Nation blog: To properly honor Teddy, Obama needs to talk about health reform in eulogy

[gauguin57]

Obama Can Honor Kennedy Best By Making Eulogy a Call to Action

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat/466902/obama_can_honor_kennedy_best_by_making_eulogy_a_call_to_action

To do right by Kennedy, Obama must make his words on Saturday more than a eulogy.

He must deliver a renewing address, both for the causes Kennedy championed -- of which the first and foremost is universal health care -- and for the presidency in which the late senator invested as much hope as the most idealistic Obama volunteer.

Obama must speak in the Kennedy tradition when he rises to speak Saturday morning at Boston's Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help.

[Raven]

1. Boy! That's a tough one. If O makes it a centerpiece of the eulogy,

he will be accused of politicizing Teddy's passing. If he doesn't, he will be ignoring one of the major missions of Teddy's life. My bet is that Obama will strike a perfect balance.

PS. This has turned out to be one hell of a non-vacation for the Obamas.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

6. That's what I was thinking. I'm remembering what happened with Wellstone.

[Cha]

7. What happened with Wellstone is the rw+corporatemedia's

doing..they will not tell us how to mourn anymore.

[eleny]

2. Health care reform was the cause of Kennedy's life

It's fitting to speak about it at his memorial service.

[stray cat]

4. He loved his family, sailing and the ocean, his faith, his fellow man

Health care falls under the category of his public service but it surely was not him. He was more than his drive for health care.

[eleny]

5. Kennedy is the one who said it was the cause of his life

Argue with him if you wish but I won't.

[babylonsister]

3. I agree. Regardless of what he says, he'll be criticized. So let his

words count as part of Senator Kennedy's desired legacy.

[Jennicut]

8. It was one of his biggest issues, I think Obama will put it in there for sure

But he will also talk about who the man was, what he meant to others.

[Phx_Dem]

9. That's a sticky wicket. He can't politicize Ted's funeral.

He can speak of health care as the focus of Ted's like, but he can't push it. Nothing would be worse than to be seen as using Ted's funeral to push his political agenda.

[PVnRT]

10. No no no no no no no no

Christ, remember what the wingers did when 15 seconds of Wellstone's funeral was allegedly "politicized"? That would be the absolute worst thing to do at the man's funeral.

Use his death as a spark to get people to pass it, fine, but don't use his funeral as a campaign speech. Stupid, stupid idea.

[Hekate]

11. Not a good idea in a Church service. Mentioning his love of humanity, yes. Politics, no.

The setting is a religious service, a Roman Catholic mass. President Obama is both being honored himself and doing honor to Ted Kennedy. I think the officiating priest would be more than a little irked if politics were to intrude overmuch.

If there is a separate public memorial service, more secular than not, that would be the appropriate time to talk at length about and celebrate Kennedy's political career. One of the most outrageous things about the reporting about Paul Wellstone's public memorial service was the failure by the MSM to distinguish between those two kinds of events, and their willingness to report every canard offered up by the hypocrites of the RW as though it were reasonable fact.

Hekate

[Engineer4Obama]

12. Yes and when anyone suggests you are injecting politics in teddy's funeral

You counter with this -

You cannot separate Ted Kennedy from Politics.

And no matter how much you personally liked the man you lost the right to say we were politicizing something when you demonized him to raise money.

Teddy was one of us, Health Care reform was the cause of his life. NOT mentioning it would be letting politics obscure the truth.

Teddy would want his death to be a rallying point for this, and damn us if we're too afraid of hurting the republicans feeling to do him justice!