DNC ’08: The Liberal Lion Delivers a Hope For the Future

It was not long ago that Senator Edward Kennedy was diagnosed with brain cancer. For me, this was a sad day. The man who has often times been called the Liberal Lion of the U.S. Senate is someone who should inspire us all. In a time when politicians continue to move to the right to appease Republicans, Ted Kennedy has refused to do so. He is a man who, save a few personal mistakes, would have been a greater President than either his brother Jack was, or his brother Bobby would have been.
Before Kennedy spoke, a retrospective on the man aired at the convention. This short documentary was made by Ken Burns and really showed the man behind the politician.


This is a man who, upon losing to Jimmy Carter in 1980, made one of the most important economic social justice speeches of the post-civil rights era at the Democratic National Convention. That speech included such highlights as:

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.
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Let us pledge that we will never misuse unemployment, high interest rates, and human misery as false weapons against inflation. Let us pledge that employment will be the first priority of our economic policy. Let us pledge that there will be security for all those who are now at work, and let us pledge that there will be jobs for all who are out of work; and we will not compromise on the issues of jobs. These are not simplistic pledges. Simply put, they are the heart of our tradition, and they have been the soul of our Party across the generations. It is the glory and the greatness of our tradition to speak for those who have no voice, to remember those who are forgotten, to respond to the frustrations and fulfill the aspirations of all Americans seeking a better life in a better land. We dare not forsake that tradition. We cannot let the great purposes of the Democratic Party become the bygone passages of history.

JFK and RFK were a new hope for America. Tonight, in a surprise appearance at the DNC, Sen. Ted Kennedy showed that the new hope for America could be Barack Obama. He called for health care for all Americans to be viewed as a fundamental right and not a privilege. Here is his speech:

Now, we shall see if Obama can live up to this expectation. I fear that politicians, including most Democrats, are too beholden to special interests to ever live up to such expectations (there is a reason I tend to caucus for Dennis Kucinich)....but we shall see! I hope for all of our sakes Ted Kennedy is right.