I'm tickled at all the fuss being made for the late Senator Kennedy in Washington and within the circles of the political and media elite. Their God is dead.
Meanwhile, the rest of us connected to the real world are fascinated by the chick who was kidnapped 18 years ago and presumed dead, but showed up alive the other day against all odds. What a story! I'm sure they're writing the screen play right now. This chick will have a reality show soon no doubt. Hell she may even be on the next "Dancing with the Stars"season. The frenzy among the common folks has just begun with this young lady.
So why don't we give a shit about Kennedy like the media elite do?
It all goes back to JFK. Some politicians are bigger stars after they're dead and he's the poster child for that theory. In reality, JFK was a wreck. He was said to have been sleeping with literally thousands of women who were not his wife each year and doing it quite out in the open. His leadership was severely suspect and his decision making even worse. He was a big mess and a huge failure as a President. Those who can clear their mind of what my next paragraph says can honestly admit that.
Why JFK was popular and is still popular today is quite simple. He was a man of many firsts for us. First Catholic president. First guy that wasn't 105 to be president. First good looking president whose charisma and charm were addicting and undeniable. He was our first mass media president. You may remember the famous debate with Nixon where he came across so well and Nixon so badly. He was the first guy we hired through the beauty contest we now call televised presidential campaigns.
Even his assassination was a first. Other presidents have been assassinated. Never had one been assassinated in the era of mass media. The impact was all that much bigger because of the manner in which the news traveled to the masses. It wasn't a headline in the next day's paper, it was a first TV event that provided what is now a very familiar feeling - instantaneous shock.
For many of the political and media elite it was the biggest moment of their young lives. You often hear people ask others, "where were you when you found out Kennedy had been shot?" My generation has the space shuttle explosion and of course the O.J. Simpson verdict (sadly).
What many people mistake about their recollection of the Kennedy assassination is their grief versus the first major mass media event in their life. People want to say it was Kennedy's death they still remember and react to. In all actuality, it was the world getting all that much smaller thanks to technology. The news would never be the same again. Breaking news changed so much that day that media history classes have spent whole semesters on how it changed our reporting.
For the people who are making a big deal of Ted Kennedy's death, they're really laying to rest the memory of JFK. Having lost RFK long ago, they only had Teddy to hold onto when idealizing their false memories of their favorite president - JFK.
Ted Kennedy was an outspoken, back slapping hell of a good time guy who was loved by people on both sides of the aisle. It wasn't because he was much of a good legislator that he was liked. He didn't do anything by himself and was a master at riding other people's coat tails. However, he always put on a good face and could lie like it was saying "good morning" to a neighbor in front of a crowd, so he was often the point man for large causes like Title IX. Chuck Schumer has taken that position from him now.
He was a good time and picked up that tab a lot of the time. That's why he was liked by the Beltway dwellers. His long career was filled with terrible decisions, questionable ethics and a complete disregard for those who were not born rich even if he paid them lip service all the time.
Let's not forget that middle America has thought this guy was a joke since the 70's. Those in the media are shocked today that the nation isn't in mourning. They don't understand how we see the guy - a fat drunk who had a popular brother that was murdered. We don't care.
It's just another example of how the opinion leaders in this country are so out of touch with the majority of Americans.
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