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Thursday, May 20, 2004
JFK and RFK
As I studied more about it in school, I became a strong admirer of Robert Kennedy and his 1968 campaign for President. Given the turmoil of that year and what resulted from it, it's not far fetched to think that history could have been dramatically different if RFK hadn't been shot in June 1968. His presidential campaign had a unique way of bringing dissident groups together -- white and black, urban and rural, etc, in a way no politician has been able to since.
A new PBS documentary on RFK that is coming out in October illustrates this nicely:
There is a memorable moment in the PBS documentary when Bobby Kennedy makes one of his first campaign appearances in the Midwest, at the University of Kansas, in front of a jam-packed audience that responds to his call for abandoning "the bankrupt policies we're following at the present" with thunderous cheers.
A photographer for Life magazine traveling with Kennedy can't believe what he's seeing. Walinsky recounts how the man turned to him and yelled: "This is Kansas, fucking Kansas… He's going all the fucking way!"
Kennedy's ability to move beyond divisions that threatened to tear our country apart and reach out to all Americans -- black and white, rich and poor, young and old, urban and rural -- meant that every place, even a bastion of conservatism like Kansas, was suddenly in play. Every state was a swing state.
That's why I thought Arianna Huffington's column about RFK and Kerry was so interesting. It's worth a read.
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