Robert F. Kennedy Tribute on CSPAN

[Mass]

Did Kerry already speak?

[karynnj]

1. Kerry now

[FreedomAngel82]

27. What time does Kerry speak?

I don't want to watch all of it.

[Mass]

2. Kerry on CSPAN.

[karynnj]

5. Kerry was great -

I wish I had time to get a tape out - how msny great speeches is he up to this month! His introduction was nice. Was that one of RFK's daughters (Carrie?)

[Mass]

16. Kerry (I think).

[wisteria]

3. I was just going to post this myself, thanks! n/t

[Mass]

4. Absolutely excellent as always..

[karynnj]

6. Norman Macafee is great too

I love the anti- Bush poem

[Mass]

12. John Lewis was great

I dont know who came before. I turn the TV on as Hillary was speaking.

[karynnj]

14. I turned it on when I saw your post - Thanks

Lewis was absolutely wonderful. I missed Hillary. I assume Teddy will speak later?

[Mass]

15. I am not sure whether he has already spoken or not.

The speaker before Shesol was great as well. I did not note his name, but he was really inspiring in defining what Kennedy would care about now.

[FreedomAngel82]

28. I even shockingly

Liked Joe Scarborough's speech!

[jillan]

7. Oh man - I didn't know Kerry was going to be on,

Wow he is all over the place lately - I LOVE IT!!!!!

I'll have to check Cspan.org to find out when it will be on again.
That's the good thing about cspan, the play the same things over and over during the weekend.

[FreedomAngel82]

29. Don't forget the website

:)

[karynnj]

8. Dayton now

was often in the same party as GWB at Yale, but Bush was in positions they weren't in. (or something to that effect) He also said Bush more suited to being a frat President.

[ProSense]

9. Missed it.

Can someone feed me?

[karynnj]

13. Hard to do - here's a try though

Kerry spoke about having met JFK and knowing his Senior Senator, but never having met RFK - but that through his speeches knowing RFK. He talked about how he heard on a ship in the Pacific about MLK's death and how because RFK spoke to the crowd in Indianapolis, it was one of the few cities where there was no rioting.

He read a RFK quote about what was lost when people died in VN - form of - one might have written a poem, one might have ... and ended with the RFK comment that he's used so often this week about dissent being patriotism.

He then talked about being near the coast of California returning from VN when the first thing he heard was that RFK won the primary, then by the time he docked, they learned he had died. He mentioned it as a long weekend.

He recommended that people read Teddy's speech given in Kansas about his brother. He mentioned it works now. (Talks about what GNP doesn't measure - quality of schools, life etc)

This doesn't do justice at all to what he said -

[ProSense]

19. Thanks!

You captured some of the flavor. Love to hear all the personal accounts.

[MH1]

18. Rebroadcast at 11:30 pm EST (maybe...)

The listing has the dreaded CSPAN "est." on it, so who knows when it will actually come on. Blank tape time. (I missed it too...thanks to this group I now find out about what I've missed!)

[sandnsea]

10. I'm watching the book stuff

They had a wonderful young man who wrote a book about his time in Iraq, very insightful. Now the National Book Awards and Garrison Keillor spoke, had to watch that. I didn't know I was missing Kerry and a Kennedy tribute. Grrr. Switching now.

[beachmom]

11. I watched the last couple of minutes of his speech

He seemed a little sad (about RFK's short life), but he looked fabulous. 2 minutes wasn't enough to get more of an impression than that. Anyone know when the repeat is?

[Island Blue]

17. I just saw on the screen that it will be repeated at 11:30 p.m.

[jenndar]

22. Thanks!

I'll be sure to watch or record it.

[TayTay]

20. I didn't see this, but I would guess Mr. Kerry would relate most to RFK

of the Kennedy clan. Bobby was alwayss the thinker and the introvert. He was the most brilliant member of that remarkable family and had the most interesting mind.

Bobby was the one who won the family bet on who could not smoke and not drink until they reached the age of 21. He was the 'good son' who did everything his father asked. He was the one who, when he served as Senate council for the Mob hearings and for the McCarthy was the hard-nosed realist. He was JFK's most trusted advisor and his rock in the White House. And then....

After his brother's murder, RFK drifted. He seemed to re-evaluate and redevelop as a person. When he ran for the Senate in NY and won (and gave Mass it's third Senator LOL!) He profoundly changed in that term in the Senate. That was not something that was picked up by everyone and quite a few people did not see him in a favorable light. (Everything he did was assumed to be political and he had to prove and reprove that he had a core.) He wasn't tough enough, he wasn't liberal enough, he wasn't outspoken enough about the war and so forth.

I should like to see this. I have always thought that Mr. Kerry had a lot in common with RFK, from his seriousness of purpose to his intensity and his deeply held concern for others. Both men, in some ways, were a bit on the shy side about some things and in some personal mannerisms. I should like to see Kerry speak about RFK, there might be some genuine insight there.

[Mass]

21. I remember watching his biography during the campaign and I was

really fascinated by all that linked RFK and Kerry. At nearly every step of his life from him deciding to run for Senator to his campaign, his evolution was striking and many of the issues he had to fight with are the issues we have to fight with now.

(as you can see, I am a big fan of RFK, but this tribute was excellent. If you can see it later, do it. It was worth it.)

[fedupinBushcountry]

23. Now, Now

I am proud to say that RFK was my Senator. I met him in '66 when he was running for Senator. I will never forget it, he came to my Catholic high school, I can still remember the touch of his hand, now that is eerie. I wasn't old nough to vote for him but my parents worked for his campaign. I also remeber clearly the night he got shot, I came home from a date, and my mother told me the news, it was just so hard to comprehend and how this could happen to such a good man, my God we had barely gotten over the death of JFK. It was such sad era to grow up in, but much good was brought out because of Bobby Kennedy and his brother JFK. Of course I follewed Teddy and I really never wanted him to run for President because I was so afraid that what happened to his brothers would happen to him also. I was so on edge when I heard he was running, and I myself would of voted for him in an instant, but I didn't in my heart want any more pain brought on to his family, our family of Irish Catholic Kennedy democrats.

As I have said before I always thought of myself as a Kennedy democrat, and John Kerry brought that sense of purpose back out in me, and I proudly consider myself a Kerry democrat today. To me John Kerry brings the spirit of JFK and RFK back to the political spotlight, and it is definitely what is needed right now.

[TayTay]

25. Yeah, but the joke at home was that

Massachusetts had 3 Senators. (Sort of. The Kennedy's are of Massachusetts, but they are also very, very national. Now, so is Mr. Kerry. Hmmmmmm.)

RFK was my favotire of that clan. He was just so interesting and there was a lot there. When he decided on an idea, he really went for it. His later interactions with LBJ were very fiery.

[ginnyinWI]

26. I'm sure it will be online

I was thinking along these same lines: that if anyone is a replacement in American politics for Bobby Kennedy, it is certainly Kerry. :)

[k j]

30. Agree, 100%

[Island Blue]

24. I thought Senator Kerry did a wonderful job (as always)

The tone that he used was very conversational rather than being speech-like. (At least that's the vibe I got.) It was very heart-felt and you could tell by listening to him what a tremendous effect Robert Kennedy had on his life even though he never personally met him.

[whometense]

31. Online now

here: http://c-span.org/search/basic.asp?ResultStart=1&ResultCount=10&BasicQueryText=Robert+Kennedy+tribute&image1.x=0&image1.y=0&image1=Submit

[TayTay]

32. Thanks! Just saw it.

There are times when I have trouble believing that Mr. Kerry is not Irish. I swear that sometimes when he speaks I hear both strains of music that the Irish are famous for, the wistful pipes that call back to memory and that are sweetly sad and the incredibly forward marching penny whistles and fiddles that speak to the future only. I swear, he is Irish seomewhere in there, because both strains are so true.

[whometense]

33. That was a beautiful,

beautiful speech. And I get what you mean about the Irish. There was a lot of it in that one.

[TayTay]

34. Yeah, I really do hear that with Kerry.

Which is odd coming from me, as the whole nationality debate thing was, I thought, a waste of space. Then again, real culture is lovely and worth noticing and for the Irish, part of that is in the poetry and the almost cheerful fatalism. (What an odd combination.)

I do sense that oddly Irish strain of both looking back and looking forward, often at the same time.

[karynnj]

35. It might make sense though

Didn't Kerry's dad grow up in Massachusetts as a Catholic? His dad died when he was quite young and both of his parents had broken from their cultural heritage. Richard Kerry would likely have absorbed the culture he grew up in - seeing differences as those of the old country vs his own country. Wouldn't that culture likely have been Irish Catholic.

It makes sense to me as I see my nieces and nephews picking up speech patterns and characteristics of the areas my siblings moved to - in Kerry's dad's case as an immigrant it might have been more pronounced.

Either that or maybe Teddy adopted him.

[TayTay]

36. I think you're right.

He is Irish by Association. And Uncle Ted has adopted him. (And he couldn't run for office statewide in Mass without attending all those St Pat's Day political roasts and gotten the Boston Irish message that you have to be both very tough and very able to laugh at yourself. Yeah, Irish by Association, fer sure!)

[karynnj]

37. Thanks for posting this

It was great to see the Kerry's beautiful speech a second time and to see the earlier ones. I can see why Massachusetts loves Teddy - beyond the fact that he's a great Senator - he was so warm and likeable.

Hillary looked great, but seemed to have little real connection to RFK.

[whometense]

39. I have to keep my lips sealed,

as I've crossed over into this reflexively Clinton-hating mode lately in which pretty much anything either of them does makes me furious.

But I'll allow myself this observation, and you can all feel free to slam me if you think it's unfair. She seemed to be straining to make a connection that didn't exist. She would have been a lot better off telling a personal story of her own. Like the Rosa Parks funeral, this was a low-key and intimate event, despite the number of people in attendance. She seems to me to have a tin ear for tone, and as a result all her speeches end up sounding political.

[jenndar]

40. I had a similar reaction.

Lately at events, I feel like she's ALWAYS talking about politics. I guess that could be said of any politician, but I'm just not moved by her of late.

[karynnj]

41. I don't hate Clinton - and I have been genuinely interested in

hearing her speeches because one of the comments for why she is the obvious choice is she is suppose to be well spoken. I have been surprisingly unimpressed - she's very poised, speaks fluently, but very cold.

It is obvious that Kerry was far more connected emotionally to the Kennedys, but his entire speech talked about what made RFK special and how RFK personally impacted him and how RFK related to today. I would bet that Kerry most have re-read a lot of RFK's words to prepare a great speech - and he has put at least 2 or 3 RFK quotes in his other speeches. The end result was a very emotional, very personal eulogy. Kerry reading the lines about the people dying in Vietnam - because he was there and because of Iraq now was chilling.

Hillary talked of ice cream socials in Russell Hall and football games with staffers and having a dog at work (?)- she wasn't there - so it wasn't personal.

[whometense]

42. Yeah.

I thought the dog thing was really weird. If she wants a dog, what's keeping her from getting one? And if she doesn't want one, that makes it phony.

I agree, though I'm less openminded than you are. She comes across as very cold. It's hard for me to imagine her on the campaign trail attracting the kinds of passionate crowds Kerry did.

[karynnj]

43. That might be the surprise of the primaries

She had a very weak opponent in NY after Guilliani dropped out. I guess she may count on Bill bringing people in and keeping them happy.

THe dog thing was unbelievable - especially in mentioning Ethel's first name - it just seemed phoney. I just felt that there are some people who would be remembered for ice cream socials, football in the grass and a dog, but not someone like RFK. If she would have been there and these were her mamories it would be fine - but as she wasn't she has all his causes, actions, believes and his beautiful speeches that she could choose from. (It's amazing how wonderful each of the 3 Kennedy men's speeches are/were.)

[ProSense]

38. The man who should be president.

I love Kerry's anecdotes. Nice speech.