The Hope Still Lives

The Hope Still Lives
The Campaign of 1988 and Beyond


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"For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die."
-Senator Edward Moore Kennedy at the 1980 Democratic National Convention
 
Chapter 1: This is the Year

THIS IS THE YEAR

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Senator Edward Moore Kennedy was the younger brother of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States. Senator Edward Moore Kennedy was the younger brother of Robert Francis Kennedy, the former U.S. Attorney General and Senator from New York who was fatally wounded from an assassin’s bullet just months before he was presumed to win the 1968 Presidential Election. Senator Edward Moore Kennedy was the son of Joseph Patrick Kennedy, who had long wanted to be President of the United States. Like his father and his two brothers, Senator Edward Moore Kennedy wanted to be President of the United States. In 1980, the Massachusetts Senator (more commonly known as Ted or Teddy Kennedy) had made an ill-fated primary challenge to President Jimmy Carter. Kennedy had failed. Since his primary bid it had been eight years. Eight years of a conservative Republican presidency. Eight years of far-right rhetoric. Eight years of liberal ideals being passed over for increases in defense spending and social conservatism. Senator Ted Kennedy wanted to change that. And so, in March of 1987, Senator Teddy Kennedy announced that he was running for President of the United States, again.

“I don’t want to be President of the United States for the glamour or for the power. I do not want to be President of the United States for any reason other than to serve the people. I want to be President of the United States because I know that we can move our nation forward, into a brighter future. I know that we can form a nation where all have the access to affordable health insurance. I know that we can form a nation where our children succeed in school and where no child starves on the streets of our major cities. I know that together we can make a difference, and I am ready to lead us in making that difference. The most important test of Presidential leadership is to release the native energies of the people. The only thing that paralyzes us today is the myth that we cannot move. This country is not prepared to sound retreat. It is ready to advance. It is willing to make a stand. And so am I,” Kennedy told supporters in Boston as he announced his presidential campaign. After that speech, the rigors of campaigning began.

The Massachusetts Senator travelled to Iowa and New Hampshire to meet and talk with voters. He toured factories and small businesses. He travelled to grocery stores and gas stations. He went to local town meetings. Despite a massive lead in the polls, Kennedy was not going to take his campaign’s advantage for granted. Colorado Senator Gary Hart, a fellow Democrat, was Kennedy’s chief rival for the Democratic nomination. Hart spoke about 1988 being a redefining election for the nation, saying, “This election in 1988 is not a question of whether our country should move left or right. It’s an issue of recapturing our basic principles, beliefs, and values. And -- as we did in 1932 and 1960 -- moving this country forward. Changing.” He was four years younger than Kennedy, and worked to position himself as the youthful candidate in the race, though neither of the men was particularly old. Hart was campaigning hard for voters who were afraid that Kennedy’s integrity would come up short in a general election campaign against Vice President George H.W. Bush, who everyone knew would be the Republican nominee for president in 1988. And so the Democratic Primaries of 1988 were set: Kennedy fighting for the liberal vote while Hart, despite also being a liberal, tried to carve out his own share of voters who were concerned about Kennedy’s electability.

It was more complex than that. Senator Al Gore of Tennessee was in the race. Gore was a pretty conservative senator who was interested in campaigning under the Democratic Leadership Council’s banner. He was going to be the moderate everyone had talked so much about. He’s what the party needed, he had told voters across the nation. At 40 years old, it was Gore, not Hart, who possessed the youthful charm. Still, there was some question about whether or not Gore could pull it off. He didn’t have the money or name recognition of Kennedy and Hart and he wasn’t going to play well in the heavily-Democratic northeast where liberals wanted to be assured they would not be forgotten in the Democrats’ rebranding process. Also, Gore was facing a challenge in the form of Missouri Congressman Dick Gephardt, who was stealing more moderate votes away from Gore. With the “Blue Dogs” in the party seemingly split, it seemed that it would be Kennedy or Hart who would win the nomination.

But then there was the Reverend Jesse Jackson. Jackson was an African-American preacher from the South who was a civil rights leader. He had significant following in states like Alabama and South Carolina and Georgia, but there was doubt that he could be the Democratic Nominee for President. He was certainly not experienced enough, nor polished enough, to be a party’s nominee for president. No, Jackson would fare better as that candidate who inspired everyone, but just wasn’t cut out to win – the one forgotten within a decade who was only mentioned in history textbooks because of the historical nature of his candidacy. At the time Jackson was invoking a lot of feeling, but pragmatists knew he would fizzle out.

The Democratic Nominee for President of the United States in 1988 had to be Senator Kennedy. There was no one else. Kennedy had the name, the charm, the experience, the leadership, the record, the compassion, the dedication, the hard work ethic, and the resolve to be President of the United States. Surely he was destined to occupy the Oval Office, just as Jack had done and just as Bobby was intended to do. While 1960 and 1968 had been Jack and Bobby’s years, 1988 was Teddy’s and he intended to make sure he made it to the White House.

His campaign staff insisted that Teddy travel to the early primary and caucus states to rally supporters. They created an intricate collection of volunteers from around the nation to increase voter turnout in the primaries they wanted to win – a massive undertaking for the time. Kennedy was organized, fired up, and ready to go. His message was clear: change. While Hart had hoped to take the message, Kennedy had backed his slogan up with results. “I believe in records. Records are important,” Kennedy told reporters, “and my record is clear: I’m a fighter in the Senate who has never abandoned my principles.” He talked at length about his successful halting of the Robert Bork nomination, he lashed out at the Reagan Administration for the Iran-Contra Affair, and he spoke eloquently and passionately about the issue that Kennedy had worked on his entire life: health care reform. Teddy wanted to be president because he wanted to make change, and that’s why many voters wanted to see him in the Oval Office.

The Democratic Primaries would not be a complete guarantee. Rumors of marital infidelity had hurt Kennedy’s standing within the eyes of the electorate, and Kennedy was going to have to work hard to prove himself a family man. His mother hit the campaign trail for her son, despite the fact that she had deep reservations about him pursuing a campaign. As Kennedy would later write, “Mother was concerned about my safety. I told her, ‘Mother, it’s not about me, it’s about the country. You have to let me do this.’ She gave-in.” John F. Kennedy, Jr. and Caroline Kennedy – the former first children – travelled the nation in support of their uncle. The image of Kennedy as a family man was going to be beat into the minds of voters every second it was possible. It was part of Kennedy’s path to the White House.

In getting to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Ted Kennedy would need to campaign hard, fight hard, and play tough. He knew how to inspire hope in people’s hearts and present them with facts to win over their minds. He knew how to use rhetoric to persuade and capitalize on his record to get votes. Ted Kennedy was a political master, but his path to the White House, and what happened after Election Night 1988, is perhaps one of the greatest stories of American politics.
 

DTanza

Banned
I'm imagining a prominent Republican making a really moronic comment like "Where's a nutjob with a gun when you need one?" and stirring up a big controversy.
 
Chapter 2: Sex and Politics

SEX AND POLITICS

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The 1988 Presidential Campaign was continuing full-speed ahead. Senator Ted Kennedy had the edge, of course, but Colorado Senator Gary Hart was still working hard and pulling in a strong second, with the potential to rival Senator Kennedy in some key states across the nation. Both candidates talked about the issues at length, both promised a new vision for the nation. As Kennedy talked about health care reform, Hart focused on the middle class – issues like the minimum wage, which was also a key issue of Senator Kennedy’s platform. Both were good campaigners and both were working hard to win the Democratic nomination, but sometimes sex just gets in the way of things.

No one in the nation thought that Teddy Kennedy was an angel. His brother Jack and his father were both famed womanizers, and Teddy Kennedy was also fond of the company of women. When he announced his campaign for President of the United States in 1987, and for several months in advance, Kennedy had been very particular about the women he allowed into his life. Kennedy was a bachelor, but he didn’t want to appear woman-crazy. He was accompanied by his sister-in-law Ethel, his mother, and his niece, Caroline, at campaign events around the country. Kennedy was going to need the women vote – a vote that was going almost entirely to Gary Hart. It had the potential to kill Kennedy’s chances at the nomination.

The press knew that Kennedy liked women, and so attention was focused heavily on Kennedy’s character, but soon attention spread to the other candidates, including Senator Hart. Quickly, rumors that Senator Hart was also having an affair grew, which prompted Gary Hart to make a stunning challenge to the media: he told the press to track his every move and that doing so would make them “very bored.” He also invoked the Chappaquiddick incident (where Senator Kennedy drove off a bridge drunk, leaving a young woman, Mary Jo Kopechne, dead). “I’ve never cheated on my wife. I’ve never driven home young women. I’ve never engaged in anything like that. You’re thinking of the other front runner,” Hart said, hoping to remind the media of the fact many Americans considered Kennedy to be a murderer. It wasn’t subtle, not in the least, but it was enough to make the press take Hart seriously.

Only days after Hart’s challenge to the press, two reporters from the Miami Herald observed a young woman by the name of Donna Rice leaving Hart’s home in Washington, D.C. Immediately the rumors about Donna Rice exploded. Only a couple of days later, a photograph of Donna Rice sitting on Gary Hart’s lap made the National Enquirer, and Gary Hart’s numbers sank. It was a national scandal. Of course, compared to Ted Kennedy, it was not entirely the end of Hart’s campaign, until Kennedy responded.

Hart had been trying desperately to pivot focus to Kennedy. In one frantic press conference he desperately declared, “I think there are some people in Martha’s Vineyard you should be talking to if you want a real scandal!” He looked desperate and the Colorado Senator was not successful in drawing attention away from his problem. For days, Kennedy refused to comment on the matter, until Hart continued his attacks against Kennedy’s character. Finally, the Massachusetts Senator answered the question he’d been asked frequently, “Senator, what do you think about the sex scandal involving Senator Hart?” Kennedy looked at the reporter and paused, bowed his head and looked up, “Well, I think Senator Hart needs to – Gary, if you’re listening, do what’s best for your family. Family comes first, and do what you have to do to preserve that.” The follow-up (“Senator, are you suggesting that Senator Hart should withdraw from the race?”) was not answered.

Two-and-a-half weeks after the story first broke in the Miami Herald, Senator Gary Hart announced he was withdrawing from the race for the 1988 Democratic Nomination. With that, there was no major challenge to Senator Kennedy. The 1988 Democratic Nomination was officially Teddy Kennedy’s for the taking. As Vice President George Bush travelled the nation and talked up the massive benefits of Reaganomics, the Democrats’ expected nominee started countering GOP talking points, fighting back against the notion that the conservative answer was the right answer for the nation.

Senator Kennedy worked to maintain his liberal ideas, talking-up health care reform and minimum wage increases across the nation. He spoke about fiscal responsibility, inflation, and other economic issues. Kennedy was working hard to get the American people on board with him. Technically, however, Kennedy would still need support from the Democratic Party. In Iowa, Tennessee Senator Al Gore and Missouri Congressman Dick Gephardt were both strong possibilities to win the caucus. In the South and among the African-American community, Rev. Jesse Jackson was a strong contender. While Kennedy had national appeal, there was a need to spread his support to regions where the Kennedy message wasn’t sticking. With that in mind, Kennedy picked-up the campaigning and poured a lot more money into winning the race. He was determined not to let the nomination slip through his fingers, no matter how sure everyone else was that he would come out on top.
 
I'm proud to make my 1,000th post on this forum in praise of seeing one of my favorite TL authors on this website take on one of my favorite politicians. I am immensely excited to see where this TL goes and it's already fine work two chapters in. Can't wait for more.
 
I'm proud to make my 1,000th post on this forum in praise of seeing one of my favorite TL authors on this website take on one of my favorite politicians. I am immensely excited to see where this TL goes and it's already fine work two chapters in. Can't wait for more.

Thank you! :)

And congrats on the milestone!!
 

TFSmith121

Banned
"Some men see things as they are and say why. I dream things that never were and say

why not."

Nicely done.


Best,
 

DTanza

Banned
Very nice, I'm excited to see how the primaries shape up, and who Kennedy might consider for a running mate.
 
Chapter 3: And They're Off

AND THEY'RE OFF

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Senator Ted Kennedy barely lost the Iowa Caucuses in February to his opponent, Congressman Richard Gephardt. Gephardt, a far more moderate candidate, defeated Kennedy by 70 votes in the first-in-the-nation caucus. In his victory speech Gephardt said that Iowa had proved that “no dynasty – no matter how large – could topple the desires of the American voter.” “No voter,” he said, “wants higher taxes. No voter wants a government so large that it tries to solve every problem. That’s why we won tonight: because we promised real change.”

Kennedy’s campaign team was not surprised by the loss in Iowa. In fact, they had expected it. In his speech to supporters that night, Kennedy promised that “our campaign will continue long after the Iowa Caucuses, until we have landed a true leader in the Oval Office!” His supporters rallied behind him, and Kennedy easily swept the New Hampshire Primary – winning 50% of the vote in a field of five candidates. Kennedy’s landslide victory in New Hampshire ended any questions about his being the eventual nominee. Money and votes poured into the Kennedy for President Campaign, and subsequent victories in Minnesota, South Dakota, and Maine made Kennedy the progressive champion and the likely Democratic Nominee for President.

After the first five states, former Governor of Arizona, Bruce Babbitt, withdrew from the campaign and endorsed Kennedy. Babbitt called Kennedy the strongest leader in the race and said he would be proud to say “President Kennedy” once more. With Babbitt out of the race, the field was reduced to four (Kennedy, Gephardt, Senator Al Gore, and Rev. Jesse Jackson). Kennedy campaigned hard around the nation, as did Kennedy for President surrogates, like Senators Paul Simon and Joe Biden. As the momentum quickly tallied up in Kennedy’s favor, Gephardt was unable to win the remaining 49 states that held primaries or caucuses.

The Reverend Jesse Jackson was the second-place finisher in the 1988 Democratic Primaries. He won five states: South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana. In third was Tennessee Senator Al Gore, who won three states: Tennessee, Arkansas, and North Carolina. Gerphardt would only win Iowa. The remaining 41 states all went for the Senior Senator from Massachusetts, Edward Moore Kennedy. The Democrats had decided to pick the most well-known, the most liberal, and the most controversial candidate from their field. As Vice President Bush clinched the Republican nomination, speculation turned to the road ahead: how would the general election play out?

Bush’s campaign was already running television ads to weaken Ted Kennedy’s integrity. One ad showed the bridge in Chappaquiddick on a beautiful, sunny day with a narrator simply saying “You know where Ted Kennedy stands on the issues, sure. You know what Ted Kennedy has done in the Senate, sure. But do you really know what Ted Kennedy did here? Do you?” and the ad slowly faded to black. It was a simple yet surprisingly effective ad, and it set the tone for what would become one of the dirtiest, nastiest campaigns in American political history. Kennedy responded to the Bush ad with its own about the Reagan/Bush lack of leadership. It featured Reagan’s quote about the nine most terrifying words in the English language and then countered it with a narrator saying “What about: I’m George Bush and I’ve mortgaged your children’s future?” As the narrator said that the statistics of the massive federal debt showed across the screen. It was the beginning of what would be a bitter campaign.

The American people were exposed to at least a dozen ads in print, on radio, and on television by the time of the conventions in 1988. Kennedy continued to tour the nation, touting his message of health care reform and aid to the middle class. He also spoke about the failures of the Reagan-Bush Administration. Bush talked in more general terms, referenced the prosperous economy, and called Kennedy weak on national security. To counter this, the Massachusetts Senator invoked the Iran-Contra Scandal – “Where was George Bush when President Reagan sold arms to terrorists illegally?” Bush didn’t respond, but he countered that Reagan had done much to bring the Cold War to an end, and he argued that only Bush, not Kennedy could effectively bring about the end of the Soviet Union. “We can talk about healthcare and job creation – they’re important issues – but the fact remains that Gorbachev is going to be working with a new American partner, and it needs to be somebody who knows him, somebody with experience, and somebody ready to see brighter days ahead!” Bush declared at one speech in Florida.

As the lead-up to the conventions intensified, speculation about who Kennedy and Bush would choose as their running mates continued. There were rumors that, in the wake of the pick of Geraldine Ferraro in 1984, that either Kennedy or Bush – or perhaps even both – would select female running mates. As the media started analyzing potential running mates, Bush was leading Kennedy with a slight advantage, and the media called the race “the closest since 1976, or perhaps even 1960.” The 1988 Presidential Election was just getting started.
 
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Another great update, buzzing right through the primaries but into the general election and towards a Kennedy presidency. Looking forward to more!

As the momentum quickly tallied up in Kennedy’s favor, he was unable to win the remaining 49 states that held primaries or caucuses.
Might shift this sentence elsewhere or otherwise change it to specify Gephardt, because in context it sounds like you're talking about Kennedy.
 
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