Why Republicans Don't Fear a "Kennedy Effect"

Worth Clicking: Blasts from the past wound Romney

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September 02, 2009

Why Republicans Don't Fear a "Kennedy Effect"

Even though Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) inelegantly suggested Sen. Ted Kennedy's death could help Democrats pass health care reform and other legislation, many Republicans seem unworried.

To show why, David Weigel got the breakdowns on a CNN poll that showed the final measure of the late Sen. Ted Kennedy's favorability ratings. They find that when Kennedy died, he was only narrowly popular with independents, Southerners, and Midwesterners. And he was still widely disliked by Republicans.

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Taegan D. Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country, including the Washington Post, USA Today, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer and Christian Science Monitor.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

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September 02, 2009