Dem
51
GOP
49
Marianne Williamson thought that she had the kooks and weirdos lane all to herself. Nope. Yesterday Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the son of Bobby and nephew of Jack filed papers with the FEC to run for president as a Democrat. Kennedy's platform is that vaccines are harmful and Anthony Fauci is a fascist. Geez.
Our conclusion is that RFK Jr. did not inherit Bobby's charisma and political instincts. Also, he is apparently not very smart. Poll after poll has shown that Democrats don't really want Joe Biden to run again, but in the absence of a viable alternative, they are resigned to him. But what if a much younger candidate with Bobby's charisma, Jack's name, and Bernie's politics showed up? Whoa! There would be a real horse race. A lot of young Democrats would sign up to volunteer for him and he'd be a serious threat to Biden. Shades of 2016 with Bernie vs. Hillary? Or maybe shades of 1968, with Gene McCarthy and Bobby Kennedy vs. Hubert Humphrey? But a Kennedy with no charisma who has long spread conspiracy theories about vaccines? He makes Williamson look good.
We are semi-inclined to write Kennedy off as irrelevant as Williamson but for one thing. Suppose he and Williamson want to debate and get some media outlet, most likely Fox News, to sponsor it. The outlet then invites Biden to join and he naturally declines, for fear of giving the other two massive free publicity. So they debate with a cardboard cutout of Biden on stage. Would either of them get enough delegates to hurt Biden? Well, the Democrats use proportional representation in their primaries, so if RFK Jr. got 10% of the votes (from Democrats who think Biden is too old), he would have a few hundred supporters as the Democratic National Convention. They could make a fuss that Fox News would report as "Democrats in disarray, as usual." It could happen. The best case scenario for the Democrats is that RFK Jr. gets a really serious case of COVID while campaigning, becomes a laughingstock, and is sidelined for months. (V)