Obama Will Deliver Kennedy Eulogy

President works into night on speech for Boston funeral

(NEWSER) - President Obama is still working on the eulogy he’ll deliver at Ted Kennedy’s funeral tomorrow in Boston, an aide tells Politico tonight. Though Obama will offer “a personal take on the senator as legislator, mentor, colleague, friend and family member,” the aide says, it’s “more about his impact on the country.” More»

(NEWSER) - With a tropical storm bearing down on the Northeast, President Obama and Michelle Obama will leave Martha's Vineyard tomorrow, a day ahead of schedule, to ensure he arrives in Boston in time to deliver a eulogy at Ted Kennedy's funeral Saturday. If possible, they'll return to the Vineyard afterward; if they can't, they'll travel directly to Washington, Politico reports. More»

Senator wrote letter delivered by Obama

(NEWSER) - In the months before he died, Ted Kennedy penned a letter to Pope Benedict beseeching the pontiff's prayers—and enlisted no less a messenger than the leader of the free world to deliver it, reports CNN. “I am writing with deep humility to ask that you pray for me as my own health declines,” Kennedy wrote in the letter Barack Obama hand-delivered in July. “I know that I have been an imperfect human being, but with the help of my faith I have tried to right my path.” More»

(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." More»

President asks Benedict to pray for ill senator

(NEWSER) - President Obama delivered a letter from Ted Kennedy to Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican today, CNN reports. Obama met with the pontiff for about a half hour before leaving Rome for Ghana. The contents of Kennedy’s letter were personal, an Obama aide said, and “not known to anyone I know of except Senator Kennedy." More»