Much will be said, written and aired about the late Senator Edward Kennedy who died this week of brain cancer.    There'll be talk of his Senate legacy, his lliberal tradition, his role in the family after the premature deaths of his three brothers, and of course, Chappaquiddick.

       It's thought that the accident scuttled Kennedy's chances for the White House and there's no doubt it was a factor for many a voter.      His only legitimate bid came in 1980 when he had the audacity to wage an inter-party challenge to a sitting President, having become so disinchanted with Jimmy Carter that he felt he could no longer sit on the sidelines.

       His bid would end badly--Kennedy didn't make much of a dent in the primaries, and his campaign is best remembered for the speech he gave at that summer's Democratic convention--the one at which Carter claimed a second nomination while Kennedy spoke of "the dream that will never die."      What I remember is Carter literally chasing Kennedy around the podium that night, trying for the money shot of two former foes with their arms raised in triumph--a gift the Senator didn't want to give.

      What did Kennedy in for many, though, wasn't Chappaquiddick.     It was a sit-down with CBS newsman Roger Mudd, during which the Senator couldn't answer the most basic question: why are you running?

       Mudd would later tell PBS that they'd done two interviews with Kennedy, and that both were relatively awful--until they took the film back to the editing room and saw what they had.      They'd purposely framed Kennedy "tight": a close, riveting shot of his head and face.    And, Mudd says, they'd decided that they'd ask only 12 or so questions in hopes of getting longer answers, instead of hitting him with twice that amount and having to settle for shorter sound bites.

       Those choices may have helped frame history--or, at the very least, damage Kennedy's White House aspirations in 1980.