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by Mark Silva
The illness which has sidelined the senior senator from Massachusetts after 47 years in Washington bodes the end of a dramatic era which opened a little over five decades ago with a mix of money, romance and idealism.
Three brothers - the Kennedy brothers - have left an indelible mark on the modern history of a nation that aspired to reach the moon but was brought down to earth with an unwinnable war in Vietnam. In the inaugural words of President Barack Obama, whose own campaign evoked a dream that a nation had invested in the Kennedys: "We must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.''
"They stirred the country's blood and maddened their rivals,'' MSNBC's Chris Matthews says of the Kennedy brothers in a nostalgic Hardball documentary about the campaigns and political legacy of a family, The Kennedy Brothers, that airs Thursday night.
We've seen it, and it's well worth watching.
It is, for sure, long on romanticism and short on criticism. But the sharply detailed and well-written history of a dream that died in Dallas and took decades to rekindle makes it a story as much about a nation as about one family:
The young president, John F. Kennedy, who won the White House in 1960 and was felled by an assassin in 1963, his brother, Robert F. Kennedy, the attorney general and charismatic candidate for president until another assassin stopped him on the campaign trail in 1968, and the brother, Edward M. Kennedy, elected to the Senate in 1962 and who made his own failing bids for a presidential nomination, are the subjects of the MSNBC documentary.
But the lushly illustrated story with intimately personal film footage really is about a bridge between the old and new generations of American politics -- the politics of the old ward machines that gave way to the poltiics of new imagery, a transition that paralleled the transition of American television from black and white to technicolor.
Did you remember Frank Sinatra singing JFK's campaign song?
"He had high hopes.''
"Before John F. Kennedy entered the political scene, no politician had ever seemed so comfortable--so himself--in front of television cameras,'' MSNBC notes. "While politicians of the past were forever frozen in black and white photos, the Kennedy brothers were a crisp color image. ''
The first two brothers were taken by unspeakable violence. The third, 77, is battling brain cancer, a disease that has sidelined him at a time when one of the causes of his era - health-care reform - is mired in a stumbling Washington debate which even Republican Sen. John McCain has acknowledged is poorer for Kennedy's absence.
"Ted Kennedy was very happy being a senator,'' historian Doris Kearns Goodwin notes in this documentary -- and the personal scandal of Chappaquiddick helped ensure that he would go no further than the Senate. Though Matthews takes a direct, documented hit at Kennedy's "unprepared'' 1980 campaign -- simply "un-Kennedy.''
Matthews brings his own perspective to the show - he wrote the book, Kennedy and Nixon: The Rivalry That Shaped Postwar America. Matthews' interviews for this show include Frank Mankiewicz and biographer Peter Canellos. The producers have burnished the narrative with memorable, and priceless, film footage.
The climax is the hard-charging campaign that Sen. Kennedy mounted for Obama in 2008: "That dream that would never die,'' Matthews suggests.
In "Ted's" words: "The dream lives on.''
The Kennedy Brothers airs Thursday at 7 pm EDT.
Comments
The dream lives on.'' - Wish Mary Jo could say the same.
Posted by: Terry | August 24, 2009 1:35 PM
Gee, where is the stuff about JFK toying with the Mafia hooker? Where is the part of RFK's adoration of Joe McCarthy and his warrentless wiretaps of Martin Luther King Jr.? I am sure the Kopeckne family have very fond memories of Ted. And let's not forget their father's adoration of Hitler and his hatred of Jews, something he made clear in interviews published in the Boston Globe and the St. Louis Post Dispatch. Such a great legacy left by the Kennedy family . . . .
Posted by: Dan C | August 24, 2009 1:38 PM
Some of the younger people among us might not be aware of this but the outrageous lies and fake outrage coming out of the mouths of Republican minions during a Democratic adminstration is nothing new. Republicans have been perfecting their Message of Hate for years.
This original flyer, one of about 5,000 distributed in downtown Dallas a day or two prior to the Kennedy assassination, was the creation of Right-Wing ideologue Robert Surrey, an associate of Major General Edwin Walker, Retired. Unknown persons placed these anti-Kennedy handbills on car windshields and tucked inside racks of the two Dallas daily newspapers.
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http://www.john-f-kennedy.net/wantedfortreason.htm
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Posted by: former Republican | August 24, 2009 1:53 PM
Let's face facts...the only thing remarkable about JFK's tenure as president was his assassination.
Posted by: Chris | August 24, 2009 2:27 PM
Let all of those families come forth, that have lost three (3) sons, brothers, uncles, in the service of our great country. A fourth son, brother and a U.S. Senator, who has served his country for nearly fifty ( 50 ) years, also has contributed to our nations well-being. I hasten to add, he made a tragic mistake, which resulted in the death of a young lady, Ms Kopeckne. He has lived with that tragic death for decades. Try those details on, for say, ten years, you mental midgets. See how long you can maintain the little sanity, that so many of you continuously demonstrate, in your vilifying and screeching against a man, who has paid a heavy price to be born into that family. It so easy to pick out the morons, whenever the Kennedy family is being discussed. They are the ones, counting on their fingers. You know, the highly intelligent ones !!
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS, BRING THEM HOME, ALIVE AND WHOLE. NOW.
Posted by: Don Fitzgerald, IL | August 24, 2009 4:59 PM
Most of the Kennedy's are scum bags, the old man made his money on bootleg liquor, they were in bed with the mob, Jack just wanted to sleep with anything that wore a skirt, and Bobby was just happy with Jacks, hand me downs. And poor Teddy he just wanted his scotch, too back he was too drunk to save MaryJo. And Joe he was alright he was a war hero. But the others will get no sympathy from me.
Posted by: Paul | August 24, 2009 5:32 PM
Chris,
Let's give JFK some credit - he was a supply sider. If JFK were in politics today, he would be a republican. That's are far to the left the dems have gone.
FITZ,
Teddy has done nothing but contribute to Teddy. "He has live with the tragedy for decades". Is that why he is stinking drunk? Is that why he use to grab waitresses with Chris Dodd and bunp and grind with them? Teddy was out for no one but Teddy. the whole Kennedy clan does nothing but get covered up for when their family gets in trouble with the law.
Now back to sleep in the City dump truck under the viaduct.
Posted by: Terry | August 24, 2009 6:57 PM
@former Republican...
That flyier is a false claim and what they were trying to do is to get him kill by the group of people... So I guess they have fail and the mafia assassinate JFK.
Posted by: Jon | June 15, 2010 8:32 PM