recalled as the greatest senator in American history. Go figure.

Teddy had the benefit of the powerful Kennedy political machine, the great Kennedy wealth and a father who would stop at nothing to advance his sons. What would Teddy have been without the help of the brilliant men that had swarmed around John Kennedy and were eager to help another Kennedy rise politically? Hard to say, but I doubt any of us would have heard much about Teddy. The Kennedy brain trust (as they were known) wrote his speeches, guided him through the political maze, and wrote articles and books advancing his star. Few men in American history have had the benefit of such an army of political and intellectual heavyweights to carry him along as Teddy had.

Forgotten, now, is how skeptically people viewed Teddy Kennedy's intelligence when he first started out.

We can only wonder how Sarah would fare if she were a Kennedy and had access to that cadre of talent, political muscle and Kennedy money to assist her.