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Leaving our own preferences out of it, I think the 2016 primary season is one of the most interesting in a long time. I know Hillary is steamed about having to settle for Veep after all these years, and even that's not official. But, with John F. Kennedy Jr. having things more or less locked down, it's a terribly kept secret that although Clinton is still officially in the race, she's going to be his number two.

Something I'm surprised isn't getting talked about is a brush with disaster that Kennedy had in 1999. Bobby Kennedy's daughter, Rory, had her wedding on July 17th, 1999. Obviously her cousin John Jr was in attendance, though he, his wife and her sister arrived in town a little later than planned. John Jr was originally going to fly the three of them into Martha's Vineyard Airport in his own small plane, and in the minutes leading up to takeoff Kennedy was arguing with Essex County Airport employees who were trying to talk him out of the flight. Conditions along the route were such that in some sections he'd be visually blind and flying by instrument flight rules (IFR), for which he wasn't rated. Before takeoff however, a maintenance issue arose with Kennedy's plane; it wouldn't be airworthy for another day. Alternate transportation arrangements were made. Later, John Jr checked what the conditions in flight would have been like and was appalled; he was sure he would have become disoriented and said that they might not have made it.

Suppose the plane is all systems go, JFK Jr heads into the fog and down they go. John Jr's entry into politics in his early 40s was late, but his rise has been quick. How do politics of the last fourteen years play out in his absence? Thinking about the current race, without JFK Jr I don't think Rand Paul would be the Republican frontrunner. The GOP as a whole didn't seem all that keen on him until Kennedy declared his candidacy, which doesn't make a lot of sense as none of the other Republican hopefuls seem electable in November. The Republican machine realized that really only Paul or Ted Cruz could hope to match Kennedy's charisma, and Cruz, well, hasn't exactly worked out on that front. This primary is what got me thinking about this WI, but what of the other races Kennedy has been in, offices he's held? What other fallout could we expect from JFK Jr, his wife and sister in law dying in 1999?
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