Two Democratic dynasties near the exit

Two Democratic dynasties near the exit

Both the end of Clintonism -- and its opposite, Kennedy-style liberalism -- draw closer.
By Walter Shapiro

May 27, 2008 | WASHINGTON -- The sun-dappled image from August 1997 shimmers in memory. The two great Democratic political dynasties had set sail on carefree waters. Aboard the Mya as the schooner maneuvered its way out of Menemsha Harbor on Martha's Vineyard were the reigning Clintons and the radiant Kennedys. The news photographs, which mesh with my memory, show the president and the ruddy white-haired Massachusetts senator, along with a waving Hillary Clinton and the extended Kennedy clan, including Rep. Patrick Kennedy and daughter-of-Camelot Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg.

Last week, 11 years after that in-happier-times snapshot, the curtain began to descend on the Kennedys and Clintons alike. Before the wrenching news of a brain tumor, there had always seemed something eternal about Ted Kennedy: the survivor, the eternal-flame-keeper of the dream that never died, the last active link to the heady days of can-do 1960s liberalism.