I think he just burped and took another sip from his glass of Chivas. What was the meaning of that thousand-yard stare? Are there any transcripts or video? Kennedy was running all right. To my amazement, the man then considered Walter Cronkite's heir apparent seemed convinced his interview was a bust. Nowhere in the transcript of our interview is there a mention or a question about the relationship between and among the sea, the Cape, and the Kennedys. The second part of the Squaw Island interview dealt exclusively with Chappaquiddick, his behavior, and its consequences. But for my part, Kennedy’s account of our 1979 CBS interview is a complete fabrication and I am at a loss to know why thirty years after the fact he would embrace such a fantasy, other than to try to explain away a politically embarrassing incident. I began by tying up some loose ends about Chappaquiddick and then shifted subjects to ask him why he wanted to be president. If the covid survival rates are so high, and deaths rate is so low why are Liberals still panicking? Kennedy couldn't come up with a straightforward answer. We made no requests to film B-roll footage of his mother. Did he realize that he had just mangled a question so badly on national television that it would torpedo his presidential chances? Baker writes that thirty years later, Kennedy was still upset that I had asked him why he wanted to be president, even though it was widely believed among politicians and journalists alike that the only thing missing from his candidacy was a formal announcement. The incumbent Jimmy Carter – staggered by soaring gas prices and a hostage crisis – seemed poised for a knockout by the last surviving brother of America's storied political dynasty. The first part of the interview covered everything from Camelot, Jimmy Carter’s record, his own presidential candidacy, the media, family privacy, his marriage, and his personal safety. Aug. 31, 2009 -- It happened on a bright summer morning 30 years ago this week. Or, see all newsletter options here. We rode in awkward silence much of the way to the dock. He knew the game was up. i won't post the full text of the article since it's copyrighted. http://www.washingtonspeakers.com/capabilities/Mat... http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A9htfSsi.M9DLXUA1TdXNyoA... http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/matthews0926... http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h2015.html?cfC0C1... http://www.eagleton.rutgers.edu/e-gov/e-politicala... Will Kamala Harris make a good president ? You can sign in to vote the answer. it has a quote of kennedy's response. And with that, he clambered into the sailboat. The first was his hour-long interview with Roger Mudd of CBS in November. “Oh, no,” he replied. His book True Compass has been described as “graceful…candid…definitive” and filled with “searching candor.” In his review of True Compass [NYR, November 19, 2009], Russell Baker discusses Kennedy’s account of an interview that I conducted with him in 1979, when I was working at CBS. This was made most famous – or infamous – by Roger Mudd asking, Ted Kennedy, “Why do you want to be president?” Talk about a deer in headlights – he, couldn’t answer, and there was no Ted Kennedy candidacy – or a successful one – after, the closest (so far) i have come to a transcript, is the actual question was. This is his account, drawing from his book: I’d granted the interview to Mudd as a personal favor, during a critical moment in his CBS News career…. We’ll do you and the sea and Cape Cod, and what the sea has meant.”…, As we took our chairs out in front of the house, the camera rolled, and we talked for some forty minutes about the sea and the Cape. I couldn't find the video or a transcription, only more sources that said he couldn't answer: by an interview with CBS Newsman Roger Mudd, who asked the straightforward question, "Why do you want to be President?" “That’ll be all right. Roger approached me and said…”I’m in this contest with Dan Rather for the anchor position at CBS News, and I’d love to get an interview with your mother.” (It was common knowledge that Mudd had been expected to replace Walter Cronkite when he hit the age of mandatory retirement at CBS, but Rather was giving him a serious run for his money. and got excited. ", he was unable to provide a … Is it okay for police to refuse service for political reasons? Rose Kennedy was seen briefly to tell the children goodbye. We asked for two separate interviews with him—one on Cape Cod on family and personal matters and one at his Senate office about senatorial and political matters. "I don't think I want to do that," Kennedy protested. and I would basically feel that it's imperative for the country to either move forward, that it can't stand still or otherwise it moves backwards.' I telephoned Mudd the next day and said, “Look, if we’re going to do this thing, I want another crack at it.” Mudd agreed. News about upcoming issues, contributors, special events, online features, and more. How do you think about the answers? I’ll come on down. Senator Edward M. Kennedy is beyond our reach now, so being critical of his widely praised posthumous memoir can be fraught. On the simple question that would define him and his political destiny, Kennedy had no clue. Kennedy's tough. Do you think he likes me? His voice staggered and stammered. It was that he wanted to be his own man. Roger Mudd moment, in this context, refers to Mudd’s August 1979 interview with Ted Kennedy that blasted his challenge to Jimmy Carter before it … ASKED WHY he sought the presidency in 1980, Ted Kennedy used 70 hopeless words to find the right one: "restoration." And as his boat disappeared into the harbor, a secret service boat trailed in its wake. however this is the relevant section. ", 24/7 coverage of breaking news and live events. The cameraman signaled that the film was rolling, and Roger Mudd asked: He just doesn't give you anything. It wasn't that he thought such poses would feel staged. Mudd threw another softball, and Kennedy swung and missed again. I know that Kennedy bungled the answer and that it hurt his presidential campaign, but I can't find what answer he actually gave. On the lawn of the family's compound in Hyannis Port, Kennedy was about to give the first television interview of his nascent campaign to Roger Mudd of CBS. ". Best of The New York Review, plus books, events, and other items of interest. She did not appear to be ill. On September 28, 1979, I flew up to Boston and the next morning producer Lack, executive producer Howard Stringer, two film crews, and I drove down to the Cape for the Kennedy interview at his home on Squaw Island. Right Dems. )…, A day or two before the scheduled interview, my mother fell ill and left the Cape for Boston…. "You really think it went all right?" Get your answers by asking now. 'The reasons I would run are because I have great belief in this country, that is - there's more natural resources than any nation in the world, there's the greatest educated population in the world. To my prepared questions, he gave a couple of perfunctory, rote answers – but mostly he stared straight ahead, his mind far, far away. I telephoned Roger, explained the situation, and tried to put off the interview. But I will always suspect that – despite the battle he waged for the nomination in the months ahead – on that August morning Kennedy knew something: The campaign was over. He was asked why he wanted to be president. I don't know what Kennedy was thinking during our limo ride that day. He wanted to rekindle the flame lit so brilliantly by his brothers John and Robert. In fact, my very first question was about Camelot. During that spring and summer, the program’s producer, Andy Lack, and a CBS film crew accumulated footage of the senator in his office on the Hill, in Massachusetts, with his children and uncounted cousins and nephews on their annual camping trip. Even if he had not been a Kennedy, what followed was stunning: a hesitant, rambling and incoherent nonanswer; it seemed to go on forever without arriving anywhere. My notes of that ride with Kennedy, if there were any, have vanished. As the cameras rolled, Mudd popped the now-famous question: Why do you want to be president? And then, all of a sudden, Kennedy's aura of inevitability was unexpectedly shattered. (And, I realized to my chagrin, it was a story only television could capture; I couldn't possibly convey in print what had just happened on videotape.). Best of The New York Review, plus books, events, and other items of interest. An interview with his mother or even her appearance was never mentioned. ", he was unable to provide a straightforward answer. Turn on desktop notifications for breaking stories about interest? The cameraman put in a fresh roll of film and Roger resumed his questions. . At this point, everybody took a break so that the crews could reload their cameras with fresh film. As a young reporter for LIFE Magazine, I was listening in the wings with photographer Co Rentmeester. But he was running with no message, no reason he could articulate for wanting to be president. It just seems to me that this nation can cope and deal with the problems in a way it has done in the past . To be sure, there were other obstacles between Ted Kennedy and the presidency in 1980: the taint of the Chappaquiddick scandal; a terribly divided party; and a Republican opponent named Ronald Reagan.
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