In stories referring to Sen. Edward Kennedy it is common on this blog to add something along the lines of “Mary Jo Kopechne could not be reached for comment.”

Well, 40 years ago last Saturday, on July 18, 1969, Ted Kennedy drove his Oldsmobile, with Mary Jo in the passenger seat, off that bridge at Chappaquiddick Island and neglected trying to help her or even calling for help until the following morning. The accident and subsequent cover-up would have finished the political career of most men, but Kennedy survived both personally and politically.

Perhaps his tragic family legacy saved the youngest Kennedy brother from electoral defeat and enabled him to continue a long Senate career. Nor did it hurt that less than 48 hours later the story of one of mankind’s greatest successes to date wiped most mention of one man’s personal failing off the newspaper headlines – the Apollo 11 moon landing on July 20, 1969.

For the 40th anniversary of her death, let’s ponder a few questions about what might have happened if things had occured differently….

Perhaps one good thing did arise from the death of 28-year-old Mary Jo Kopechne. Eleven years later, we had a presidential election – one in which Teddy Kennedy figured prominently. A question worth pondering is, had Chappaquiddick not happened, would Jimmy Carter have whipped Ted Kennedy in 1980? With Carter’s mishandling of the economy gone as a campaign issue and the Kennedy mystique brought up afresh by the media, could Ronald Reagan have just been another failed presidential aspirant? Instead, we got eight years of Reagan’s conservatism.

And Kennedy is cashing in on his career in the Senate, selling leather-bound, electronically signed copies of his upcoming autobiography for $1,000 a pop. How it’s worth the $8 million advance Kennedy reportedly netted we’ll never know.