“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."
On May 17, 2008, Kennedy was rushed to a Cape Cod hospital from the Kennedy Compound with announced plans to transfer him to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. According to one source, Kennedy was suffering from symptoms of a stroke.