On RFK Jr.

From blazing intellect to conspiracy theory super-spreader, the Bobby Kennedy story is a riddle.

By 2023, most of Kennedy’s family had turned against him. On St. Patrick’s Day, they made a show of surrounding President Biden for a photo-op. RFK, Jr is notably absent from this recent family portrait with President Biden. The entire clan is supporting the President rather than Bobby, and for good reason.

Some background: I spent my life in media managing broadcast talent, roughly 300 percent of whom have some degree of narcissism, including the good kind that hosts need to bolster their self-confidence, and also the bad kind that convinces them they don’t have to follow the rules. I actually heard myself say these words to a host, “The Secret Service is in the lobby. Did you threaten the President?” Often in my early career, I slapped my forehead and muttered something like,  “No wonder you’re on marriage number four.” The only wonder is that my forehead isn’t flat.

Like show-biz, politics also attracts narcissists and liars (see Santos, George for an extreme example.) The last nine years have been consumed by the most self-centered leader in our country’s history, which in itself is saying something. Some people just need to make everything about themselves. We should take that as a warning against those who put themselves above their country.

In 2003, I was driving my then 14-year-old daughter to the gym. Rush Limbaugh was on the radio. He was saying that women who were demanding equal rights and equal pay were “Femi-Nazis.” My daughter, a look of horror on her face, turned to me, her network-radio-consulting-dad, and asked, “Can’t you do something?” That sent me on a quest to put talent and money together to start the Air America Radio Network. I needed a star, and it took a year to convince SNL’s Al Franken to be the face of this new network. He knew it would be hard to mount a daily talk show, but wanted to burnish his political bona fides for an envisioned run for the Senate.

In fleshing out the other talent, we ran across a comedian named Marc Maron, who went on to have the first profitable podcast, “WTF”, and a house painter from Western Massachusetts who didn’t have much in the way of broadcast credentials, but her resume—AIDS activism, Rhodes Scholar, Stanford Ph.D.—was intriguing. One listen to Rachel Maddow’s demo made it clear she had the goods.

RFK Jr. and the author c.2004

In the process of all that, we began searching for other shows to help fill the schedule. One of the most prominent (and still running) shows, was “Ring of Fire,” which featured class-action lawyers. They are the trial attorneys who are despised by corporate America. They exist to fill the gap between incompetent and/or toothless regulators, and nefarious companies whose products and/or services prove to be detrimental to the health and well-being of their users. The show was hosted by one of the lawyers who successfully sued the tobacco companies, Mike Papantonio, and his then-law partner, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

At the time, and until just a few years ago, I would’ve told you that Bobby Kennedy was singularly the smartest person I’d ever known. It should come as no surprise that being a part of that family is in every way a profoundly different experience than you and I have had. Still, in those days, he could be present; even helpful.

From the New York Times: “In the past decade, he has become a prominent voice in the anti-vaccine movement, promoting falsehoods and conspiracy theories about the risks of childhood vaccinations and other public health measures. That work gave him a large platform during the coronavirus pandemic, when he questioned the safety of Covid vaccines and the official narratives of the virus’s origins.”

Third-party campaigns worry both parties. Dems in particular are afraid that the Camelot vibe that JFK inspired sixty years ago—that a younger generation had come with new ideas and unmitigated hope for the future—would extend to his brother’s son. At first blush, it seems that Bob would steal votes from Biden. To the extent that people are under-informed, reading slanted headlines, but not the body copy, it seems likely that a Kennedy would command Democratic votes.

But there is a movement, led by the former president himself, to have RFK Jr. be the Republican VP pick. “I like Trump-Kennedy,” the former president recently told one person. “I like the way that sounds.”

Kennedy, though, seems uninterested: “I’m flattered by the thought, but it’s not a course I would consider,” he texted.

So where his support—assuming he gets on enough state-ballots—will come from is an open question.

The “No Labels” group won’t forward a candidate this year. They pretended to be a grassroots organization, but turned out to be an Astroturf one. Their supposedly centrist funders turned out to be led by right wing billionaire, and FOC—that’s friend of Clarence—Harlan Crow. “No Labels” was supposed to shake up the presidential race with a broad-appeal sort of candidate. But Since they folded their tent, RFK Jr. is the highest polling independent candidate with around 12%.

That’s enough to hurt someone, but who remains the question.

©2024 Jon Sinton