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Obama: Kennedy a 'Kind and Tender Hero'

By John Johnson, Newser Staff

Posted Aug 29, 2009 11:54 AM CDT

(Newser) – President Obama paid homage to the "greatest legislator of our time" today in his eulogy of Ted Kennedy—"the baby of the family who became its patriarch, the restless dreamer who became its rock." He ticked off the personal and public tragedies of Kennedy's life, "a string of events that would have broken a lesser man," CBS reports. "But that was not Ted Kennedy."

Obama called him a "veritable force of nature" in the Senate, listing his accomplishments in everything from civil rights to immigration to health care. His work has a common thread, said Obama. "Not to champion the causes of those with wealth" but to give voice to the less fortunate. He lived up to expectations as "the heir to a weighty legacy" to became "a kind and tender hero" and the "soul of the Democratic party."

[Images (4)]

[Videos (1)]

[Quotes (2)]

President Barack Obama greets widow Victoria Kennedy. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

President Obama wipes his eye at the funeral Mass. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

President Obama speaks with Cardinal Sean O'Malley at the funeral. (AP Photo/Brian Snyder, Pool)

The casket of Senator Edward Kennedy. (AP Photo/Brian Snyder, Pool)

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President Obama delivers the eulogy of Sen. Edward Kennedy. (YouTube)

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The greatest expectations were placed upon Ted Kennedy’s shoulders because of who he was, but he surpassed them all because of who he became.

- President Obama

We do not weep for him today because of the prestige attached to his name or his office. We weep because we loved this kind and tender hero who persevered through pain and tragedy.
- President Obama

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