Sarah Palin Is No Ted Kennedy

Jeffrey Lord, in The American Spectator's Political Hay column, asks "Is Sarah Palin the Next Ted Kennedy?" Lord makes the stretch to connect the two mostly based on what he calls the "head of the table" characteristic -- people listened whenever Kennedy spoke and they listen when Palin speaks. Lord's label is derived from a Winston Churchill quote, "Wherever I sit is the head of the table," meaning that regardless of where Churchill sat at the dinner table, he had the full attention of all those who were seated there. A rare quality in leaders:

"They possess, as did Winston Churchill, an unquantifiable capability that can not just electrify a room full of supporters but send them into passionate fits of ecstasy -- while simultaneously sending opponents into a furious, foaming rage."

"By now, a year after her emergence on the national scene, it is crystal clear that former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has this 'head of the table' gene in spades. She is, in a remarkable way, the real heir -- make that heiress -- to Senator Kennedy. She is charismatic, she has a decided point of view and she is a lightning rod for controversy. Just as Kennedy managed to sink a once sure-thing Supreme Court nomination with his famous Bork speech, Governor Palin has managed to explode Section 1233 of the ObamaCare House bill with her vivid description of 'death panels,' severely damaging the President's entire legislative priority in the process."

But Lord's attempt to draw connections between Palin and Kennedy ultimately falls apart for one simple reason -- one link does not make a chain.

As the author himself admits, Palin and Kennedy share the "head of the table" factor with others, naming Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich as but two examples. The late Senator and the former governor couldn't be less alike in so many other ways:

Kennedy was born into a life of privilege, while Sarah Palin is the daughter of two middle-class school teachers. Ted was expected to follow his brothers into politics, and there was a senate seat waiting for him with his name on it. Sarah Palin had to win her political battles based solely on her own merits, and she did not waltz right into a plush job in the U.S. Senate. She had to take it one step at a time, beginning with the PTA and advancing incrementally to city council, mayor, and then governor.

Sarah Palin never left anyone to die in a submerged automobile, and she hasn't consumed enough alcohol to spontaneously combust were she to be tased. She never met with the Soviets to try to undermine Ronald Reagan's presidency. She is not known for the kind of debauchery which was one of the personal failings of the brothers Kennedy, and the media which excused Kennedy's failings has to invent them for Palin.

Just because Sarah Palin used a favorite tactic of the Democrats against them is not sufficient reason to label her "another Ted Kennedy." Frankly, it's preposterous. Sarah Palin has much more in common with Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan than she will ever have with any Kennedy. Yet she is neither the "next" Thatcher nor the "next" Reagan. She is, instead, one of their students, and she is destined to make those two teachers, just as she has made her teacher parents, very proud of her.

- JP