Get Ready for KKT

SHE is, they say, the “next Kennedy”—the member of the clan who will emerge as torchbearer for what the Kennedys and their enthusiasts like to call “The Dream.” What is “The Dream”? You know: kindness to black people; reverence for nature; contempt for Republicans; that sort of thing. After the death of JFK’s son in July, a nostalgia for what was praiseworthy about “Camelot” enveloped the nation. There was even some talk that this “next Kennedy” might make a vice-presidential running mate for Al Gore. She is not quite ready for the big time; but she is getting there, fairly quickly.

Kathleen Kennedy Townsend is lieutenant governor of Maryland—not exactly a glamour position, but one from which she is impressing Democrats around the country. She is the eldest grandchild of old Joe and Rose Kennedy, the first child of Robert and Ethel Kennedy. She is the first Kennedy woman to have stood for office; the first Kennedy of either flavor to have lost a general election; the first Kennedy of her generation known to have departed, even a smidgen, from orthodox left- liberalism. She is that rare thing-—a true “New Democrat,” distinguishable from Old ones like her Uncle Ted. The journalist and sometimes-Anonymous novelist Joe Klein has dubbed her “the best and the brightest of the young Kennedys.” This may not strike you as towering praise, but it is worth a lot in certain circles.

About the Author

Jay Nordlinger

Jay Nordlinger was a senior editor of National Review and a book fellow at National Review Institute.

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SHE is, they say, the “next Kennedy”—the member of the clan who will emerge as torchbearer for what the Kennedys and their enthusiasts like to call “The Dream.” What is “The Dream”? You know: kindness to black people; reverence for nature; contempt for Republicans; that sort of thing. After the death of JFK’s son in July, a nostalgia for what was praiseworthy about “Camelot” enveloped the nation. There was even some talk that this “next Kennedy” might make a vice-presidential running mate for Al Gore. She is not quite ready for the big time; but she is getting there, fairly quickly.

Kathleen Kennedy Townsend is lieutenant governor of Maryland—not exactly a glamour position, but one from which she is impressing Democrats around the country. She is the eldest grandchild of old Joe and Rose Kennedy, the first child of Robert and Ethel Kennedy. She is the first Kennedy woman to have stood for office; the first Kennedy of either flavor to have lost a general election; the first Kennedy of her generation known to have departed, even a smidgen, from orthodox left- liberalism. She is that rare thing-—a true “New Democrat,” distinguishable from Old ones like her Uncle Ted. The journalist and sometimes-Anonymous novelist Joe Klein has dubbed her “the best and the brightest of the young Kennedys.” This may not strike you as towering praise, but it is worth a lot in certain circles.