My kids (adults) keep asking me if the Obama campaign, the universal appeal, the energy is like it was with Bobby. It couldn’t be MY Bobby moment, I had already had mine, but was it theirs. Honestly, we would have a much better world if we all lived Bobby moments (the good parts) every election, everyday. If we ever get back in the right track we can have a lifetime of Bobby moments.
That being said, it was a different time, a different place, different circumstances for all there are some similarities. I was not yet 24 years old, expecting my second child and hopeful for the future because my husband had finally found a good job. That hope grew to be hope for the country and for my children’s future with the entrance of Bobby Kennedy to the presidential race. Follow me below the fold for a snapshot of history and my take on if is possible for lightening to strike twice in one person’s lifetime.
When Robert Francis Kennedy was assassinated June 6, 1968 the heart was ripped from my body, I gave up any real political involvement other than continuing to vote, for 26 years. It is still painful for me to look back and remember, I know I am not alone.
1968 was an interesting year, the war in Vietnam droned on, Johnson was running for re-election and Bobby said he wouldn’t enter the race for the Presidency. The story goes it was the author Pete Hamill who wrote Bobby a letter in early 1968 asking him to reconsider a run. In the letter he reminded Bobby that pictures of his brother hung in the homes of millions of poor people and he needed to honor the promise they saw in JFK. Until then Bobby altho asked to run as an anti-war candidate had not been interested.
Eugene McCarthy was running against Johnson, it was thought then and probably still is trying to unseat an incumbent President is a pretty impossible task but in the New Hampshire primary Johnson barely edged out McCarthy much to everyone’s surprise. It was within days of the New Hampshire primary Bobby announced his candidacy.
“I do not run for the Presidency merely to oppose any man, but to propose new policies. I run because I am convinced that this country is on a perilous course and because I have such strong feelings about what must be done, and I feel that I’m obliged to do all I can.”
McCarthy wasn’t happy and Johnson decided to unrun for another term and was less happy about Bobby entering late as what he considered a spoiler. Hubert Humphrey another good man then joined Bobby and McCarthy and it was game on. Humphrey had entered so late he wasn’t on the primary ballots however he did have the endorsement of Congress and major politicians and basically was an inside candidate. McCarthy and Bobby would battle for the votes and the delegates while Humphrey thought he would get the nomination by aclaimation on the floor of the Convention.
Eugene McCarthy was anti-war, a man of integrity, but Bobby was more.
For Bobby it wasn’t just about the war. Bobby spoke for those who’s voice had not been heard since FDR. It was about racial and economic justice, ending poverty. He wanted to engage young voters in the process because they were our future. He had a non-aggressive foreign policy, no more Vietnams. He was honest and direct in his interaction with the country. I thought he wanted to engage America in a partnership that could bring about necessary change and better the lives of all of us. Not empty promises but a partnership of energy and ideas to move us into a much better future.
He did JFK proud. It was a time of real hope in this country. A time of real involvement by young and old and everyone in between. It was a rolling revolution fueled by stops in towns and cities where he actually talked with people, not just giving stump speeches but engaging us all. Letting us believe, giving us something to believe in.
And so this wonderous revolution went to California where we were all so sure he would emerge the undisputed candidate for the Presidency of the United States.
Sounds like Obama? Sounds like Edwards too. Understand Bobby wasn’t the great orator, no really soaring rhetoric, his speeches read better. He was an ordinary speaker with extraordinary ideas and an extraordinary way of connecting with people.
His now famous speech in Indianapolis announcing the death of MLK April 4, 1968.
Race to the Whitehouse
His speech at the Ambassador Hotel after the California Primary win.
Part 2
Part 3 And it was over, if indeed it ever been our time and our candiate to lead our country.
As much as I want, I can’t allow this to be another Bobby moment, because Bobby the President never would have happened. I need this to be the real deal, the Bobby moment we hold in our hearts, the way we hoped it would be the first time we took the thrilling ride on the hope and change train. If our time has come so has the time come for Bobby’s dreams to be realized.
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when and where it is going to strike.
I was a senior in College waiting for graduation day when Bobby was murdered. The war was still raging. Most of us were facing the draft. I was still shattered by the murder of Dr. King. I wasn’t going to Vietnam; I was going into VISTA (an occupational deferment) after graduation and ultimately to be a community organizer in rural Alabama.
My kids are for Obama. They have the same excitement about him that I and so many others had about RFK. This excitement is going to take the voters between 18 and 30 and send them to the polls. It’s going to create an entirely new, youthful, progressive electorate. It’s going to get them actively engaged in saving the future of their world, which they correctly see as imperiled, a world that I am not going to live to see. It’s going to get them to push us old folks out of the way– haven’t we made a big enough mess already?– so they can take over and change the course of the country.
I know that our kids are smarter, more dedicated, more passionate, better traveled, better educated, more adaptable, more creative, more determined than we could ever be. We raised them to be that way. If Obama excites them gets them to get involved, how can any of us wish for more? It’s something we’ve hoped would happen, and now it can.
and sheltered to be part of the Bobby moment – was in jr hi at the time. I appreciate your telling us about your experience. Even tho I wasn’t engaged at the time, I can remember that I felt the tension in the air that year. Mostly it comes back to me when I listen to the music of that time. For some reason, this is the song that evokes those feelings in me.