This must be the definitive RFK biography for our time. Biographies of complex people are always a product of their times. Bobby Kennedy was certainly a complex person.
The underlying interest in him is two fold. Without a doubt he began as a conservative but ended his life as a liberal icon. Then: what might have happened, how might history have changed, had he been elected in 1968?
Bobby is a more interesting study than his brother Jack. At the same time, I am not a Kennedy fanatic. As a matter of fact, I have problems with that family and mainly with the father.
History remembers Bobby Kennedy as a liberal icon running for President in 1968. Much less attention is given to his earlier career when he was anything but liberal. P. IX
McCarthy and Bobby had similar personalities. P. 49
Both had numerous contradictions. P. 50
Bobby vs. Jimmy must have been riveting TV. P. 77
Bobby's reputation for being "ruthless" began in 1952 when he managed Jack's Senate campaign. P. 93
With Bobby's help Jack won his Senate seat in 1952 by 71,000 votes. P. 94
Bobby traveled on the plane with Stevenson in '56, but he did not lift a finger to actually help the Illinois governor win the election, and he quietly voted for Ike in November. I find this amazing. P. 96
Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names. (Joe Kennedy) P. 104
Humphrey might have had a shot in Wisconsin in '60 if it had been a level playing field. P. 105
Did dirty tricks in American politics begin with Bobby in the 1960 primaries against Humphrey? P. 106
JFK secured the Democratic nomination handily on the first ballot. Had the convention gone to a second ballot, he might have lost. The intrigue surrounding the selection of LBJ has his running mate has been discussed continuously since the event and will likely always be a subject of presidential political history. I tend to think that Jack wanted Johnson from the beginning and the rest is beside the point.
JFK was a natural on TV. Bobby was not. He taught his children that watching television was a waste of time. P. 121
Only Joseph Kennedy knows how much money he poured into the campaign in 1960. P. 124
The famous from JFK to Mrs. King in October of 1960 all worked out for the Democratic ticket. It was all well-contrived and not spur-of-the-moment.
The author goes into laborious detail on the new President naming Bobby as his Attorney General. As usual in political matters like this, there are conflicting details. It all worked so let's move on.
If this book has a theme it is the slow progression of RFK from Cold War conservative to liberal icon. P. 158
Bobby wasn't an intellectual, but he was skillful at using intellectuals. P. 167
He didn't make small talk. He couldn't. P. 168
Dreams of Hickory Hill. Lots of fun. P. 178
No doubt Bobby was a spoiled rich man. No doubt he was cheap not carrying around cash and expecting others to put out the money. No doubt he learned from experience and not from books.
The bloody battle registering James Meredith at the University of Mississippi shocks and amazes me each time I read about it. Bobby Kennedy doesn't come across well in this telling. It was a bad outing for the Attorney General. P. 218
Bobby learned from the Ole Miss experience in 1962 in handling the cowardly George Wallace in Alabama in June of 1963. P. 228
The author gives RFK credit for learning on the job about the racial divide in the country and his efforts, good though not enough, to bridge that gap. On the other hand, he criticizes his self-serving account of the Cuban missile crisis in October of '62.
The degree and depth of RFK's influence, power, and activities in the Kennedy Administration is amazing. He was truly JFK's most trusted aide. P. 246
After the failure of the Bay of Pigs, Bobby was obsessed with Cuba and Castro. Now in 2016 it all seems so futile and pointless. The CIA tried all kinds of James Bond tricks. Really funny to me. What did Bobby know about the CIA efforts to topple Castro? We will never know for sure I suppose. The author seems to take Bobby to task for his efforts to take Castro down even to point of saying that he ordered Castro to be killed however it could be done. P. 252
RFK was necessarily gripped and consumed by Cuba his entire time as Attorney General. P. 263
After the assassination, Bobby did everything he could to hide Jack's secrets. P. 288
Bobby and LBJ were simply too different to get along. P. 296
Jack's precept was that issues mattered only after the election. They were best avoided during the campaign especially controversial ones. P. 327
In running for the Senate in New York in 1964 he drew crowds like a rock star. P. 329
Bobby wins the Senate seat in 1964 in New York knocking off the popular Republican Ken Keating. With the help of Daddy's money and his new found personal appeal in the flesh he won easily. The way the author tells the story of his life, this election was a continuing evolution of RFK from Cold War conservative to liberal icon. P. 346
Bobby visits Mississippi and learns how the other half lives. P. 350
He had a huge Senatorial staff, paying some of them with personal funds.
He borrowed money that he never paid back. He like long combs. He had a millionaire's casualness about money. P. 386
A passion for lie, yet a sense of entitlement. Sensitive and thoughtful even if he didn't pay for things. P. 389
Not an intellectual in the traditional sense, yet extraordinarily curious about some things.
Fellow Senators adored Ted and feared Bobby. P. 390
An idealist without illusions. A hard-nosed liberal. P. 393
If he had lived, would Bobby have won the 1968 Democratic nomination? We will never know. The wishful thinking from his followers is that after the victory in California he was destined to win it. I don't have the expertise to say one way or the other except that we will never know.
If nominated, would have won the general election? On this question I am more positive than above in saying that the odds were better than 50% that he would have won this election.
Would his election in '68 have made a significant difference in American history? No doubt the answer is yes. Could he have united the country? Not totally, but certainly he would united more than Nixon. Racial reconciliation would have improved. He was perhaps the only politician in our history who might have done good things in racial relations.
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