Dead Kennedy

I believe it was one of the more dour Romans, maybe Cicero or Tacitus, who observed that one should count no man happy until he is in the grave. I’m told by people in the field that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was once a respected environmental lawyer. Now things have come to this:

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the independent presidential candidate whose standing has dropped in the polls, sought a meeting with Vice President Kamala Harris to discuss endorsing her in exchange for a promise of a cabinet post, according to two people briefed on the outreach who insisted on anonymity to discuss private conversations.

His effort has been unsuccessful. The news was first reported by The Washington Post.

“We’ve reached out repeatedly through the highest level intermediaries,” Mr. Kennedy wrote in a text message on Wednesday night. “We’ve been told that they have no interest in talking with me.”

There was little chance the Harris campaign would engage with Mr. Kennedy. Public and private polling has found that as he spent the summer attacking President Biden, he began to draw more support from voters otherwise predisposed to back former President Donald J. Trump. Now Ms. Harris does better in some surveys when Mr. Kennedy is included than when she is tested in a head-to-head matchup with Mr. Trump.

Mr. Kennedy, long seen as a potential spoiler in the race, has slipped in polls and struggled to raise money, and he has appeared to consider potential off ramps as speculation has grown about whether he might drop out and, if so, whether he would endorse Ms. Harris or Mr. Trump.

On Wednesday night, Mr. Kennedy wrote: “I’ve always argued that we should be willing to talk with each other across party lines. I’m willing to meet with leaders of both parties to discuss the possibility of a unity government.”

The Post reported last month that Mr. Kennedy had held talks with Mr. Trump about a possible cabinet job, proposing a role in public health leadership, in exchange for his support. And in a leaked video of a phone call between the two men, Mr. Trump tried to cajole Mr. Kennedy to exit the race and endorse him.

“I would love you to do something,” the former president said. “And I think it’ll be so good for you and so big for you. And we’re going to win.” Mr. Kennedy said little in response on the call. The two men also met in person in Milwaukee during the Republican National Convention.

Two people familiar with Mr. Kennedy’s campaign confirmed that advisers to Mr. Trump had raised the possibility of a cabinet post with people close to Mr. Kennedy, but said the discussions were fluid and inconclusive. The political circumstances were also far different at the time, when Mr. Biden was still in the race and trailing well behind the former president.

The notion that someone could be well-suited to serve in either the Harris or Trump cabinets is almost a parody of the already parodic reactionary centrism that gave Kennedy’s ridiculous presidential run whatever attraction it had — along of course with name recognition — to the millions of voters who, according to polls, remain ready to vote for him.

I do expect that Kennedy will get a needless to say completely worthless promise of a fancy job from Donald Trump and will exit the race, now that it’s becoming obvious that Kennedy draws more votes away from Trump than from Harris. If that doesn’t happen, several million people will end up voting for him — I would think around three to four percent of the overall electorate in the end — and there’s a possibility this could play a significant role at the margin in several swing states, which is completely insane, but very much of a piece with the interesting times in which we live.

Either way, it’s a pathetic end both to Kennedy’s own career, and to the political significance of a family name that once had a kind of diffuse charisma for so many Americans.