You truly do have to wonder what’s going on between God/The Universe/Fate (pick one according to your beliefs) and the Kennedys:
A plane carrying U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy from western Massachusetts to his home on the coast was struck by lightning Saturday and had to be diverted to New Haven, Conn., his spokeswoman said.
The eight-seat Cessna Citation 550 plane lost all electrical power, including communications, and the pilot had to fly the plane manually, according to spokeswoman Melissa Wagoner. No one was hurt.
The Democrat had just delivered the commencement address at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in North Adams and was on his way to his Cape Cod home when the plane was struck around 4 p.m., she said.
The jet landed safely at New Haven at 4:11 p.m., said Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Arlene Murray. A report was filed with the agency, which will look into the incident, she said.
TMV’s father always said (and this is no joke or mere rhetoric) that it was almost as if the family was being paid back for some of the things Joseph Kennedy, Sr. did to accumulate his power and fortune. Who knows?
But one thing is clear: go back to the year 1960 and the Kennedys were considered the wave of the future — a dynasty in waiting. No one feels that way anymore. And when people hear the word “dynasty” who do they think of now? Jeb Bush.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.