Passing on the Presidency

In 1968, as Chairman of the Massachusetts Democratic Party, I was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. There was a rumor that many of the delegates wanted to vote for Ted Kennedy for the presidential nomination. Steve Smith, Ted's brother-in-law, gathered a few of us in his hotel suite and asked us to personally poll the delegates to determine whether there was any merit to these rumors—and if so, whether the support was "hard" or "soft." We divided up the delegates and then reported back to Steve. When we put together a count, we found that, indeed, a majority of the delegates were prepared to vote for Edward M. Kennedy for president. At that point, Steve went into another room and called Ted in Hyannis Port.

Steve quickly returned to us and said that Ted said no. I found that hard to believe; the Kennedys always took advantage of golden political opportunities. So I went into the next room and called Ted myself. I asked him whether he believed us when we said we really had the votes for him. He replied that he did. Then why, I asked, would he not make himself available as a candidate? "For two reasons," he replied. "First, the delegates would be doing it out of sympathy for Bobby," who had been assassinated only months before the convention, and second, "because I am not yet ready to be president of the United States."

Shortly thereafter I was sitting on the floor of the convention with a phone by my side when Mike Wallace came by to interview me live on CBS. "We hear rumors that Ted Kennedy will allow his name to be placed in nomination," Wallace said. I replied, "Mr. Wallace, I can assure you that under no circumstances will Ted Kennedy become a candidate for president of the United States." (What Wallace did not know was that I held in my hand a piece of paper that contained the actual count. As he began talking, I casually dropped the piece of paper to the floor so he wouldn't ask me about it.)

As Wallace walked off, my phone rang. I picked it up and that unmistakable Kennedy voice at the other end said, "Les, next time make that a little softer, will you?" So I learned another important lesson about politics and the Kennedys: although Ted had decided definitively not to run, he knew that by keeping the door open just a bit he could maintain his power position at the convention. Just as I had admired Ted's realistic self-appraisal, I now admired his understanding of political power and how to wield it.