Like father, like son?
Well, maybe but not quite.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s announcement for president is not expected to do to President Biden what his father — Sen. Robert F. Kennedy — did to President Lyndon B. Johnson.
And that was to knock LBJ out of the box.
Two weeks after New York Sen. Robert F. Kennedy announced that he was running for president in March 1968 against fellow Democrat President Johnson, Johnson declined to seek re-election.
Johnson, who was plagued by the Vietnam War, had earlier been softened up by initial Democrat challenger U.S. Sen. Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota.
McCarthy, a vocal anti-Vietnam War candidate, came close to defeating Johnson in the March 12 New Hampshire Democrat primary. In a strong second-place finish, McCarthy showed LBJ’s vulnerability.
Sen. Kennedy then dropped in, and Johnson dropped out.
Kennedy, favored to win the Democrat Party nomination, was fatally shot June 5, 1968, at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles after winning the California Democrat primary. He died the next day. He was 43.
Now his son, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., 69, of New York, the longest of longshots, is challenging fellow Democrat President Joe Biden like his father challenged Lyndon Johnson.
He has a long road ahead of him, to say the least. But he is running against a president whose age and mental acumen will be an issue.
While Biden may be a frequently befuddled 80-year-old who has trouble putting two sentences together, he has said he is planning to run for re-election.
Despite his miserable record, both domestically and in foreign policy — as well as his plummeting in the polls — there are no Democrats of any stature calling him out over his failed administration.
Until Kennedy came along Biden’s only Democrat opponent was a spiritual advisor and author Marianne Williamson.
Now he’s got a Kennedy running against him. And while Kennedy, is a strong environmentalist, he is also a controversial anti-vaccine zealot.
He is also the nephew of President John F. Kennedy and Sen. Ted Kennedy, which may amount to something, although nobody knows quite what.
Kennedy announced his candidacy Wednesday at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel to a surprising overflow and enthusiastic crowd looking for a Democrat who can at least give Joe Biden second thoughts about running again.
Can this Robert Kennedy knock Joe Biden out of the box the way his father did to LBJ?
A television debate between the two would be something to behold.
Kennedy is the maverick of the family, which is why hardly any members of the extended Kennedy clan have endorsed him. The Kennedy family, including Robert Kennedy Jr., has had a close relationship with Biden over the years. In fact, most of them outspokenly support Biden.
This is understandable since half of them are on Joe Biden’s payroll, including the recently appointed former Congressman Joe Kennedy III of Newton who Biden appointed as special envoy to Northern Ireland.
Vicki Kennedy, the late Ted Kennedy’s widow, is ambassador to Austria; Caroline Kennedy, JFK’s daughter, is ambassador to Australia and Kathleen Townsend Kennedy, who is Robert Kennedy’s sister, is an attorney at the U.S. Department of Labor.
“I prefer not to talk,” Townsend said to CNN when asked about her brother’s candidacy.
Kerry Kennedy, Robert Kennedy’s sister, who heads the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Foundation, said, “I love my brother Bobby, but I do not share or endorse his opinions on many issues.”
But Kennedy did get the support of his wife Cheryl Hines, the star of television’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” who called her husband “a fearless leader.”
Nobody knows at this point how far Kennedy’s campaign will go, or how much of an impact it will have on Biden’s decision to run again.
While the left-leaning mainstream media will continue to defend and pump up Joe Biden—and downplay, demean or cancel Kennedy — Robert Kennedy will be hard to ignore.
While he may not be Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, Joe Biden is no President John F. Kennedy either. Far, far from it.
Peter Lucas is a veteran Massachusetts political reporter and columnist.