One of the most dramatic moments of the Democratic National Convention just occurred, the powerful speech delivered by Sen. Edward Kennedy, who flew to Denver despite his battle against brain cancer.
The senator delivered a vintage Kennedy stemwinder, reminiscent of the speeches he made at the 1972 and 1980 conventions.
Where were the broadcast networks? ABC, CBS, and NBC have forsaken convention coverage (except for an hour each night), and thus missed the Kennedy speech. The cable news networks had it, and if you want to watch the convention without some of the annoying pundits, just flip the station to C-SPAN, which, as usual, is offering history in the making instead of a bunch of know-it-alls sitting around and talking about what they don't really know.
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The Kennedy speech reminds me of the two events that kept the senator from being elected president of the United States. When that is mentioned, people naturally think of Chappaquiddick, but just as important was the action taken by Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979 when hostages were seized in Iran.
Kennedy challenged a sitting president, Jimmy Carter, and probably would have beaten him, except for the taking of the hostages. Carter used the Rose Garden strategy, saying it would be unbecoming and unpresidential to campaign while hostages were being held in Iran.
By the time the nation's patience with the situation was at its end, most of the primaries were already over. At that point, Kennedy swept the final primaries, embarrassing Carter, but it was too late for the Kennedy campaign and Carter was on his way to a stunning defeat at the hands of Ronald Reagan.
The Ayatollah's actions prevented Americans from seeing what would have been the greatest presidential election of the century with Reagan squaring off with Kennedy. While it is easy to see Reagan doing just as well or even better (he was always able to rise to the occasion) against Kennedy, it is just as easy to picture Kennedy doing far better than Jimmy Carter.
Kennedy would never have said anything as ludicrous as Carter did when he mentioned talking to his daughter Amy about nuclear proliferation, and it is hard to believe that Ted Kennedy would have let Reagan lord it over him with his "There you go again" comments. And Reagan would not have been able to use the "Ask yourself if you are better off now than you were four years ago?" that he used like a club over Jimmy Carter's head.
It was a missed golden opportunity for the United States to see two political giants square off. We are not likely to see such an opportunity again.
1 comment:
Why is it that Progressive voices were missing from network coverage of the Democratic Convention, while Conservatives have been well presented at both Conventions? Worse than that the time given to actual speeches and activity on the floor couldn't be more slanted. MSNBC managed to miss the Kucinich, Kerry and Eisenhower speeches, and the military Generals presentation, while showing the presentation of the colors and military speeches and many early night speakers uninterrupted.
The Democratic convention was running fictional narrative unreflective of the events on the floor which was little more than background music to the blowhard pundits. It was presented critically while the Republicans are getting a free infomercial. It's a case in point that there is media bias but not the way it's presented to the public. I hope someone follows up fully on this and gives us some of the relevant statistics and analysis.
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