Well Dale, I think I can try to explain why Ted has been around for so long although I'm not sure you'll find it an acceptable answer. It is, at least to my thinking, the truth though. I think the thing about these Massachusetts liberals is that at the state level they go Republican as they believe that benefits their fiscal conservative leanings...but at the Federal level they are happy with a hardcore lefty like Ted. Bush is outspending everyone under the sun so it's not like from that aspect we'd be worse off with a Democrat.

Having lived in Massachusetts the majority of my life and this being where my parents have lived since before 1960, I've had plenty of exposure to the Kennedys. Both of my parents voted for John and would have voted for Bobby as well had he made it that far. I remember being in a room with Kennedy supporters when Ted was running for president. Now this was not a meeting of his campaign people but just a group of people that had been  supporters of John, Bobby, and Ted. The discussion I remember was very emotional and what the people were discussing...my parents included...was if they should vote for Ted for president. The big issue that was causing the emotional turmoil was that many people felt if they voted for Ted...and some were afraid just because he was running...that he would be assassinated. My father loudly said that he would not vote for another Kennedy for president in his lifetime. He said that the family had given too much already and he felt that Ted would meet the same fate if he ran. The reason he was there speaking up was he didn't believe Ted should be running at all. I remember later my father going over all this stuff with me and how passionate he was about not being a part of "getting another Kennedy killed."

People who lived through all of that I believe took it all very personal. I remember being very moved by the whole thing and seeing all these people crying and remembering and talking about all the good things the Kennedys had done. Like it or not and whatever anyone thinks of them they did touch a lot of lives. I think what gets lost these days is all the good they did and what it was they stood for.

Having been around for as long as he has Ted has helped a lot of people. So you have to realize he's got a core group of supporters.

He has been turned into the ultimate whipping boy by those on the right and the media though. They have managed to change what people think when they hear the name Kennedy. Now it's a joke when you hear it...people think of car crashes and boozing...late night parties and sexual escapades...they think of the word "liberal" and all of the ugliness that's been spewed to turn that word into a slur. Which is how it is now used. The words "Kennedy" and "liberal" once meant something else...something better. Now they are just a cheap shot flung from the mouth of some baby boomer Republican who has no understanding of either. Because he has no desire to understand them. We live in a world where cheap shots and degrading your opponent matter more than the truth. 

I've wondered why he keeps going. What motivates Ted to keep running? As long as he's around he will remain fodder for the right and they will continue to treat him and the Kennedy family as a joke. I would never want to go through that...seeing and hearing people who don't even know me spewing crap in an effort to humiliate and degrade me and my family.

I mean look at it from an honest perspective and you see...here's a guy that was in a car accident...how many years ago now...1969...something that, God forbid...could happen to anyone of us...and a woman died...and it's used as a joke and to paint him as a murderer and a drunk...and it's never forgotten...ever...and he lives in a world where someone will always bring it up again and again...to say nothing of how that may make the woman's family feel...

That alone I think would make me want to take my own life I think. Just to make it stop. Just to not have to hear it again. It is nothing short of amazing that this guy endures. I know that today people always associate that sort of thing with the most ugly parts of human behavior...he's greedy...he lusts for power...he loves the spotlight...but if these were the reasons he's hung around I don't see much of a payoff in it for him. He's probably as hated as George W. Bush is nationwide. It's not exactly a compliment when they call him the Senate's "Liberal Lion."

We don't live in a world anymore that believes in common decency though...we don't believe in privacy...we don't believe in fighting fair...

We believe in exposing people...in "what have you done for me lately"...in forming quick opinions...we believe in slander...we believe it's ok to fight dirty as long as you don't get caught...we believe "the other side is always going to fight dirty" so it's justified if my side does...we believe there's always someone else just waiting to try to rip us off...we believe in winning at any cost and once you've won the proper behavior is rub the losers nose in it until they want to kill themselves...we believe in hypocrisy...we believe in lies...we believe the end justifies the means...we believe that there's nothing we can do to change it...

That of course makes us believe we're helpless. That the best we can do is too protect what we own, what we have, and our family. That to some extent it's every man for himself.

What does all this have to do with a guy named Ted Kennedy? Well, some people (in Massachusetts anyway) remember more than just Chappaquiddick. They remember a family that gave two sons to their country. They remember that these men really worked to change this country. That they inspired the nation and the world. They remember years of service and in some cases personal help from a man named Kennedy. 

I think they vote for him based on a big picture that is no longer available to the rest of the country. When I look at Ted what I see is...well an American tragedy...not some glowing extention of Camelot. There was no Kennedy dynasty. John was killed. Bobby was killed. Ted had to watch this happen and then live with a name and an image that quite honestly was far bigger than him. Hell, no human being could live up to that. Now they didn't kill Ted but there certainly has been a 40 year effort to turn him into a joke and to change what the name Kennedy means to us. Don't get me wrong...he's a hugely flawed individual...hell who can say they are not. I think he should hang it up when he finishes out this term.

As long as there are people around though that remember a time when there were guys named Kennedy trying to change things...a different time really...before Nixon...before we felt like most of our leaders would completely betray us for their own gain...I think he'll keep getting votes.

In my opinion he's been around too long and because of what he's been turned into (you can argue honestly I'd say that some of this is his own fault) he probably hurts the Democrats more than helping them. Take Pat's comment about Kerry being "Teddy Jr."...he uses the name as a slur and we all know what he means. We know that all Massachusetts Democrats will be labeled this way...even though it's like saying every baseball player is just like Ty Cobb. It's the kind of generalization we love these days. It makes things simple for us...we don't need to look any deeper. Politics these days loves a good generalization, a good rationalization, and a set of statistics to back them up. Nice huh?

I also have never really liked the idea of turning politics into a career. I think it was always meant to be something where you go serve your time, as a public service, and then go back to trying to contribute in the private sector. The problem with that idea now is that the system itself has become such a maze it takes a pro to be able to navigate it. So, maybe I'm wrong about that.

Ah well...that's enough of a ramble...and I guess I'm probably going nowhere with it anyway...