Opinion: Ted Kennedy heads home

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Edward M. Kennedy, whose brain-tumor diagnosis brought the U.S. Senate to a halt yesterday, headed home this morning after recovering ‘remarkably quickly’ from a biopsy procedure. But the upbeat sound of that obscures a dire prognosis.

Kennedy’s illness gives rise to reflection on something of a symbolic and generational shift in American politics. Kennedy, the long-serving senator from Massachusetts, is the last of Joseph Kennedy Sr.‘s four sons -- Joe Jr., who was killed in World War II; and John the president and Bobby the senator, both assassinated.

But it was the sense of hope that Kennedy’s political brothers tapped in the 1960s t hat Barack Obama, a literal child of the ‘60s (born in 1961), has been trying to revive in his campaign. So there’s an irony in the timing of Kennedy’s diagnosis, coming just as Obama nears the tipping point in his quest for the Democratic presidential nomination.

While it might seem cold and premature, Kennedy’s illness is already sparking speculation about two elements of succession. Who might assume his seat in the Senate, to which he was reelected two years ago, should he become incapacitated? And who, if anyone, would emerge as the symbolic leader of one of the nation’s most significant political families?

-- Scott Martelle