Ted Kennedy, RIP

My reaction to the Senator's passing was one of sadness at losing another famous person from my parents' generation. Politically speaking, I was not a "Kennedy" man, however.

I grew up in the midst of the near-hagiographic attitude about his brothers, and I had that attitude myself. A turning point came during my US History class in high school, when I learned that historians gave John Kennedy a C grade as president. That surprised me. Later I learned more about why they decided as they did.

I also was of the opinion that "if only Robert Kennedy had become president..." but then I acquired a disdain for the messianic expectations we had about him, and became wary of such expectations directed at any politician.

Ted was a different story. Although he received the wake of the messianic attention previously directed at his brothers, he seemed to disdain it himself. Witness Chappaquiddick, his fumbling of Roger Mudd's "question", the Robert Kennedy Smith episode.

While he didn't actively deflect the messianic expectations, he seemed to do so passively.

The Kennedy mystique lives on, as we saw earlier this year with speculation about Caroline Kennedy's intentions toward the vacant New York Senate seat.

I suspect the mystique will be more confined to memory going forward.