08:05 pm
Ted Kennedy’s Other Legacy: The 1980 Election
I, like everyone else, am saddened at the passing of Sen. Ted Kennedy, and very appreciative of his long and distinguished service to his country and his state. And like other liberals, I hope that his death will help inspire Democrats to quit wetting their pants and pass health care reform.
But I can’t help finding it ironic that many commentators are pointing to his 1980 speech to the Democratic National Convention as the finest of his career:
It is an excellent speech, particularly its closing passage.
But there’s one very small problem, one that I have not seen noted elsewhere: the speech was widely regarded as having damaged Jimmy Carter’s bid for reelection. Over the course of a fairly long address, Kennedy makes only a passing reference to the man who defeated him:
I congratulate President Carter on his victory here.
I am — I am confident that the Democratic Party will reunite on the basis of Democratic principles, and that together we will march towards a Democratic victory in 1980.
That’s not exactly a ringing endorsement. In fact, Kennedy’s tepid embrace of his opponent long ago became the gold standard of political bad sportsmanship.
It’s forgotten now, but during the 2008 Democratic National Convention, pundits of every stripe wondered whether Hillary Clinton would pull a Kennedy by failing to offer a strong endorsement of Obama (speculation which turned out to be completely unfounded — Hillary offered a resounding endorsement of Obama, ending all predictions of a divided party). Here is but one of many examples:
When Hillary Clinton strikes her first podium pose Tuesday night at the Democratic National Convention, she’ll do so knowing that almost half of the people staring at her wanted her to be the party’s presidential nominee. And somewhat more than half preferred Barack Obama.
How she speaks to both groups will set a tone for unity, or disunity, as the party points toward the November election. . . .
Her protracted concession brings to mind a similar primary battle in 1980 between incumbent President Jimmy Carter and Sen. Ted Kennedy. Carter got more delegates, but Kennedy ignored the inevitable right up until the convention. He finally conceded several days before they appeared together at New York’s Madison Square Garden. Kennedy was visibly ambivalent about the nominee.
The Republicans capitalized on the divided Democrats, and Ronald Reagan easily won the election.
That’s the story you won’t see in today’s obituaries: Kennedy’s failure to champion Carter badly hurt the incumbent. The John Anderson insurgency was largely driven by disaffected Kennedy supporters (including me — I volunteered for Anderson in what was my first opportunity to vote for President).
It would be an exaggeration to suggest that Reagan won solely because of Democratic disuinion — the sad state of the economy had a far more significant impact, as did Carter’s failure to resolve the Iranian hostage crisis. But I do not think it is an exaggeration to suggest that the decision of many disaffected liberal Democrats to vote for Anderson (or sit out the election) didn’t help.
Ted Kennedy was a great, great man. But in 1980, his failure to be a good soldier pretty much put an end to his party’s hopes for retaining the White House.
Related posts
| posted in politics | 0 Comments

![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=5329cce4-b6ee-4025-adcc-c47f21264fc4)


