His father’s memory deserves more than RFK Jr.’s spurious 2024 presidential candidacy | Opinion

Where were you when heard you heard the news that Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. publicly destroyed his family brand?

The 69-year-old Kennedy was once the Favored One, the grandchild who would make it in politics. He had it all: the name, the looks, the brains. Now, he’s announced he’s running as a Democrat in 2024 against President Joe Biden.

RFK Jr. was the obvious candidate, even more so than the late star-crossed John F. Kennedy, Jr., who never really made much of an effort toward actually having a political career, preferring the life of a New York bon vivant and magazine editor.

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RFK Jr.’s brother, former Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy III, (D-MA), served in Congress from 1987-1999. He was not particularly well-liked, but didn’t do anything massively out of line.

RFK Jr.’s cousin, former Rep. Patrick Kennedy, (D-RI) was actually an effective member of the House of Representatives, serving as the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, an important job he did well.

RFK Jr’s sister, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, (D-MD) was a fine Maryland lt. governor. RFK’s Jr.’s, brother, Christopher Kennedy, (D-IL) ran a very credible campaign for governor of Illinois in 2018, and he is highly regarded there.

Where does this leave Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the kid with the name, the magic and the touch?

Well, if anyone has destroyed himself, it’s this man. As a younger man, RFK Jr. did interesting legal work in various areas: he was a good environmental lawyer, and led a campaign to clean up the U.S. Navy bombing range in Vieques, Puerto Rico.

He was an excellent public speaker. I know, I saw him twice. He once decapitated former Vice President Dan Quayle in a debate on the environment in Portland, and I actually felt sorry for Quayle, who was completely unprepared.

But RFK Jr. said goodbye to all that when slowly came undone in front of the American people over the course of two decades. He has become a joke, a punchline, a crank.

His main hobby is spreading COVID vaccine disinformation, after a long, paranoid stint hyping a supposed link between childhood vaccines and autism. He even drew an analogy between Nazism and the implementation of the vaccine.

His own wife, the actress Cheryl Hines, as well as several of his brothers and sisters, cut him loose in public statements after that gem. Hines only waited 20 minutes. She called it “reprehensible and insensitive.”

Want to see the real RFK Jr. now? He’s standing right there next to Mike Flynn and Roger Stone. Huh. Interesting. Who knew?

You know, the Roger Stone who has a tattoo of former President Richard M. Nixon engraved on his back, not the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, a true hero and American patriot who was cut down by the loathsome assassin Sirhan Sirhan.

RFK Jr. has even leapt to his own father’s murderer’s defense, which is more than uninformed, it’s wrong. Sirhan did it, period, full stop, end of one of the saddest stories of the 20^th century.

What’s gotten into RFK Jr.’s head that he has decided to run for president of the United States? What qualifications does he have? Stunningly, former President Donald Trump was vastly more qualified, which is like saying a 14-year-old would make a better president than a 12-year-old.

Politico, normally breathless about stuff like this, devoted exactly four paragraphs to this pathetic man following his campaign announcement. Meanwhile, RFK Jr. said on his Twitter feed that his candidacy will seek to “end the corrupt merger between state and corporate power.”

Wow, OK. We have Sen. Bernie Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren to make that point far more compellingly than RFK Jr., and there are lots of young potential Democratic presidential candidates who will articulate that going forward.

RFK Jr. might want to check out his father’s campaign, which, while improvisational in 1968, actually stood for something: End the war in Vietnam and strengthen social justice.

Not sure what RFK Jr. stands for other than RFK, Jr. We already have a delusional, conspiracy-driven 2024 candidate, and he just got indicted in Manhattan.