Ted Kennedy

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[[File:Ted Kennedy, official photo portrait crop.jpg|thumb|165px|2009 official photo.]]{{uspolitics}}
'''Edward Moore "Ted" Kennedy''' {{lived|1932|2009}} was a member of the [[United States]] [[Democratic Party]] and at the time of his death the senior Senator from [[Massachusetts]]. He was the youngest [[Kennedy]] brother, after Joseph Kennedy Jr., [[John F. Kennedy]] and [[Robert F. Kennedy]], and had done extensive political work since the 1960s, taking staunch [[liberal]] stances on a variety of topics and endorsing several Democratic presidential hopefuls.

==Political career==
Kennedy was first elected to the Senate in 1964 and due to his popularity was re-elected in every subsequent Senate election to 2006. He served on several committees during his career, including the Committee on Armed Services, the Committee on the Judiciary and the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, of which he was chairman. Though a popular Senator, Kennedy did not run for president until the 1980 Presidential Race, where he ran against then-president Jimmy Carter. He took 10 states during the primaries, but ultimately lost. He never ran for President again, but endorsed several Democratic candidates in subsequent elections. Kennedy's bid against incumbent president Carter is considered one of the factors causing the President to lose re-election, as a result of a divide in the party.

===Influence within the party===
Kennedy was one of the most popular senators at the time of his death, being then, the second-longest serving senator (behind Robert Byrd) within the U.S. Senate and having been placed on Time Magazine's list of "America's 10 Best Senators" in April 2006. Such was his influence and popularity, that Democratic candidates for the presidency considered his endorsement to be extremely valuable. The list of Senator Kennedy's endorsed candidates from the [[1988 U.S. Presidential Election|1988]] Presidential Election are as follows:

*1980: Himself (lost to [[Jimmy Carter]] at the convention)
*1988: Michael Dukakis (lost to [[George H. W. Bush|Bush]])
*[[1992 U.S. Presidential Election|1992]]: Paul Tsongas (lost primary race to victor [[Bill Clinton|Clinton]])
*[[2000 U.S. Presidential Election|2000]]: [[Al Gore]] (
victor
 lost to [[George W. Bush|Bush]])
*[[2004 U.S. Presidential Election|2004]]: [[John Kerry]] (lost to Bush)
*[[2008 U.S. Presidential Election|2008]]: [[Barack Obama]] (victor)

===Stands on issues===
Kennedy was one of the loudest liberal voices in the U.S. Senate. He was an advocate for [[abortion]] rights, [[disability]] rights, gay marriage, Single-Payer Healthcare, and tighter gun control, and a critic of the [[Iraq War]], [[George W. Bush]]'s domestic spying programs and the troop 
escalation
 ''surge'' in [[Iraq]] in 2007. In 1987 Kennedy helped to "Bork" ultra-right wing judge [[Robert Bork]].  He delivered these memorable lines during the hearings:

{{quotebox|“Robert Bork’s America is a land in which women would be forced into back-alley [[abortion|abortions]], blacks would sit at [[segregation|segregated]] lunch counters, rogue police could [[Fourth Amendment|break down citizens’ doors]] in midnight raids, and schoolchildren could not be taught about [[evolution]], writers and artists could be [[censorship|censored]] at the whim of government, and the doors of the federal courts would be shut on the fingers of millions of Americans.”}}

==Scandal==
On July 18, 1969, Kennedy was driving (likely under the influence) a former RFK campaign worker, Mary Jo Kopechne, back to her hotel from a party on Chappaquiddick Island off the coast of Massachusetts. A wrong turn caused Kennedy to turn onto a railguard-less bridge and swerve into a pond. Kennedy survived but Kopechne died, and the event continued to haunt him (and caused him to lose in the 1980 presidential primary — oh and the Kopechne family was somewhat affected too, albeit not politically) as the "Chappaquiddick Incident".  Much of the scandal revolved around Kennedy's delay in reporting the event to the police until the next morning when he was caught.

Throughout his time in office, he also had multiple affairs and made no attempt to conceal it. He was also, and again ''after killing someone'', known to get roaring drunk with his Senate buddy {{wpl|Christopher Dodd||,}} to the point that restaurants had to improvise a personal bar for them to keep up.<ref>https://www.gq.com/story/kennedy-ted-senator-profile</ref>

Kennedy was listed in sex trafficker [[Jeffrey Epstein]]'s "black book" of contacts.<ref>[https://epsteinsblackbook.com/all-names 1971 names] ''The Digital Epstein's Little Black Book''.</ref>

==Health==
Unlike his older brothers Joseph, John, and Robert, who met the Reaper before their times, Ted survived being at Death's door on many occasions. In 1964, he survived a plane crash with severe back injury, broken ribs, a punctured lung and internal bleeding. This incident was the cause of the senator's health problems late in life, as he has suffered from chronic pain ever since then. 

In October 2007 Kennedy had surgery to unclog a blocked carotid artery.

On May 17, 2008, he was taken to Cape Cod Hospital and then Massachusetts General via helicopter after complaining about feeling ill, where it was found that the senator had symptoms of a stroke, after he had suffered two seizures earlier.

On May 20, 2008, he was diagnosed with a malignant glioma (a type of cancerous brain tumor). Yet he felt good and was even better when the tumor was removed on June 2. He underwent radiation treatment and chemotherapy before being released on June 9. He returned to good health at the time.

On January 20, 2009, Kennedy was taken ill during the Inaugural Lunch, which seemed reminiscent of his stroke episode.  It was determined to be due to fatigue, however.  

Kennedy passed away on August 25, 2009 as a result of the aforementioned brain tumors.  He was laid to rest in Arlington Cemetery near the graves of his brothers John and Robert.
 
==External links==
*[http://wwwcdn.printmag.com/wp-content/uploads/vw.jpg The old ''National Lampoon'' was the OG ''Onion''.]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kennedy, Ted}}
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[[Category:United States presidential candidates]]

Categories: Catholics, Epsteinsphere, Former United States Senators, Lawyers, Liberals, Military, United States politicians, United States presidential candidates