During my workout today, I listened to Sanjay Gupta talk to Wolf Blitzer about Ted Kennedy's newly found brain tumor for a good seven or eight minutes without ever learning what the actual diagnosis was - other than "malignant brain tumor." The News HourWith Jim Lehrer rarely lets me down and somebody had apparently informed the UCSF neuro-oncologist they interviewed, Susan Chang, of the diagnosis - malignant glioma. Everyone seems to be dancing around the prognosis; suffice it to say, the prognosis is poor. According to my own bit of cursory research, 80% of people in senator Kennedy's age bracket can expect to be dead in about a year with almost none surviving past 3 years. On a tangential note, I was very impressed to see that, at the time of the writing of this article, someone had already updated Ted Kennedy's wikipedia entry to reflect the diagnosis which was only made public earlier today.
The point that I want to get at - and, I realize this is going to sound callous - is that I think that this is one of the best things that could have happened to Obama's campaign. Kennedy is one of Obama's most prominent supporters. And when someone that close to you, with that degree of popularity, has been diagnosed with a fatal illness...it's gold! Even McCain was chocked up today:
"I have described Ted Kennedy as the last lion in the Senate," a tearful McCain said on his campaign bus in Florida. "And I have held that view because he remains the single most effective member of the Senate."
Remember when Elizabeth Edwards was diagnosed with a recurrence of breast cancer back in March 2007? Unfortunately, breast cancer is just way too curable and any momentum that this may have provided the Edwards campaign had pretty much fizzled by primary season. But, what if it had been ovarian cancer? And what if she had died in January 2008? Edwards would have been UNSTOPABLE! There would have been such an outpouring of sympathy and support for this brave man who carries on despite this terrible tragedy; he would've rolled right into the democratic nomination. If Ted Kennedy (heaven forbid) doesn't make it to November 4th, it will unite the Democratic Party behind Obama like nothing else. How could one not pay tribute to one of the most influential senators who ever lived by voting for the candidate whom he had endorsed?
Therefore, any concievable path to victory for John McCain includes the following two things that must necessarily happen before the election 1) Kennedy must stay alive, 2) they need to find Bin Laden.
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