Joe Biden, tears in his eyes, says Ted Kennedy made us all bigger
As he told his wife, Jill, this morning, Biden explained,
Kennedy had been there every step of his political life.
When Biden was a 29-year-old novice running for the Senate,
Kennedy came to Delaware to campaign for him, corralling votes in Little Italy,
where Biden said they rarely voted for a Democrat.
As a new senator, Biden lost his wife and daughter in a
car accident that left his two sons clinging to life in a hospital. Biden said
Kennedy called every day and often sent help. “I’d turn around and there’d be
a specialist from Massachusetts, some doc I never even asked for,” the vice president recalled.
Mostly, Biden said, he “restored my sense of idealism and my faith in the possibilities of what this country could do.”
Wiping tears from
his eyes, Biden said Kennedy’s love of country and public service was
“infectious when you were with him … you could just see it in nature of the
debate. … He was never defeatist, he was never petty, he was never small.” In the
process, said the vice president, “he made everybody he worked with bigger,
both his adversaries and his allies.”
Think of it, Biden said, “one of most partisan, liberal men
serving in the Senate had so many of his foes embrace him … they know he made
them bigger, he made them more graceful.”
Finally, noting that although Kennedy changed circumstances for
millions of Americans with his legislative victories, his real legacy was to
change “how they looked at themselves and how they looked at one another.”
Though others in public life might be admirable, said Biden, usually “at the end
of the day it gets being about them.” The unique thing about Kennedy, he
added, is that “it was never about him, it was always about you.”
With that, after apologizing to staffers at the Energy Department for going off topic at a briefing on recovery projects aimed at speeding energy independence, Biden walked off the stage, his head down.
-- Johanna Neuman
Photo: Biden and Kennedy at Barack Obama's 2009 inaugural. Credit: Reuters
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As much flack as Biden gets for his ADHD-like wandering, an instance like this lets you see the inner heart of the Vice President - sad at a good friend's passing, and authentic to the core. May he find comfort in his memory.
Posted by: Harold S | August 26, 2009 at 11:23 AM
V.P. Biden's comments on Senator Kennedy's death were the most inspiring and uplifting statements that we have heard in years. Unlike the past eight years, this reflects a gracious and unifying tone that has been woefully missing for a long time. Instead of trying to tear down his opponents and rip the country apart, Ted Kennedy set an example in Congress that shows his legacy as a statesman, not just a grubby politician.
A. Gruber
Posted by: abe gruber | August 26, 2009 at 02:42 PM