In my humble opinion...this was the greatest speech Ted Kennedy ever made

[tjwash]

I always thought that one of Ted Kennedy's greatest moments, was not in his many victories, but in one defeat.

Maybe it's because I am old, and I remember it like it was yesterday. Maybe it's because I was a huge Ted Kennedy supporter that canvassed houses and neighborhoods during his campaign, even after it started looking as if it was for a losing cause.

When he lost the Presidential nomination to Jimmy Carter, it ranked up in the top of the most disappointing moments in my life. A lot of our more youthful liberals here, don't really know or remember how right-wing Jimmy Carter became in 1979 and 1980. Ted Kennedy, on the other hand, kept with his ideals, that at the time I too, clutched to my chest. Even after it looked as if it was killing him politically, he kept to promoting New Deal positions. and keeping alive some of the slowly smoldering fire that remained of the 1960s political passion. To me, I had no other real choice in the matter back then.

Ted Kennedy's concession speech to Carter at Madison Square Garden, still brings a lump to my throat after all these years.

My fellow Democrats and my fellow Americans, I have come here tonight not to argue as a candidate but to affirm a cause.

I'm asking you -- I am asking you to renew the commitment of the Democratic Party to economic justice.

I am asking you to renew our commitment to a fair and lasting prosperity that can put America back to work.

This is the cause that brought me into the campaign and that sustained me for nine months across a 100,000 miles in 40 different states. We had our losses, but the pain of our defeats is far, far less than the pain of the people that I have met.

We have learned that it is important to take issues seriously, but never to take ourselves too seriously.

The serious issue before us tonight is the cause for which the Democratic Party has stood in its finest hours, the cause that keeps our Party young and makes it, in the second century of its age, the largest political Party in this republic and the longest lasting political Party on this planet.

Our cause has been, since the days of Thomas Jefferson, the cause of the common man and the common woman. Our commitment has been, since the days of Andrew Jackson, to all those he called "the humble members of society -- the farmers, mechanics, and laborers." On this foundation we have defined our values, refined our policies, and refreshed our faith.

Now I take the unusual step of carrying the cause and the commitment of my campaign personally to our national convention. I speak out of a deep sense of urgency about the anguish and anxiety I have seen across America.

I speak out of a deep belief in the ideals of the Democratic Party, and in the potential of that Party and of a President to make a difference. And I speak out of a deep trust in our capacity to proceed with boldness and a common vision that will feel and heal the suffering of our time and the divisions of our Party.

Freepers, wingnuts, and assorted other reactionaries, loved rubbing Chappaquiddick in Kennedy's face. The truth of the matter is, that no one, outside of 2 deceased people, really know what happened that night when Kennedy's car went into the water and drowned Mary Jo Kopechne. And guess what, we'll NEVER know. The brutal honest truth that I admitted to myself years ago, was that it was no innocent ride home, given the Kennedy trait of screwing around. But you know what? These are the same fuckers that continue to celebrate mass slaughter and have far long supported and celebrated the worst of all of this countries leaders, that have dealt in wholesale death and mass slaughter, from Nixon to Reagan to the Bush family.

To them I say, that Kennedy's fatal failure was, to his and Kopechne's family, a private tragedy, not the war crimes, and wholesale slaughter that they are so used to and can not get enough of.



RIP Ted. :cry:

[pipi_k]

1. Not to mention

George Dubya Bush, who, as Governor of Texas, likely sent a couple of innocent people to their deaths via the death penalty.

Willfully and knowingly.

No mercy. Not one person spared or pardoned.


Unlike what happened at Chappaquiddick, which, until proven otherwise, was, and will remain, an accident.


George Bush, and so many others in politics, weren't even fit to lick Teddy's shoes. Teddy was ten times the human beings they'll ever hope to be.

[tjwash]

2. Amen