It’s a measure of how unlucky Americans rate the likely 2024 presidential election – another runoff between Joe Biden and Donald Trump – while viewing Robert Francis Kennedy Jr. as an attractive alternative. You can understand the superficial appeal.
The 77-year-old Trump is accused of 91 criminal offenses in four separate court cases. Next year he will likely spend more time in the dock than on the campaign trail.
The charges strengthen his base, which sees it all as a “deep state” conspiracy to jail him. But they hardly endear him to the moderate and swing voters he needs to take back the White House but who don’t like voting for someone who could be a convicted criminal by the time he returns to the Oval Office.
Biden, already 80 (and an “old” 80 at that), is visibly deteriorating before our eyes. His helpers hold their heads in their hands as he struggles to get to the end of the teleprompter without another embarrassing gaffe. Letting him out in public without a script is now hell on earth for them.
The presidency ages its incumbents by dog years. Biden’s stumble can only get worse, maybe significantly. It’s not even certain that he’ll make it to Election Day with his skills intact.
In this case, however, there is no “Plan B”. It should be Kamala Harris. But even among Democrats, she is widely viewed as a disaster and now has the lowest approval rating of any vice president since modern polls began. In the upcoming presidential campaign, Harris would be an even greater risk than Biden.
It’s a measure of how unlucky Americans rate the likely election for the presidency in 2024 – another runoff between Joe Biden and Donald Trump – while Robert Francis Kennedy Jr. (pictured) is seen as an attractive alternative. You can understand the superficial appeal.
The 77-year-old Trump is accused of 91 criminal offenses in four separate court cases. Next year he will likely spend more time in the dock than on the campaign trail. The indictments strengthen his base. But they do little to endear him to moderate and swing voters.
Then there’s the stench emanating from the President’s son, Hunter.
The largely pro-Democrat-biased mainstream media has done its best to downplay his shady global influence, using his father’s name and, it seems, increasingly involved him in his shady money-making business.
The full extent of the corruption has yet to be grasped. But more revelations will emerge in the coming weeks and months. None of this will help the President.
With Trump being given a book while Hunter Biden has so far been treated with kid gloves, many voters may simply wish for a plague on the Biden and Trump homes — and not bother to vote.
Contrast this litany of Biden-Trump troubles with RFK Jr., a scion of America’s pre-eminent political dynasty.
The name alone is magical.
“I’m a Kennedy Democrat” is RFK’s campaign slogan, with which he wants to defeat Biden in his party’s presidential candidacy. He knows there is power in appealing to a bygone era when politicians were sometimes viewed as heroes rather than crooks.
Victory is a long road, but we live in unpredictable times where the long road sometimes comes first.
That’s right, at 69 he’s not a spring chicken. But he’s fit and healthy, although his raspy voice (the result of a recent neurological disorder) makes him sound like an aging Marge Simpson.
But he’s had a distinguished career as an environmental advocate, bringing big polluters to justice, and he often has original things to say that cut across party lines and come across as refreshingly impartial.
So is he the savior that so many Americans are looking for?
Unfortunately not, and for one very simple reason: he’s a total conspiracy theory nut.
Biden, already 80, is deteriorating before our eyes. Then there’s the stench emanating from his son Hunter (pictured with Joe). The full extent of Hunter’s corruption has yet to be grasped. But more revelations will come to light. None of this will help the President.
Often more barking than Trump, sometimes less coherent than even Biden, there doesn’t seem to be any offbeat nonsense he hasn’t embraced in recent years.
Certain Vaccines Cause Autism in Children? Check.
The CIA murdered his uncle JFK (and probably his father Bobby as well). Check.
America developed bioweapons in Ukrainian laboratories? Check.
Impurities in the water are causing more and more people to identify themselves as transgender? Check.
Are Prescription Drugs Causing the Rise in School Shootings? Check.
Can Wi-Fi Exposure Cause Cancer? Check.
The Covid virus shouldn’t aim to infect Ashkenazi Jews? Check.
Like other accomplished conspiracy theorists, Kennedy cites “facts” to support every bizarre claim, as if he knows what he’s talking about when the truth is that he doesn’t.
Author: Andrew Neil
In a recent endless interview with Tucker Carlson on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, he was allowed to indulge his conspiracy fantasies without interruption or challenge — because the increasingly crazed Carlson agreed with everything he said.
When he launched his campaign in Boston in April, he spoke non-stop for two hours, the epitome of the know-it-all bar bore who tested even his most staunch supporters.
This is a man who loves the sound of his own voice, no matter how painful it is for the rest of us to listen to. And unlike Biden, he doesn’t even use notes, let alone a teleprompter, so confident is he in his own world of untruths.
You could spend your entire life fact checking and correcting RFK Jr. and it would do you very good as conspiracy theorists are notoriously immune to fact. But consider the nonexistent link between certain vaccines and autism in children.
This was first confirmed in 1998 by a British doctor who claimed that the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine caused autism in children. He used a sample size of 12 people and his study was conducted for a lawyer who was suing pharmaceutical companies on behalf of parents whose children were autistic.
It has since been debunked by every single subsequent study on the subject. The Lancet, the respected British medical journal, was forced to withdraw the original publication. Yet the man who would become President still holds the discredited theory.
So is RFK Jr. the savior that so many Americans are looking for? Unfortunately not, and for one very simple reason: he’s a total conspiracy theory nut. Often more barking than Trump, sometimes less coherent than even Biden, there doesn’t seem to be any offbeat nonsense he won’t accept.
Then there is the claim “The CIA killed my uncle”.
Kennedy unreservedly told Carlson that that was the conclusion of the House Homicide Committee when it reinvestigated JFK’s murder in 1979.
While it cast doubt on the original Warren Commission’s reliance on Lee Harvey Oswald as the sole shooter, it raised the possibility of a broader conspiracy. However, she had no idea who was behind the conspiracy and specifically ruled out the CIA.
Perhaps what makes RFK least suitable for a presidential bid is his views on Ukraine, or indeed his overarching approach to foreign policy, in which he always portrays America as the bad guy.
If you’re worried Trump was too close to the Kremlin, then you haven’t seen anything.
Everything Kennedy has to say about Ukraine is straight out of Putin’s script.
Russia is only reacting to NATO’s “aggression”. The original February 2022 invasion was not aimed at occupying Ukraine, but merely forcing it to the negotiating table over the Donbass region, which Russia had previously occupied because Ukraine had killed 14,000 Russian speakers in the region. The US has managed to lure Russia into a “proxy war” in Ukraine to overthrow Putin and undermine Russia’s ability to use force elsewhere. We threaten Russia with biological weapons laboratories in Ukraine and nuclear missiles in Poland. No wonder Putin had to act.
Each of these claims is demonstrably false. Each one a perfect replica of Russian propaganda points.
Kennedy is one of those “patriots” who seems to love to criticize his own country and is always ready to give his enemies confidence when in doubt. His uncle has to turn in his grave.
He seems more comfortable in the company of the Republican hard right than the mainstream Democrats, who have largely shunned him for his wacky conspiracy theories.
New Hampshire’s Democrats have complained that he spends more time meeting with various right-wing libertarian groups than with his own party members, which is odd for someone post-Democratic nomination. Maybe he’s running for the wrong party. Some Republican rebel inciters have even proposed a 2024 Trump-Kennedy ticket.
That will not happen. Kennedy also has no real chance of defeating Biden in the Democratic nomination.
Everything Kennedy (pictured with his second wife Mary, who killed herself during the divorce) has to say about Ukraine is straight out of Putin’s script. He’s one of those “patriots” who seems to love to criticize his own country and is always ready to give his enemies an advantage when the need arises. His uncle has to turn in his grave.
No incumbent president has ever been defeated in a primary race. His other uncle, Edward Kennedy, came closest in 1980 when he challenged President Carter for the Democratic nomination. But in the end even Carter was easily renamed.
However, independents are allowed to vote in the New Hampshire Democratic primary. They could do so, along with Democrats disaffected by Biden, in sufficient numbers to make Kennedy a worthy deputy, underscoring how weak Biden is. But that won’t get RFK Jr. nominated. A big thank you for that.
US politics doesn’t need another crackpot – and that’s not too strong a word.
His second wife, who committed suicide during their divorce, discovered a journal he kept detailing his serial crimes and included a sexual bullet list of his conquests. Not exactly a candidate for the post-MeToo era.
It’s bad enough that America is once again faced with a choice between Trump and Biden. Bringing Robert Kennedy Jr. into play would mean that US politics is indeed beyond salvage.