Kennedy magic still holds Americans spellbound

Four members of the clan — Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, Representative Patrick Kennedy of Rhode Island and Maryland Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend — were front and centre at the quadrennial Democratic gathering.

Just as family members have been for nearly 45 years.

Almost every four years, through triumph and tragedy, success and scandal, one member or another appeared on centre stage at the gathering of Democrats. This year’s meeting in Los Angeles has special meaning.

Not only is it the site of one of the family’s greatest moments with the nomination of John, but it is also the site of one of its greatest tragedies, the assassination of Robert Kennedy in a hotel kitchen after winning the 1968 California primary.

"On one hand it is very exciting because it recalls memories of 1960 ,when the first Catholic President was nominated here, had brought a new sense of hope and confidence to the country," Townsend, Robert’s daughter, said on CNN on Sunday.

"But also … it is where my father’s campaign ended in 1968," she said. "So in one sense, it is also a memory of the sadness that we felt."

Townsend had no major role at this year’s convention but as a member of the Maryland delegation and a much-talked-about potential candidate for governor she drew a great deal of attention.

The convention will give Schlossberg, John Kennedy’s only daughter, and Edward Kennedy Prime time television appearances on Tuesday night.

It will be the first time Schlossberg addresses the convention and she is likely to offer a tribute to her late brother John Kennedy Jr., who died in a plane crash off the New England coast just over a year ago.

Patrick Kennedy, Edward’s son, also has a brief afternoon appearance before the convention but as head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee he raises millions for Congressional races. Even if the general public does not see him, the Democrats who count will.

MAGIC BEGINS IN 1956

The Kennedy convention magic actually began in 1956, four years before John’s inauguration, when the Democratic presidential nominee Adlai Stevenson left it up to the convention delegates to pick his running mate.

A boomlet began for 39-year-old John Kennedy, who on the second ballot came within 40 votes of the nomination. But then one of the other candidates, Tennessee Sen. Albert Gore Sr., Father of the current Democratic presidential candidate, dropped out and threw his support to fellow Tennessee Sen. Estes Kefauver.

Kefauver won that battle but the Democrats lost in November and suddenly John Kennedy was one of the favourites in 1960. That year he used his nominating speech in Los Angeles to launch the "New Frontier" and went on to win the White House.

However, future Kennedy appearances at conventions were often marked more by nostalgia and sadness than victory.

Nine months after John Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, stepped out on the stage of the Democratic convention to introduce a film about his brother. But he could not speak for some time as the delegates erupted in a heartfelt catharsis that would have drowned out anything he said.

Robert Kennedy was expected to be at the centre of the 1968 convention in a battle for the presidential nomination but he was gunned down two-and-a-half months before, leaving memories of that gathering to the Vietnam War protesters in the streets.

By 1980, it was Edward Kennedy who was in the presidential race but by convention time, President Jimmy Carter had enough delegates for renomination. An effort by Kennedy to change the rules and free some delegates failed and Carter won.

In his address to the convention, Kennedy acknowledged his defeat but said, "The work goes on. The cause endures. The hopes still live and the dream shall never die."

The resulting demonstration stopped the convention cold for 30 minutes.

Carter had the delegate’s votes but Kennedy had many of their hearts. The lasting image of the gathering was Carter chasing Kennedy around the podium for the convention-ending joint picture. They finally posed for a very stiff one.

Since that time there has been no convention where the Kennedys were serious National candidates, but members of the family have appeared to remind the delegates of the hopes of the past and the possibilities of the future.

Edward Kennedy regularly was good for a rousing red-meatspeech that excited the party’s liberal wing.

But he had poignant moments too, such as 1988 when he introduced his nephew John Kennedy Jr. to Democrats longing for another star, not knowing that once again it would not be.