Senator Kennedy Has Malignant Brain Tumor

Tests performed over the weekend at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston indicated that Mr. Kennedy, 76, has a type of cancer known as a malignant glioma in the left parietal lobe, the upper left portion of his brain. Mr. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, suffered a seizure on Saturday in Cape Cod and was airlifted to the hospital for treatment.

I am honored to be here as we confer this tribute on a President who was great in purpose and impact – and who for me was a good friend and a generous foe.

For me, there is also a sense of completeness to this day – for it was Ronald Reagan who invited the Kennedy family to the White House in 1981 to receive the gold medal that Congress had authorized in honor of Robert Kennedy. It was an early and powerful demonstration of the largeness of spirit that infused his Presidency.

He was a fierce competitor who wanted to win -- not just for himself, but for his beliefs. He sought to defeat his opponents, not destroy them. He taught us that while the battle would inevitably resume the next morning, at the end of each day we could put aside the divisions and debates. We could sit down together side by side. We could laugh together, especially at his endless stream of stories. And above all, whatever our differences, we were bound together by our love of our country and its ideals.

President Reagan took issues seriously, but he had a sense of perspective that never let him or us take ourselves too seriously.

As a leader, he was a man of large principles, not details. Some criticized him for that. I always suspected that it was a source of strength. And that truth about him is as clear today as the victory of democracy in Eastern Europe, in Russia, and all across the former Soviet empire. He came to office certain that you could not trust the Communists or perhaps even negotiate with them. For him, that conviction was a matter of high principle. But he had an instinct better than all the experts that Mikhail Gorbachev was different. And so Ronald Reagan moved to a new stage in his combination of unyielding pressure and ungrudging openness that changed the world.

He lived to see the fulfillment of the bold demand he had issued in Berlin -- "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall." He saw the culmination of the "long, twilight struggle" that stretched from the years after World War II, to the Cuban Missile Crisis, to his support for Solidarity in Poland, and his grasp that Glasnost could be the hinge of history turning.

President Reagan was never afraid to be controversial, to confront when he had to, and lead where he believed. There were disagreements with many of his policies, then and now, as there are with every president. Beyond all that, there is an undeniable reality. He came to power at a time of self-fulfilling pessimism which told us that public policy could hardly move molehills, let alone seemingly mountainous problems. And so one of his greatest achievements was to renew America's faith in itself. As I said in 1985, Ronald Reagan "restored the Presidency as a vigorous, purposeful instrument of national leadership." It was a mark of his optimism and openness that in 1984 it was not at the Democratic Convention, but at the Republican Convention that the band triumphantly played "Happy Days Are Here Again."

The greatness of presidents is measured not only by the deeds they do, but by the contributions they make to the American ideal. Ronald Reagan was one of those rare presidents who lifted our vision and enlarged our very conception of this nation and its mission on earth.

It was more than the fact that he was a superb communicator, though he was. Some attributed at least part of his success to the fact that he had been an actor. But as I knew him, his deepest convictions were matters of heart and mind and spirit – and on them, he was no actor at all. He was a president who commanded the heights and summoned us all to sail ahead in hope.

When he was told his own voyage was nearing its end, in his brave letter to the American people, he wrote of entering "the sunset of his life." But his day was long. His high noon came at an age when most had already retired. He still has the boundless love of his beloved Nancy, and his time will long glow in history and memory.

For my family and myself, and as a member of the loyal opposition, I am proud to join in saluting the 40th President of the United States, who stands in the first rank of his country's affection – Ronald Reagan.

Armon Ayers wrote:1. Patrick Kennedy?

2. Robert Kennedy, Jr.?

3. Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg?

Ted Kennedy has made clear to confidants that when his time is up, he wants his Senate seat to stay in the family - with his wife, Vicki.

Multiple sources in Massachusetts with close ties to the liberal lion say his wife of 16 years has long been his choice to continue carrying the family flame in the Senate. Kennedy won the seat in 1962; his brother John held it from 1953 to 1960.

"There's no question that he'd like Vicki to continue in his seat," said one Massachusetts Democrat with ties to the Camelot clan who spoke to Kennedy recently, before his health crisis.

"She's smart, and smart politically."

The 54-year-old Victoria Reggie Kennedy, a former hotshot Washington lawyer, is a Louisiana native and the daughter of a politically active judge.

shermangeneral wrote:Personally I would like to see Chelsea Clinton move down there to run.

Is she old enough?

Armon Ayers wrote:

shermangeneral wrote:Personally I would like to see Chelsea Clinton move down there to run.

Is she old enough?

I don't know why she couldn't run in Mass--she vacationed there once with her parents.

shermangeneral wrote:

Armon Ayers wrote:

shermangeneral wrote:Personally I would like to see Chelsea Clinton move down there to run.

Is she old enough?

I don't know why she couldn't run in Mass--she vacationed there once with her parents.

She could be the candidate for "change and hope".

No kidding things get stale with the same old bunch running things.

New talent and an expanded political gene pool would be good for Mass.

In my opinion.

(also I guess I should not have said down. It is neither up nor down from NYC to Boston. Both are sea level. Just delete the word "down" ok)