"To his harshest critics, who saw him as nothing more than a partisan lightning rod, that may sound foolish, but there are Republicans here today for a reason. They know who Ted Kennedy was. It’s not because they shared Ted’s ideology or his positions, but because they knew Ted as somebody who bridged the partisan divide over and over and over again, with genuine effort and affection, in an era when bipartisanship has become so very rare. They knew him as somebody who kept his word. They knew him as somebody who was willing to take a half a loaf and endure the anger of his own supporters to get something done. They knew him as somebody who was not afraid. And fear so permeates our politics, instead of hope. People fight to get in the Senate, and then they’re afraid. We fight to get these positions and then don’t want to do anything with them. And Ted understood, the only point of running for office was to get something done—not to posture; not to sit there worrying about the next election or the polls—to take risks. He understood that differences of party or philosophy could not become barriers to cooperation or respect."
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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
Barack Obama in Remarks at the Dedication of the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate in Boston, Massachusetts (30 March 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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