Kennedy biographer Ed Klein joined WOR radio’s Steve Malzberg on Wednesday, and revealed President Obama’s relationship with the late Senator Ted Kennedy was not as close as has been depicted in the media (h/t Noel Sheppard at Newsbusters). Mr. Klein seemed disgusted by the notion that Mr Obama is considered to be the “last Kennedy brother” by MSNBC anchor Chris Matthews. : AUDIO
STEVE MALZBERG: This relationship between Obama and Ted Kennedy led Chris Matthews, wacko of all wackos in my view, to say that he’s now the next, he’s the last brother. Obama’s the last brother.
ED KLEIN: Yeah, I, I heard that. Yeah.
MALZBERG: What do you think of that? What was their relationship, and what do you think of that description of it?
KLEIN: Makes me want to puke. To tell you the truth.
MALZBERG: Why, why, why?
KLEIN: Because it’s so patently untrue, number one. And number two, they weren’t, they weren’t that close. They, there was a political meeting of the minds, but a lot of the backing for Obama was Kennedy’s paying the Clintons back for stealing the Democratic Party and bringing it to the center rather than to the left.
MALZBERG: So you’re saying this is fiction basically the close kinship between Teddy and Barack Obama?
KLEIN: Listen, I think Barack Obama’s very grateful, very grateful for what Ted Kennedy did. I mean, after all, it certainly helped. But I don’t think they ever had a very close relationship. They had a political relationship which Teddy said, “Look, I’ll back you but you better make healthcare your first priority when you become president.” That was the deal.
