Ears

So Ted Kennedy is supporting Barack Obama, along with Caroline, Patrick, others in the clan, and assorted gushing glitterati all giggling on the platform with Oprah and Michelle, not to mention select press pimps, to climb aboard the Oprama gravy train. Would you say this move is more personal than it is political? Or do you think there might be a little political paternalism at play here? You know, “Let’s adopt Barack and make him our boy, our favorite son, so to speak, so we can make him our candidate,” which not only would seem unseemly to Hillary, not to mention Bill, but also probably improbable. To the Kennedys, though, the Clintons really do seem to be rivals if you think about it — and you know they do — and Barack is young enough, and sweet enough, and possibly pliable enough to become one of them instead of one of theirs, at least as long it suits him.

Is this the beginning of the end for the Democrats again? Whatever, it appears to be another chink out of Democratic Party solidarity. First Kerry, then Lieberman (irrelevant as he was), and now the Kennedys. Not that solidarity is such a good thing; if you don’t stir it occasionally, it solidifies. But this Obropera somehow seems childish — if not churlish, even hyperactive — and certainly self-serving for the cast. The more things change, the more they seem to stay the same. Politics is nothing if not self-serving. In the end, the real issue may turn out to be that Obama’s ears are just too big.