Jack Kennedy - Chris Matthews [54]
The Kennedy “teas” were a smart combination of old and new. A novel concept, they served to boost awareness of Jack’s senatorial campaign, and at the same time create followers who would then, they hoped, turn into volunteers. The official hosts at the kickoff tea would be the former ambassador to the Court of St. James, the Honorable Joseph P. Kennedy, and his wife, Rose. After all, everyone knew the pair of them had spent time in London among the English. Why wouldn’t they want to hold a “tea” to meet and greet the people of Massachusetts?
Thus, Kennedy’s background, rather than his party, became the major element in his attractiveness to voters. What worked splendidly was the way the teas bridged the obvious gap. The invitees were excited and pleased to be there—working-class and middle-class women alike. It proved a brilliant strategy for claiming the majority of voters.
Across the state, Jack’s attractive sisters Eunice, Pat, and Jean hit the hustings for him as they had in Cambridge six years earlier. Everywhere these events took place, Jack Kennedy came off as the kind of aristocratic Irishman that the public enjoying the cakes and cookies hadn’t seen before—one of theirs, and yet the perfect challenger, well matched against the elegant Henry Cabot Lodge.
As David Powers would note, one basic truth about these receptions was that here was an invitation turning up in mailboxes amid envelopes normally filled only with bills. Finding themselves requested to come have tea with the Kennedys left many of the recipients astonished—and pleased. For the first tea held in his gritty hometown of Worcester, Ken O’Donnell made certain the invitations went out—specifically—to regular Catholics, rather than “lace-curtain” ones.
Here’s his description of that afternoon: “It was a beautiful day. He was on crutches. He walked in and the room came to a halt. Everyone stared. He walked in and took over, and every one of those people just had hands on him, wanted to shake his hand and touch him. This little Italian lady was wearing a new dress and hat and gloves she paid $100 for and she could not get to him fast enough. They weren’t the hoity-toity rich, they were the hardworking poor of Worcester, but today, this day, they all looked hoity-toity, all dressed to shake the hands of that young congressman and his family. The place was packed, lines out the door. You could not move. Packed. I knew then, ‘We’ve got something going here. This guy, he’s got it.’
“He spoke, shook every single person’s hand in the room. He was on crutches, and, by the end, it was clear his hand was swollen—and it was evident to me he was in pain, real pain. I remember being concerned about him. It was the first time I realized he had substantial health issues. I hate to say it, but I was concerned, also, from a political standpoint. I realized there was something more to his health problems and I was wondering what it was. I also was wondering whether you can elect a candidate who has to be on crutches all the time.
“He wasn’t well known in Worcester. He hadn’t spent a lot of time in Worcester, and hadn’t gotten any good press in Worcester. It was something different. I wouldn’t have gone, myself, and I didn’t think my mother would go, but she was there. I was shocked to see her and all her friends. Shocked. I had never known them to bother with politicians. Then, I just knew.
“You’re talking two or three thousand people on a Sunday who came out to meet him. They went through the line once and they’d go back again, then shake his hand again, then just stop and watch him, just watch him. They would not leave. Nobody would leave until he left, and even after he