Ted Kennedy Is Unlikely Hero

I was never a big fan of Sen. Ted Kennedy when he was alive. As a business owner, entrepreneur and capitalist, I’ve never much liked spoiled-brat club members who demonize the rich and punish success, while they live off their own tax-free $100 million dollar offshore trust fund.

I’ve also always had a severe distaste for hypocrites. Ted Kennedy always acted like a crusader for what was right and fair, while living off the inheritance of his dad — an immoral gangster and bootlegger. It doesn’t get more hypocritical than that.

A Polaroid portrait of the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy by artist Andy Warhol. (Getty Images)

No, I was never a big fan of Ted Kennedy while he was alive and screwing over the taxpayers.

But in death I’ve started to really appreciate the guy. He has managed to do in death what he never accomplished in life — become a hero and patriot. In death, Teddy Kennedy saved America and capitalism from Obama.

Ted Kennedy’s death changed the course of history. It opened the door for Scott Brown to become the new Massachusetts senator, the first Republican to win in almost half a century.

That one gift from Kennedy deprived Obama of the 60th vote he needed in the U.S. Senate to push through every socialist program his little heart desired. So by dying, Ted Kennedy became the anti-Obama.

It was January 2010, and our country had just gone though a year of watching what can be done if a president is given the unchecked power of the presidency, a majority in the House, and the 60 votes needed to override any filibuster in the Senate.

Obama had it all. This was the moment the ultra-left, socialists and America-haters had waited for their entire lives.

This was the culmination of all the years of sitting around Columbia University and Harvard Law School with his radical buddies dreaming of that day when one of them would acquire enough power to cripple the U.S. economy, bringing Americans to their knees — begging for big government to save them.

Can’t you picture the scene at the White House during Obama's first year? “Pile it on” one of Obama’s radical advisors might have recommended while licking his lips. Another radical czar might have said, “Pile it as high as we can go . . . we only may get one chance!”

A third might have screamed with tears rolling down his face, “Dream of everything you can think of to spend money on . . . who cares where it goes, as long as it is spent on our voters and contributors."

Then the clincher: “Let's put Joe Biden in charge of overseeing the spending. He acts like a boy scout. The press eats up his act, but he’s really an immoral political hack willing to look the other way, while our union buddies pillage the taxpayers. Joe will play like Sgt. Schultz on Hogan’s Heroes. “I see nothing.”

Cloward and Piven were the idols of many in my Columbia University political science classrooms. They preached “overwhelming the system.” And before Ted Kennedy died, Obama was all Cloward and Piven, all the time.

An almost trillion stimulus package that made “the Bridge to Nowhere” look like a bargain . . . bailing out GM and Chrysler to save his auto union buddies . . . Cash for Clunkers . . . bailing out Wall Street (his biggest contributors) . . . funneling hundreds of millions to ACORN . . . billions to Solydra and other green energy boondoggles.

The plan was working.

Before Obama lost that all-important 60th vote, it was the perfect storm for Obama’s radical agenda. It was "Government Gone Wild."

Then liberal icon Ted Kennedy died and Massachusetts goes . . . Republican? This was something Obama and his cabal of lawyers, unions, environmental wackos, and poverty promoters never planned for. This was a wild card from the bottom of the deck. Goodbye Senate vote number 60. Goodbye to the leftist lottery.

For Obama, nothing would come easy from that day forward. Card check — checkmate. Cap and Trade — checkmate. Tax hikes — checkmate.

Obama was blindsided.

Ted Kennedy’s death put him in a chokehold like a UFC fighter.

Yes, Obama did manage to pass Obamacare by using a little known trick called “reconciliation” to shove his signature program down America’s throat.

But even that turned into a disaster. Obamacare was actually the beginning of the end for Obama. Without that 60th vote he was forced to over-reach to pass the bill. His popularity never recovered. Obamacare is still wildly unpopular, and the Supreme Court is about to take the Constitutional attorney to the woodshed.

Soon the tea party would emerge to become the most powerful force in U.S. politics. Next the GOP would retake the House with the biggest landslide in modern history. Forced into a corner, Obama actually waved the white flag and extended the Bush tax cuts.

The plan to socialize America went downhill on the day Ted Kennedy died. It was as if one Democratic political dynasty died . . . setting forth a chain of events that destroyed the new Democratic political dynasty.

Can you imagine if Obama loses re-election in November? The day that Kennedy died will have been the high point of the Obama reign of power.

Who knows what Obama, Reid and Pelosi could have accomplished if they still had that 60th vote? The GOP was powerless to stop Obama, with Kennedy still in his seat. But it wasn’t to be. Kennedy's brain tumor turned out to be a cancer for the Obama agenda.

In death, Ted Kennedy became a patriot and hero . . . to conservatives. What a way to go Teddy. It makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside to know you single-handedly changed the course of history and saved America from Obama.

I never thought I’d say this, but let’s raise a glass of Irish whiskey . . . and toast our savior Ted Kennedy!

Wayne Allyn Root is a former Libertarian vice presidential nominee. He now serves as Chairman of the Libertarian National Campaign Committee. Read more reports from Wayne Allyn Root — Click Here Now.