Here’s some good news: Kennedy is thinking about running for president!
No, not the MAHA guy, and not, thank God, one of the gaggle of off-putting leftists that the Secretary of Health and Human Services is unfortunate enough to have as his relatives. No, the Kennedy who may be running for president this time is none other than the most riotously funny man in the Senate, Sen. John Neely Kennedy (R-La.), who is no relation to the famous Massachusetts family, either in bloodline or political outlook.
Kennedy, like his illustrious namesake, John F. Kennedy, is youthful and vigorous: by the time Election Day 2028 comes around, he will be 75 years old, which nowadays makes him look like a wet-behind-the-ears piker. But also like JFK (or at least like the JFK that Ted Sorensen fashioned for public consumption), he hides a formidable intellect and indomitable will behind that veneer of callow youth.
Just think for a moment, aside from political considerations, how much fun it would be if America followed the funniest president ever, Donald J. Trump, with a man who is arguably even funnier. Sure, we wouldn’t want to elect a funny leftist just because he or she or xe was funny, but there are no funny leftists, anyway. Kennedy, who has had tremendous fun in the Senate for years now skewering the left’s pretensions and puncturing its pomposity, has shown in the process that his politics are sound enough. And we sure could use the laughs.
So come on: If we just believe hard enough, it could happen. NBC News reported Sunday: “Asked by moderator Kristen Welker whether he was thinking about running for president, Kennedy replied, ‘Yeah. My plans right now are to run for re-election, but as I’ve said before, if I don’t think I can be effective in the Senate anymore, I would consider it.”
Consider it, Senator! It’s time for a New Frontier! A Time for Greatness! A Legacy of Leadership! Yeah, those are all 1960 JFK campaign slogans, and that’s one of the beautiful things about the possibility of a John N. Kennedy presidential candidacy: the campaign is ready-made. Imagine if 2028 presidential candidate John Kennedy ran on the same platform, with all the necessary adjustments made to bring it up to date, that 1960 presidential candidate John Kennedy ran on.
It would be a remarkable and enlightening way for the modern-day Kennedy to indulge his delightful habit of mocking the left, while making a serious point in the process: If John F. Kennedy ran for president today, the left would excoriate him as a “far-right extremist.” He wants a strong defense? He wants American scientific and technological innovation? Nowadays, that would make him a rock-ribbed MAGA Republican.
John N. Kennedy, in other words, could run as John F. Kennedy. And in doing so, he could demonstrate every day how far the Democrats have drifted to the left and abandoned sound American principles.
Assessing his prospects, the modern-day Kennedy said: “On my side of the aisle, if a bunch of goobers run, and I think they’re goobers and one of the goobers might win, and I think I could do a better job, I would consider running. But right now, I’m running for re-election.”
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It’s not clear, however, whether Kennedy regards Vice President JD Vance, who is the current Republican frontrunner, as “one of the goobers.” NBC notes that Kennedy “declined to talk about Vance when asked why voters should pick the senator over the vice president.” Kennedy explained: “I’m not going to talk about another potential candidate. I’m just not there yet.” Significantly, however, he added: “It’ll be good for both parties to have a full field.” That makes it clear that he doesn’t think that the 2028 Republican nominating process should simply be an anointing of Vance, or Secretary of State Marco Rubio, or anyone else.
2028 is still a long way off. Numerous candidates have looked like a lock two years before the election, only to implode, sometimes spectacularly, before the election came around. Just ask Howard Dean how his prospects looked before he let out an enthusiastic yelp at a campaign rally. One thing to hope for, however, is that John Kennedy is among the crowd of Republican candidates, goobers or no, in 2028. The debates will be worth watching for the laughs alone.