"In 1980, well before he went on to become the lion of the Senate, Kennedy finally succumbed to years of public (and perhaps private) pressure to carry on the legacy of his two dead brothers and assume his rightful place in the White House. Kennedy boldly decided to take on a weak incumbent president, Jimmy Carter. But in one of the most famously incoherent moments in modern political history, when Roger Mudd of ABC News asked the usually golden-tongued senator the simple question, “Why do you want to be president?” Kennedy couldn’t answer in a way that made sense. It was the beginning of the end of his campaign. Ironically, Teddy didn’t regain his voice fully until he bowed out and the pressure was suddenly off. Then he delivered one of the greatest speeches of his life, ending in the "dream will never die.""
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Democratic Party (United States) politiciansAcademics from the United StatesMembers of the United States SenatePoliticians from BostonUnited States presidential candidates, 1980
Original Language: English
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Sources
Tom Keane in Ted Kennedy, Jeb Bush and the Little Brother Syndrome (19 August 2015)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ted_Kennedy
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Ted Kennedy
politician, lawyer, autobiographer
1932 – 2009 · United States
Edward Moore "Ted" Kennedy (22 February 1932 – 25 August 2009) was the senior Democratic U.S. senator from Massachusetts. In office from November 1962 to August 2009, Kennedy was, at the time, the second-longest serving member of the Senate, after Robert Byrd of West Virginia. He was the younger brother of John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy, and the uncle of Caroline Kennedy.
389 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Ted Kennedy →
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