Kennedy illness to impact US race

By Kevin Connolly
BBC News, Washington

Ted Kennedy's health will be closely followed in the US

Ted Kennedy has been in politics longer than most Americans have been alive - a living embodiment of the dark-edged glamour of his clan and of his party's vision for the United States.

It is hard to imagine a Democratic election campaign without him - but that is the prospect which the party must now confront, following news he is ill with a malignant brain tumour.

The world of the internet and 24-hour television news has created an unforgiving environment for public figures in which symptoms are discussed and debated, and the prospect of death is grimly confronted.

But whatever the outcome of Ted Kennedy's treatment in the coming months, it is reasonable to assume that he will not play the central role in the autumn general election which, in normal circumstances, we would have expected.

For the Democratic Party, that represents an irreplaceable loss.

Last link

Edward Moore Kennedy is one of only six people in American history to have served more than 40 years in the Senate.

His mere presence on the Democratic campaign team would have provided a rallying point to which the supporters of both candidates could have turned

He has been a tireless and skilful legislator in the complex fields of health and education where senior American politicians often find themselves forced to make deals and trade horses to get things done.

But there is, of course, more to it than that.

The Kennedys are the closest thing America has to royalty. They are rich, they are powerful and their triumphs and disasters are a central theme in the national soap opera.

Teddy is a living link to the vanished America whose innocence was lost on the day his oldest surviving brother, John, was assassinated in 1963.

The doomed romantic legend of the Kennedys was sealed when Bobby, JFK's younger brother, was murdered in 1968 as he struggled to win the Democratic nomination in what was a pivotal year in the history of a nation at war.

Teddy had campaigned brilliantly and tirelessly for both of his older brothers, but the self-destructiveness which has characterised much of the Kennedy history was quick to surface in him too.

It was widely assumed in America that one day he too would run for the presidency, presenting himself to the American people as the inheritor of the legacy which his brothers had created. He eventually did so, competing for the Democratic nomination in 1980 against Jimmy Carter.

But Teddy Kennedy's fate was set one summer's night in 1969 when he drove a car off a bridge in a place called Chappaquiddick, Massachusetts.

The young campaign worker who was with him, Mary Jo Kopechne, drowned and Mr Kennedy's behaviour on the night was far from heroic - there was a long delay in reporting Mary Jo's death and no proper effort to save her.

Key choice

Chappaquiddick is almost certainly the reason why Ted Kennedy did not run for the presidency in 1972 - Americans were repelled by the incident and it remained an issue eight years later when he did finally attempt to win his party's nomination. He failed to unseat Jimmy Carter and it did feel at the time as though the Kennedy brand was damaged.

The legacy of the Kennedy brothers will live long in US history

But Chappaquiddick is not the whole story about Edward Moore Kennedy. He replaced his brother John as the Senator from Massachusetts in the early 1960s and slowly, he began to establish a reputation as a tireless and effective legislator.

He is a big beast in American politics, one of the most famous politicians in the world whose decision to support Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton was regarded as one of the defining moments in the race for the Democratic nomination this year.

Was he goaded into that decision by an interview in which Hillary Clinton appeared to give all the credit for the Civil Rights legislation of the early sixties to Lyndon Johnson, JFK's vice-president who inherited the White House when John Kennedy was shot? The Kennedys are protective of their legacy and determined to promote their place in American history.

Battling on

We will probably never know what motivated his choice, but there is no doubt that Mr Kennedy would have been a huge asset to the party as a campaigner and fund-raiser in the autumn. Because he backed Obama he might not have been able - quite - to play the role of a unifying figure bringing together the Clinton and Obama camps after what has been a bitter, and polarising campaign.

But his mere presence on the Democratic campaign team would have provided a rallying point to which the supporters of both candidates could have turned - an elder statesman who could have reminded all Democrats that the values that unite them should be more important than the personalities that divide them. We should be careful to remind ourselves that that could still happen, although it seems reasonable to assume that Mr Kennedy's role will be less substantial now than it might have been.

It may well be that he will be well enough to play a significant role - we will see.

But a man who is old enough to remember campaigning for JFK against Richard Nixon in 1960, who has the chutzpah to burst into song on stage and who is energised by any chance to speak to an audience is a huge asset, and difficult to replace.

Before the Texas primary I found myself in the city of Laredo on the border with Mexico where I asked local Democrats if they were disappointed that Barack Obama had not managed to pay them a visit.

No, came the answer, they were more than happy that they had "got" Ted Kennedy who had entertained them, raised funds and lifted spirits.

Mr Obama has charisma (as Mrs Clinton does, to a lesser extent) but Ted Kennedy is quite simply a star in a political universe where real stars are few and far between.

What will the Democrats do without him, should it come to that?

Well, of course, they will manage, but they will miss the Kennedy energy, and fame, and experience.

The rising generation of the family has ambitions too, but it simply cannot measure up the last of the glamorous figures from the great days of the Kennedys when the world seemed to be within their grasp.

Teddy Kennedy's struggle with illness will be followed as avidly in America as his struggles with the private demons which have helped to shape his life. His role in Campaign 2008 may be more limited now than he had planned, but the story of his life will continue to provide America with one of the most important themes and dramas of the year.