What is/was the source of the antipathy between Kennedy and Carter?

Stinky The Clown

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Thu Aug-27-09 07:40 PM
Original message

What is/was the source of the antipathy between Kennedy and Carter?

I may have known, but forgotten. I may never have known. If pressed right now to give the reason, I would be unable to answer.

Were the two men ever able to make things better between them?

Can anyone help me with some history?

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pinto

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Thu Aug-27-09 07:43 PM
Response to Original message

1. Ted challenged Jimmy, as a sitting President, for the party's Presidential nomination.

No love lost there at the time, though I suspect time has / had mellowed the relationship, especially with both men's records as advocates for the under-served.

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Stinky The Clown

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Thu Aug-27-09 07:46 PM
Response to Reply #1

3. That just seemed to me too obvious a reason

But upon reflection ...... perhaps not.

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SharonAnn

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Thu Aug-27-09 08:45 PM
Response to Reply #1

11. Ted was unhappy that despite his promise, Carter wouldn't push for health care?

That's what I read somewhere. That Carter promised Ted that Health Care would be a top priority of his. And it wasn't. Ted was angry.

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Staph

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Thu Aug-27-09 07:44 PM
Response to Original message

2. Short version

Kennedy ran against Carter, the incumbent, in the primaries in 1980. It is generally believed that weakened Carter even more, and he lost to Reagan in the general election.

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Stinky The Clown

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Thu Aug-27-09 07:47 PM
Response to Reply #2

6. Were they ever able to reconcile?

Or at least speak to each other?

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LuvNewcastle

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Thu Aug-27-09 07:49 PM
Response to Reply #6

8. Carter was saying nice things about him

in an interview yesterday, although I could sense some lingering tension there. Of course Carter would never speak ill of Kennedy now, he's got too much class for that.

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DURHAM D

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Thu Aug-27-09 07:49 PM
Response to Reply #2

7. And if I recall correctly Ted refused to shake President Carter's hand at the convention. nt

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damntexdem

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Thu Aug-27-09 08:48 PM
Response to Reply #7

12. He did shake it -- but it was a very-brief shake.

He obviously really couldn't stand Carter at the time.

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polichick

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Thu Aug-27-09 07:46 PM
Response to Original message

4. During the coverage yesterday somebody mentioned that Kennedy felt...

Edited on Thu Aug-27-09 07:47 PM by polichick

...Carter was too far to the right, not in keeping with Democratic ideology. That's why he ran against him.

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orpupilofnature57

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Thu Aug-27-09 08:04 PM
Response to Reply #4

9. Carter is a great citizen, but he was a weak president ,gave Ray-Guns

Edited on Thu Aug-27-09 08:06 PM by orpupilofnature57

his foot hold.And like so many Democrats, he repeled instead of clinging to the word Liberal.

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poiuytsister

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Thu Aug-27-09 07:46 PM
Response to Original message

5. Matthews addressed this tonight on his show

His Kennedy Brothers special, but I got a phone call and missed what he was saying about it.

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mitchum

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Thu Aug-27-09 08:22 PM
Response to Original message

10. Kennedy challenged an ineffectual centrist for the party's nomination

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Thu Aug-27-09 09:35 PM
Response to Original message

13. Health care

Carter promised Ted and didn't deliver...didn't even try..

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Milk

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Thu Aug-27-09 09:40 PM
Response to Original message

14. In the latest articles

it's been stated (whether true or not) that Kennedy thought Carter wasn't liberal enough - or cared about the same issues. I think that's probably close but includes an "at-odds" approach to governing where Kennedy wasn't involved in governing from 1976 on.

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On the Road

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Thu Aug-27-09 10:18 PM
Response to Original message

15. Carter Added Fuel to the Fire

When he was asked about the rumors swirling about Kennedy entering the race, Carter matter-of-factly said: "If Kennedy runs, I'll whip his ass."

And so he did.

The day after Carter won a decisive primary, a political cartoon appeared in which Ted Kennedy was bending over, grimacing and holding his backside, and a freckle-faced little Jimmy Carter was running around with a stick yeling "I did it! I did it!"

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dflprincess

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Thu Aug-27-09 10:33 PM
Response to Original message

16. I'm proud to say I supported Ted Kennedy for the nomination that year

He actually got a reasonable amount of support in Minnesota - that he didn't do better here had more to do with Walter Mondale being Carter's running mate than any big support for Carter. There were those who thought we Kennedy supporters were being awfully disloyal. But Carter had really teed off the left in Minnesota in 1978 when he showed up to endorse the candidate who had defeated the DFL endorsed (and wonderfully liberal) candidate in the primary that year.

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