Word: speech
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...long contest. It surprised even us when he trounced Carter in New York. Expecting Kennedy to be defeated, I had originally drafted a statement for him to deliver on the night of that primary that was not just a concession but also a withdrawal from the race. Though the speech wasn't given, its language would be woven into the convention speech two months later. (See a pictorial tribute to Ted Kennedy...
...speech at the convention would be the only chance in the entire campaign for Kennedy to communicate with Americans in an unmediated way. It was also the last, best chance to make the case for a change in national policies and direction. Kennedy and Carter had deep and principled differences on issues like national health insurance. Kennedy was convinced that unless the party stood for its defining values - and unless Carter at least gave a sense that the next four years could be different - Democrats would be doomed in the fall. We negotiated hard for a speaking slot; Carter...
...speech was designed as a worded symphony, rising and rousing the audience then falling to a quieter level and aiming to transfix listeners before the tempo picked up again. It was alternately serious and joyful, and it was movingly personal about the individuals and families in trouble whom Kennedy had met on the campaign trail. As he finished, Kennedy, who avoided mentioning his slain brothers in political speeches, now did, but in a carefully understated way, recalling the "words of Tennyson that my brothers quoted and loved, and that have a special meaning for me: 'I am a part...
...time. He was responsible for more progress than many Presidents. Unlike his brothers, he had the gift of length of years, and how magnificently he used it. He reached across partisan divisions without sacrificing his convictions; he compromised on issues but never ideals. There is in that 1980 speech an insight into the long arc of his achievement: his belief in something bigger than himself, his persistence despite the odds, his capacity to express the conscience of his party and his country's best possibilities. And one other thing: as he also said in that speech, "We have learned...
...plane back to Hyannis, we swapped stories. One was about my cutting the speech in half just hours before he gave it to make it easier for him to get through. He looked at the cuts and teased me, "You took out some of my favorite parts." He laughed, this indomitable man who had given his life to the dream - the dream that in many ways because of him does live...