Books: What's Wrong (and Right) With Bobby

• Share

(2 of 2)

Bobby's courtship of youth is both transparent and distasteful, as far as Shannon is concerned. "Although the young are very important, their political opinions are the least important thing about them." Yet Bobby's capacity "for exaggerating and romanticizing youth's role" is so great that sometimes "it is hard to say whether Kennedy is seeking the presidency or the leadership of a new Children's Crusade."

Ideologically Uncommitted. Bobby as President? For all his reservations, Shannon seems to think he might make a pretty good one. "He is more passionate, more openly aggressive, more impulsive and more capable of commitment than was his brother, but fundamentally he also is neither liberal nor conservative; he is an ideologically uncommitted man," says Shannon. "He remains a hardheaded pragmatist intent upon exercising power in the best national interests of the United States and the cause of freedom."

The question is: When will Bobby run? Most pundits figure on 1972 as the likeliest date, but not Shannon. Johnson could lose in 1968, forcing Bobby to challenge a well-entrenched Republican in 1972, or he could die in office, leaving Hubert Humphrey in his place with a powerful claim on the next nomination. As Shannon makes clear, the heir apparent may find considerable difficulty in trying to bring about the Kennedy Restoration.