State of the Union responses are fraught with peril — think of Marco Rubio guzzling water, or Bobby Jindal’s singsong exhortations back when he was a rising Republican star. Those precedents raised the stakes for Congressman Joe Kennedy last night in Fall River. But according to the people who watched him in person, Kennedy managed to deliver.
At about 7:30 Tuesday night, a small crowd gathered in the foyer of the Diman Regional Vocational Technical High School in Fall River, waiting to enter the room where Kennedy would speak. Among them were Joe and Peggy Moran of Easton.
Joe, a veteran, said Kennedy’s office assisted him in getting Agent Orange benefits.
“They worked so hard for Joe and I think that makes me want to come to anything to do with Joe Kennedy,” said Peggy.
“And we’d vote for him at any time,” her husband added.
But when it comes to President Trump, Joe and Peggy part ways. Joe says he is “in the middle of the road” with Trump. Peggy feels differently.
“I think this is a tough time right now with the president we have, and I have a really hard time with it,” she said.
So naturally, they were looking for different things from Kennedy’s speech. Joe wanted conciliation, but Peggy wanted Kennedy to call Trump out.
“I’d like to hear him say what he could be doing, what Donald Trump could be doing, and he’s not,” Peggy said.
A few feet away from the Morans stood Tom Norton, former state senate majority leader. He says he thought Kennedy’s decision to speak at a vocational school was smart politics.
“This is what Democrats have to do to get back. They lost Middle America. They lost ‘em because they forgot ‘em. And you can’t forget ‘em. And I think this kid’s gonna do it,” he said. “And he’ll be the president one day.”
Sofia Rivera and Hannah Smith arrived at the school a bit later. They’re both active in the College Democrats of Massachusetts. When I asked what they hoped to hear from Kennedy, one issue in particular stood out: immigration reform.
“These are people’s lives,” said Smith. “I think you have to take a hard line when it comes to something like that.”
After Kennedy’s speech, Rivera and Smith lauded what they had just heard.
“I thought it was fantastic,” said Rivera. “I think he said more than the president said, in ten minutes, than the two hours [President Trump] was speaking.”
Smith said she was impressed with Kennedy for addressing the so-called “DREAMers” in Spanish.
“He spoke directly to the immigrants themselves,” said Smith. “And it showed we’re not going to give up on these people because he truly saw them as people.”
Peggy Moran, who had wanted Kennedy to call out Trump, looked ecstatic after Kennedy’s speech.
“I love him to death,” she said. “He said all the things ... We’re going through everything right now, and I want to cure — I want things to be better. He said what I wanted to hear.”
But the effect on Joe Moran was even more significant. Taken together, Kennedy’s speech and Trump’s speech seem to have pulled him to the left.
“After listening to Mr. Trump and his rhetoric about the VA, all that business was started before he got in there,” he said. “As long as they keep their promise, such as the Democrats have, of taking care of everybody. And that includes the veterans.”
The only person I couldn’t find after Kennedy’s speech was Norton, the former state senator, who had predicted Kennedy would win back Middle America and become president.
To say Kennedy’s speech confirmed those predictions would be a major overstatement. Then again, it didn’t necessarily prove them wrong. And that, in and of itself, is an achievement.
