Ted Kennedy the Orator

The following are excerpts from some of Senator Ted Kennedy's most famous speeches:

Eulogy for Robert F. Kennedy - June 8, 1968

"Our future may lie beyond our vision, but it is not completely beyond our control. It is the shaping impulse of America that neither fate nor nature nor the irresistible tides of history, but the work of our own hands, matched to reason and principle, that will determine our destiny. There is pride in that, even arrogance, but there is also experience and truth. In any event, it is the only way we can live.

"This is the way he lived. My brother need not be idealized, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life, to be remembered simply as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it.

"Those of us who loved him and who take him to his rest today, pray that what he was to us and what he wished for others will some day come to pass for all the world.

"As he said many times, in many parts of this nation, to those he touched and who sought to touch him:

'Some men see things as they are and say why.
I dream things that never were and say why not.'"

Democratic National Convention in Madison Square Garden in 1980

"For all of those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die."

Eulogy for Jacqueline Onassis - May 23, 1994

"She graced our history. And for those of us who knew and loved her -- she graced our lives."

Sept. 18, 2003: Ted Kennedy says the Iraq threat was a fraud "made up in Texas"

Excerpt from AP interview with Kennedy:

"There was no imminent threat. This was made up in Texas, announced in January to the Republican leadership that war was going to take place and was going to be good politically. This whole thing was a fraud."

Democratic National Convention, July 27, 2004

"In the depths of the Depression, Franklin Roosevelt inspired the nation when he said, 'The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.' Today, we say the only thing we have to fear is four more years of George Bush."

Jan. 16, 2005: Kennedy says Iraq is "George Bush's Vietnam"

"Look what has happened even this past week. And this clearly is George Bush's Vietnam, Iraq is. But look what has happened this last week. Here we find the administration effectively indicating to the American public and to the world that there were no weapons of mass destruction, which is the principal reason that we went into Iraq. And then secondly rebutted the administration's long-term position by stating very, very clearly that we were creating more terrorists than we were killing them and that the threat and the expansion of Al Qaeda in terms of the world was being expanded because of the continuing festering in Iraq. This is a disaster because it's a result of blunder after blunder after blunder. And it is George Bush's Vietnam."

Kennedy: Bush Administration Eavesdropping is "Big Brother Run Amok," Dec. 16, 2005

"In the 1970's, Big Brother spied on its citizens, and the American people stood up and said "no." President Nixon's program, the COINTELPRO, allowed broad spying on law-abiding American citizens. We stopped Big Brother then by establishing the FISA court to ensure proper oversight and protections. Now this administration believes it is above even those protections. This is Big Brother run amok. With these new developments, we must take a step back and not rush the PATRIOT Act, further risking our civil protections."

Democratic Convention, August 2008

"Nothing! Nothing is going to keep me away from this special gathering," he told cheering delegates in his trademark baritone. "I have come here tonight to stand with you to change America, to restore its future, to rise to our best ideals, and to elect Barack Obama President of the United States of America."

July, 2008: Returns to Senate to Help Pass Medicare Bill
"I didn't want to miss the opportunity to be able to express my voice and my vote,"
Senator Edward M. Kennedy made an extraordinary return to the Senate on Wednesday to deliver Democrats a decisive victory on a signature health care issue despite his own treatment for brain cancer.