Tag: ted kennedy

@BarackObama’s team prepares an #obamacare line of retreat for him.

(Via @baseballcrank) This is not a retreat by Barack Obama on Obamacare.

[In 2007] Soon-to-be-candidate Obama, then an Illinois senator, was thinking about turning down an invitation to speak at a big health care conference sponsored by the progressive group Families USA, when two aides, Robert Gibbs and Jon Favreau, hit on an idea that would make him appear more prepared and committed than he actually was at the moment.

Why not just announce his intention to pass universal health care by the end of his first term?

Thus was born Obamacare, a check-the-box, news-cycle expedient that would ultimately define a president.

“We needed something to say,” recalled one of the advisers involved in the discussion. “I can’t tell you how little thought was given to that thought other than it sounded good. So they just kind of hatched it on their own. It just happened. It wasn’t like a deep strategic conversation.”

Continue reading @BarackObama’s team prepares an #obamacare line of retreat for him.

Democratic 2012 Massachusetts strategy: Kennedy.

Kennedy Kennedy Kennedy.  They’re trying to recruit Victoria Kennedy (Ted Kennedy’s widow) for the seat for 2012.  They actually tried to get her to run in 2010, but she refused – and she’s supposedly refusing now, but apparently the possible challengers to Scott Brown have already been collectively weighed by the state party, and found wanting. So there seems to be no better options for Massachusetts Democrats right now, which is as funny as it is unsurprising.

Now, the objective merits of a Victoria Kennedy candidacy can be argued – if you believe this Boston Globe puff piece, both she and her husband only used boats because walking on water takes too long to get anywhere – outside of the context of Massachusetts politics… in much the same way that a Jeb Bush 2012 Presidential candidacy can be objectively argued outside of the context of national politics.  Subjectively, however… this will hardly sound disinterested, but I can’t imagine that Massachusetts Democratic politicians are honestly enjoying the prospect of the ‘Kennedy seat’ surviving.  Scott Brown’s win earlier this year was the first time a Senate seat for MA changed hands in over a quarter of a century: does that state really lack for ambitious politicians who are tired of waiting for their chance*?

Moe Lane Continue reading Democratic 2012 Massachusetts strategy: Kennedy.

#rsrh Me and Caleb Howe on Raising Hale.

Tabitha Hale’s program: Tabitha & Caleb Howe are of course also RedState Contributors.  I say some potentially disrespectful things about Ted Kennedy, demonstrate my pro-amnesty squishy nature in the process of mocking the opponents to the Arizona law, shriek in hideous laughter at the idea of a particular lefty blogger being reasonable, and generally stammer.

I like doing these – and thanks to the new audio rig, I can do them a lot more easily now (I also did one with BigGator5).

Moe Lane

A fitting memorial for Sen. Ted Kennedy.

No, really.

One that I can think that we can all get behind:

The first U.S. offshore wind farm, a giant project 5 miles/8 km off the Massachusetts coast, was approved on Wednesday after years of opposition involving everyone from local Indian tribes to the Kennedy family.

U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar gave the green light for the 130-turbine, 420-megawatt Cape Wind project in Horseshoe Shoal, Nantucket Sound, in what supporters considered a huge step forward for renewable energy in the United States.

“This project fits with the tradition of sustainable development in the area,” Salazar said in Boston.

What it didn’t do was fit with the tradition in the area of treating every whim of the Kennedy clan as a signed directive from God, but that deference died with Teddy.  So enjoy the view, ye remaining scions of Hyannis Port! – and if the image on the horizon appears at times to resemble that of the Hawaiian Good Luck Symbol, well, take it as a reminder that not even a Kennedy can stop the march of Progress forever.

Especially not the current crop of them.  And people wonder why Americans don’t trust dynastic thinking…

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

‘The People’s Seat.’

This was easily the most important thing said at yesterday’s Brown/Coakley debate.

(Via American Glob; H/T The Other McCain; see also Nice Deb.)

There’s a reason why Brown raised 1.3 million dollars in just over 24 hours (and over 1 million in 24 hours) yesterday; it’s because the Massachusetts Senatorial race reeks of entitlement. The major reason why Brown is able to be in a position to line himself up for an upset in a week? Because Coakley decided that she owned the seat sufficiently to not even bother with campaigning. And why did she decide that? Because she’s a Massachusetts Democrat and the Kennedy clan signed off on her nomination. What else did she need?

The truly ironic bit? Ted Kennedy must be spinning in his grave over this dismissive display of arrogance. The man was legendary for his thoroughness when it came to constituent services.

Moe Lane

PS: Scott Brown for Massachusetts Senate.

Crossposted to RedState.

Submitted without comment.

Meanwhile, listening to ”Reflections on Sen. Kennedy … Lion of the Senate” on the Diane Rehm Show on the drive home last night, I was deeply moved to hear Newsweek’s Ed Klein tell guest host Katty Kay about Kennedy’s love of humor. How the late senator loved to hear and tell Chappaquiddick jokes, and was always eager to know if anyone had heard any new ones. Not that Kennedy lacked remorse, Klein quickly added, seeming to intuit that my jaw and perhaps those of other listeners had just hit the floorboards. I gather it was a self-deprecating manuever on Kennedy’s part, exercised with the famous Kennedy charm, though it sounds like one of those “I guess you had to have been there” things.

– Jules Crittenden

Crossposted to RedState.

An entertaining update to the Cape Wind matter.

The Cape Wind matter is one that I mentioned here – essentially, Ted Kennedy is enthusastic about wind farms, except when they’re within view of his luxurious Nantucket estate – and, via RedState diarist Vladimir (be sure to check out his Louisiana coverage) we get the report that one of President Bush’s last acts was to green-light said project… thus giving the new President a subtle, nasty, and frankly quite deserved headache.  More on it here: it should be quite amusing to see the fallout on this one.