alternatehistory.com

“We now bring you Roger Mudd’s interview with Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts. Two days ago, Sen. Kennedy announced his intention to challenge President Carter for the Democratic nomination.”




MUDD: “Senator, why do you want to be President of the United States?”
KENNEDY: “I want to be President for the factory workers in Pennsylvania, the coal miners of West Virginia, the forgotten Americans who have been left out of President Carter’s Democratic Party.
MUDD: “To summarize, you are challenging the President because you disagree with the ideological direction the President has taken?”
KENNEDY: “Yes, this is not a personal vendetta against the President. Deregulation of our industry, following the same economic policies as are being pursued in Britain, ignoring the plight of the poor. The President should run as a Republican, because those are the monetarist policies he has followed for the past three years.”
MUDD: Have the policies that many refer to as New Deal ideology, championed by Speaker O’Neill among others, worked to Americans’ benefit? We all remember the stagflation of the past decade…”

“Over these past four years, we have lost sight of who the Democratic Party represents. Instead of being the party of the underprivileged, American workers and those who suffer discrimination, we are now the party of big business and Thatcherism. America needs a choice, not an echo, and that is why I will challenge President Carter for the Democratic nomination. In every city, in every town, in every hamlet across this great nation, I will take the fight to the people.”
- Sen. Ted Kennedy announcing his candidacy, Nov. 17, 1979



“I’ll whoop his ass.”
- President Carter, privately


“He’ll be a disaster for Britain, mark my words. Ireland is none of his business, period, and I’ll tell him to his face if he thinks otherwise.”

- British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, privately

“It is what it is.”

- Canadian Prime Minister Joe Clark, Nov. 19, 1979


“At the outset, all the Democratic powers that-be worried that we would split the party wide open and elect Reagan in November. I thought differently- that Americans wouldn’t elect a man whose oratorical talents masked his Goldwater Republicanism. Bush would have been the tougher fight: deep knowledge of foreign policy, business experience, and a Southerner. But the GOP wouldn’t pick him: hadn’t held elected office long enough and was too moderate for them.”

- Ted Kennedy interviewed by Adam Clymer, 1991

Carter addresses reporters, Nov. 18, 1979



“I wish to assure all those present that I was not surprised at Senator Kennedy’s announcement. I could’ve told you that this would happen last year. He has opposed all my efforts to realign the Democratic Party with the beliefs of Main Street America, which has had enough of the New Deal philosophy espoused by Senator Kennedy. This is not out of a sincere desire to help the poor, but is born out of obscene ambition. I will win the nomination and make Senator Kennedy like it, mark my words.”

- President Carter’s White House press conference of Nov. 22





DONKEY DUEL: CARTER, KENNEDY TRADE BARBS


JAMES RESTON
Nov. 23, 1979

“At yesterday’s White House press conference, President Jimmy Carter condemned the entry of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) into the Democratic race. Framing the contest as one of competing visions for the Democratic Party, this race will likely force the President to concede some planks at the Democratic Convention. Many Democratic insiders suggest that Kennedy will not be able to deny the President renomination. One senior Carter aide said “he’s only running because Kennedys are supposed to run for President. Democrats want morality in a President, in which Ted is sorely deficient.” Kennedy replied that “I intend to wage a campaign in all 50 states. The President will be stumping in Massachusetts and I will be campaigning across the South.” On the Republican side, Gov. Ronald Reagan declared that “how can Americans trust the Democrats, when they will be choosing between a failed President and a man who is loyal to no one but himself?” George H.W. Bush refused comment on Kennedy’s entry.”


“There was no one who thought that we could win anything in the South. Carter was assumed to have the whole region locked up as a native and being on the right wing of the party. My research found that there were many poor Southerners of all races who were disenchanted with Carter’s lack of attention to their needs. I was under no illusions of Dixie being a jackpot, but proportional representation could work in our favor if we had the proper organization. That was my job.”

Backstage in the Backrooms: Interview with Robert Kennedy Jr. July 2002


“That this House has no confidence in the Government. Ayes: 133, Nays: 139. I declare this motion failed.”

- Failure of non-confidence motion against Prime Minister Joe Clark’s PC government, Dec. 13


“By the end of 1979, we were still polling ten points behind Carter in Iowa. I have never been a believer in Hail Mary passes, but the senior staff thought differently. What does a senator from Massachusetts know about farming, they said? He might not know a lot about farming, but he knew that Carter’s trade policies caused foreign grain to undercut his earnings. The farmers also knew that Ted Kennedy opposed those policies. New Hampshire was a different story: they have traditionally liked to deliver upset to perceived front-runners. On Jan. 4, Gallup showed us five points behind the President.”

- Robert Kennedy Jr. interviewed by Tim Russert, 2004
Top