Ted Kennedy with Brain Cancer, on (Probably) Morphine, and in Excruciating Pain Can STILL Read a Teleprompter Better than McCain
Someone smart previewed the Republican convention next week by quipping we’d finally get to see whether McCain had won his six month wrestling match with a teleprompter.
I thought of that quip when I saw Kennedy speak last night. As someone whose own father died of brain cancer, I thought Kennedy looked great, with just a few stumbles on the teleprompter. "Even with brain cancer," I thought, "he’s still better with a teleprompter than McCain."
Today, the NYT reported on just how amazing Kennedy’s feat was. Not only was he sneaking off in the middle of cancer treatment to address the entire world, but he was suffering from excruciating kidney stones.
His aides said that after Mr. Kennedy finally decided he was well enough to come to Denver over the weekend, they became alarmed when he arrived on Sunday after a long charter airplane flight, accompanied by family members, aides and doctors, and reported being in excruciating pain.
Their first concern was that the pain was somehow related to his cancer, or the chemotherapy and radiology he had undergone, and that it had been complicated by the long flight or the high altitude of the city. A visit to a local hospital Sunday night revealed it was kidney stones and was unrelated to his cancer.
Kennedy’s handlers won’t tell whether or not he was on morphine to dull the pain.
Kidney stones are notoriously painful, and typically treated with morphine or other painkillers. (Aides would not say whether Mr. Kennedy had been given painkillers, or whether any stones had passed.)
Kennedy also thankfully ignored Bob Shrum’s suggestion that he give just a three-sentence statement.
But I guess that’s the kind of man Kennedy is. The most telling detail from the NYT story is one related not to last night’s efforts, but to his dramatic vote in support of Medicare earlier this summer.
One close associate, who demanded anonymity to discuss any element of Mr. Kennedy’s medical condition, disclosed that the senator had suffered an unspecified but serious setback in July after he flew to Washington in the midst of treatment to cast a vote on a Medicare bill.
McCain’s still wrestling with that teleprompter, while Kennedy is risking his health to save Medicare and elect Obama. I’m glad Kennedy’s on our team.
Me too Emptywheel. Me too.
Marcy great to find you finally. been looking all night. Need more.
Ted Kennedy has the fortitude, love of his country more than himself, courage and record as a public servant that John McCain fraudulently claims for himself, but could not attain in five lifetimes. I almost feel dirty even mentioning them in the same sentence.
Thanks, EW!
A wonderful tribute to a man who makes me proud to be a “liberal”!
Bob in HI
Glad you’re both on my team!
Love Ted. He did a wonderful job last night…couldn’t stop crying.
I give the Democrats a D- including Dean someone I like a lot because they have totally botched this opportunity whose major purpose was to advance the chance of winning the Presidency in 2008. They have not attacked the Republicans, Cheney and Bush, in any substantive way on one single issue and there are no lack of them and they should have torn into Cheney and Bush from the getgo.
Next week, whether you have the stomach to watch any of it or not (I won’t waste my time), they will portray Obama as a total loser and they will use all kinds of fiction to do it. They will be using thinly veiled code for we don’t want a black guy in the White House which is Obama’s main issue to overcome in the next couple months. They will portray him as completely out to lunch, tentative, unable to be Commander in Chief and the country should have been shown what a pathetic administration this has been.
That’s right. Most of them don’t have a clue and it should have been shoved in their face.
This has been a very wasted opportunity. I’m not talking about well educated bloggers enjoying networking/bonding with the netroots. That experience is very positive. I’m talking about the huge loss of an opportunity of free airtime to get the message accross as to how badly Bush and Cheney and the Republicans and Democrats in Congress (but I wasn’t expecting them to tell the country what failures Democrats were) ran this country into the ground.
It wasn’t done.
Monday night was a ‘Getting to know us’ night. Tuesday was ‘What is Hillary going to say night?’ The gloves will come off very soon (probably starting tonight) and in-case you hadn’t noticed, there has been some great shots at Bush/McCain Co from various speakers…
Also, mainstream Pravda* has been deliberately ‘choppy’ with their coverage so if folks don’t have CSPAN they’re not getting all the speeches anyway…:)
Pete, no matter the topic of the thread, you bring the same off topic criticism, repeatedly. I read it on the last thread and read it here again. Once is enough. You see failure in everything. You have moved from curmudgeon to harping curmudgeon.
Jackie–
I understand what they were. My concern was what they could have been and were not– a lot like the Bush administration during transition and what we know it to have been now.
I saw what was broadcasts from Pepsi Center. There are only four nights and we are down to Bubbah Clinton and Obama.
Monday night was the opportunity for the customary self-agrandizement by allowing people perceived to be highest in the Democratic pecking order to get their 5 minutes on the stage. Michelle Obama did a fine job, and it was not her job to contrast McCain as Bush III and possibly worse, but it was the job of everyone else.
Tuesday night is gone and it was about what Hillary Clinton would or would not say and this occupied several news cycles on blogs, print media, and TV.
Warner’s speech was absurdly inappropriate, and it was about Warner’s campaign for Senate in Virginia.
Now we are at Wednesday and the news cycle and the night will be about To Bubbah or not to Bubbah. Is he vengeful? Will it be about his perceived “accomplisments” but not about Obama and the Democrats getting the Republican administrations out of the White House?
Barack Obama is not going to give a speech very critical of the most destructive administration and agency composition in the history of this nation on Thursday.
And then you’re into a Republican convention whose sole mission will be to give McCain as many votes as they can period.
That should have been the sole mission of the Democrats in reverse and it was not.
Giving Markod Mellitus and the rest of the bloggers an entertaining Denver experience, and showing that Jane Hamsher and Glenn Greenwald can interview affluent people who do what most affluent people do when confronted as the scumbags that they are (in the case of the attendees at the ATT Blue Dog Dem Bash) is fine–it makes important points).
But that does not translate into reaching and educating the majority of poorly educated voters who are voting their gut, often on impulse, ignorance and in this election 20& or more on pure racial prejudice and hatred, who are not interested nor equipped to understand the issues.
One of the main tasks is to enlighten people who are determined not to vote for an African American who don’t give a rat’s ass what the issues are because they are too lazy to read and get to know them.
And their has been a colossal failure of this 4 day infomercial in performing that important task.
This is another one of your repetitive attacks on me. I make plenty of contributions, and if you don’t agree with my comment, referencing what your perception of me is fails to contribute anything.
I am pretty meticulously on topic, and there are plenty of comments on this particular thread and every other one that are totally OT and often labled so by the commenter.
Teddy spoke at the Democratic convention, and it was not off topic to comment on the convention and that’s what I did. The object of the convention’s infomercial for 4 days besides that the attendees feel fulfilled, or get educated, is to educate a populace where 20-25% now plan to vote their racial hatred and ignorance. And it did not get done.
The news cycle today is not about contrasts between a Democratic adminstration in January and a Republican one. It is solely and entirely about the Clintons.
That could have been avoided; I’m sorry for the Democrats’ chances that it wasn’t.
At some point, the Obama campaign is going to have to take charge and realize that they are being attacked, and unfortunately comity with the Republicans is not the appropriate tone in this campaign.
To borrow an excellent phrase from Jane Hamsher posted last night at FDL, I think the tone of the convention has been set by the “comity pimps of the party.”
If you think all my comments are “negative” you have obviously not read/failed to understand 95% of them.
Comments that you don’t like in life don’t necessarily equate to negative comments.
You hit the nail on the head here. That they remain uneducable is less the fault of Democrats or the Obama campaign, though. The fault is with the populace.
This also goes beyond race. The Serbs have a word for their national character that is beginning to describe ours: inat, a perverse contrariness inadequately translated as “spite”. Here is an essay on the 2004 election digby, I think, linked to; it’s about our kind of Spite that makes the continuation of Bushism through McCain a possibility or that makes Obama’s popularity abroad a liability.
And Ted would look great even if they shoved a green back ground behind him!
I watched Ted Kennedy’s speech to the 1980 convention with my dad, who was an old Alberta Tory (read: conservative but principled). We were both just riveted throughout, and Dad had tears in his eyes at the end. Great memory.
I wish I’d thought to watch C-SPAN yesterday for some of the people I count on but who seemed to be speaking at unfortunate times. Maybe I’ll go look at the archives. Did anyone catch Leahy, eg?
Thanks, Marcy. Ted knows what it is all about. His service is truly selfless. (Can you imagine Mitt Romney facing the same issues? He’d have his own wing of a hospital and 30 attending physicians waiting on him hand and foot. He’d also have about a two-mile quarantine zone people couln’t enter.) I think Hillary picked up a little of that last night when she pointed out that the campaign is all about helping those in need and not about individual candidates. More of this, please.
I hope jackie is right that the gloves come off tonight (although Hillary’s comment about the Twin Cities being appropriate for the Republic convention since we can’t tell Bush and McCain apart was great!).
Bill Clinton is going to massacre McCain.
I have a feeling you are right.
Something along the lines of “The Republicans squandered all of the gains” he made, got us into 2 endless wars, and for some reason think they can be trusted….
I think this is going to be a payback opportunity for a slightly demented pit bull taken off his risperidal.
He will ridicule McCain in that effective way he has.
great to see you marcy!
there aren’t too many republican politicians that are in it for their constituents, just about everyone I can think of is in it for the lobbiests and for their own bankroll
ted kennedy?
he’s in it for me, he would do much better out of public office but he is really a lion, a real champion for the future of this country
I have to confess that I’ve held a grudge against Ted Kennedy for nearly 30 years for the way he campaigned against Jimmy Carter. If you think the Clintons haven’t done enough for Obama, you just aren’t old enough to remember what the Kennedys didn’t do in 1980. I don’t know if anybody else noticed that the closing line of Kennedy’s speech was a deliberate echo of the speech he gave in 1980, but I sure did (and I bet the Clintons did to). It was a masterful turn from party division to party unity, but it was much more than that.
I see this speech as an act of redemption. Despite my grudge, I have enormous respect for what Ted Kennedy has achieved in his career, but what he did Monday night was beyond self, beyond party, beyond patriotism. It was a supreme effort on behalf of humanity and his own ideals. I didn’t see a man worried about his legacy or place in history. I saw someone willing to put it all on the line for what he believes in. Whatever mistakes he’s made in his career, no one should ever question his commitment to his beliefs.
I admire your honesty.
Repugs in Mass have never forgiven Teddy about Chappaquiddick.
I bring up Teddy to some of my freinds and they shove Chappaquiddick
down my throat and up my arse.
Fuckers, they can’t see all the good that Teddy has done for the little guy
and his commitment to America.
Thanks EW for the spotlight on Teddy.
I listened to the speech live; well. live on the TeeVee anyway. It was clearly a supreme effort, but my initial comment was that, as good as it was, it didn’t seem like the speech I thought Teddy would have written and brought. Turned out that I was right in that regard (original was cut in half), but didn’t know the half of it on the difficulty from the medical end of things. I also noted the “Dream lives on” symmetry with 1980 though, and you could really see the the importance and passion to him in uttering those words. Hell of a show from the old lion.
Why isn’t Webb speaking? He’s the best speaker and writer the Democrats have, and that includes Obama. Most of yesterday was night of the living dead.
You must not have seen Brian Schweitzer (Gov of MT) talking about energy and about new priorities. You should be able to find a clip online at msnbc.com, or at cnn.com (probably also at CSPAN). Well worth a look.
Actually he is the one I missed.
That was very brave.
Purely from a metabolic viewpoint, I will never know how Kennedy made that speech.
And I also found myself thinking that, in the cosmic sense of things, there was a certain poetic justice in all the deep fondness, affection, and depth of emotion that appeared to be in that convention center. If love alone would keep a person alive, Ted Kennedy would be immortal.
Ted Kennedy: surrounded by the love of thousands.
Wonder whether Robert Novak watched it…? And how many people were emitting heart-felt gratitude, admiration, and affection for the Novak…?
The Kennedy speech was, for me, a powerful reminder that people aren’t stupid and in a larger sense, how people live their lives and what they do with their energy really does matter — it’s just that we don’t often enough step back from the daily yammer to see the bigger picture. That speech was a few minutes culminating 50 years of effort.
I’ll never know how Kennedy made that speech, but I’ll also never forget it.
Dennis had heart and soul on the podium He rocked!!!!!!!
i had the great good fortune to meet and shake hands with ted kennedy some years ago. i would not have anticipated that it would be as moving as it was, but i treasure the event.
it was a small thing, commemoration of some local supporters after many years of service to the democratic party, as well as to him and his campaigns. but he stood up there, no notes, no teleprompter, and just grabbed the audience by nailing the issues at the core. he was amazing.
and is always amazing. his oratory skills are peerless, and not even obama’s strengths in this area come anywhere close.
ted is the beacon of the democratic party, and of progressive sentiments for the country. everything will shift when he goes. everything; i don’t think people realize just what a powerful role he plays, not just as an icon but behind the scenes.
i’m proud to have had the privilege to vote for him, and have him represent me in the senate. i hope that opportunity presents itself at least a couple more times.
Thanks for this, EW!
And DiFi couldn’t be bothered to get crutches or a wheelchair and show up with a broken ankle. Pathetic. Though maybe she actually is getting the message that her constituents are pissed off at her and didn’t want to be at a disadvantage when she needed to bravely run away from them.
FunnyD
It may have been more difficult for DiFi to get a a $2000 pair of Ferragamos on that ankle.
When DiFi is absent from a vote, or absent from SJC this country does much better. Di Fi has consistently voted Bush on all key votes. She was instrumental in helping to pass the PAA/(FISA revision). Di Fi and Schumer were two votes that allowed Mukasey to be reported out of SJC. To be sure there were others like Bayh who voted for him. (Carper, Feinstein, Bayh, Landrieu, Leiberman (in reality a Republican and hopefully the VP candidate for them),Nelson, and Schmer voted for Mukasey on the floor).
And it’s not that these individuals just voted for Mukasey. All of them but Schumer sided with Bush on every key issue he wanted passed in Congress.
Lord, the friends I have had who have gone through kidney stones relate that they were hoping to be shot, the pain was that bad. Each noted it was the WORST thing they had EVER experienced.
THat Ted Kennedy, sick with brian cancer and chemo and radiation, could LEAVE the hospital to give a major speech….
Well, I seriously doubt anyone leading the current GOP could do that. I’m completely and totally impressed.
Unfortunately, what the Democrats have chosen to do with their time in this 4 days has not helped advancing the causes that or near and dear to Teddy’s heart or his legacy, and that most every blog here and at FDL have shown have been trashed by a Republican administration, Republicans in Congress, and willing compliant Democrats who have displayed a consistent lack of bacbone in every single issue that Bush has wanted Congress to ditto, with the major exception of privatizing social security.
When Teddy charted the course of treatment for his glioblastoma multiforme, some of the best and brightest were convened immediately by private jet to form a treatment team.
As a close observer of medical care, that is unique as to the level of care that is being delivered in this country. A substantial percentage of people for a panoply of reasons are not getting access to health care system until they are at far advanced stages of even the most common and best understood disease entities.
There are always pie in the sky wishes for “excellent medical care” for every citizen and “world class educations for each and every child.”
Achieving those goals has de miminus to do with who is in the White House, and Congress has done little or nothing to advance towards them since I was a little boy.
I have/had kidney stones. I was told that the pain is comparable to giving birth without epidural.
White House is going full bore cuz if they testify their gig will
be up, and criminal charges will be levelled against those fuckers.
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/….._0827.html
OT and more appropriate for EW’s Denied! “Bates Refuses to Stay Order in Miers/Bolten Suit” post, but since this is the current live thread:
(My Bold)
So I was told that they “wouldn’t appeal because Bates said the order is non-appealable,” when I have said all along that they will ask for relief in DC CA. Of course they will appeal, and they will argue among other things that any assertion by Bates that they can’t appeal is error.
Precisely as I predicted, and many convoluted scenarios (by Scribe) were dscribed, DOJ is going to the DC CA and one of their arguments will be that the non-appeallable order is appeallable and moreover that their ridiculous claims of unconditional immunity (my term for what they actually want) are valid for the “safety of the contry and the integrity of the Executive Branch as it relates to the Legislative Branch–my term again for what they are trying to do).
And to everyone who said they “can’t appeal”–I said they would and they are. The appellate teams at Main Justice will always appeal an issue like this and while I don’t know what the DC CA will do, one thing they will not do is dismiss the appeal as an out of time or out of order appeal.
Remeber all Bates’ order and memo opinion requires of Miers and Bolten is that they show up and at each ane every question invoke the Bush administration’s egregiously stupid perception of the privilege that they don’t have and Bates has said they don’t have, and if they show up that’s what they’ll do. And unless Conyers is prepared to start water boarding them or applying electricity to their gonads, that’s all that he’s going to get out of these two.
There are implications for Rove as Marcy, and many others including Kagro and the prof law blogs have pointed out (by the way the prof law blogs expect them to appeal Bates assessment that they can’t appeal as well) but I wouldn’t hold my breath expecting anything helpful to come from the mouth of Rove. Rove talks on TV and in the print media, but not under oath, with a take down, in public in a hearing room.
It was easier to get Mafia Captains to testify in the 1960’s when Bobby Kennedy was AG the way Michael Corleone did wasn’t it?
OT, James Wolcott captures Maureen Dowd’s view of Democrats, as if looking through black fishnet stockings draped over her head. From his Far From the Madding Dowd:
http://www.vanityfair.com/online/wolcott/
Little Miss Mow Down, dressed like Angie Dickinson and still no one wants to lift her literary skirt, a frustration she replays in every column, making the Times’ op-ed page look like a room at the Mayflower that’s been busy but hasn’t been cleaned in a week.
Gosh. That was tonic, I must say.
But back to MadDog and BayStateLibrul @ 34 and 35: Wow. Where does this measure on the outrage-o-meter?
Identify one other and you’ll have made a valid point.
I don’t think I’ve ever attacked you, never mind addressed you.
It’s clear you cannot hear what I have to say.
The above, in response to PetePeirce @ 31
I met him a year ago in Hyannis Port where he dedicated a life sized statue of his brother. I was amazed at his physical condition even then – clearly suffering from a chronic spinal issue that has him walking with a severe tilt. His dedication speech hung in the summertime Hyannis air timelessly, as though it were just yesterday – as he recounted the time spent and lessons learned from his brother, Jack.
What a rich life. And what a lion.
Well done, Senator.
Fair winds and following seas.
Was not in the Pepsi Center (was there earlier that day) during Senator Kennedy’s speech. Was down in front of the MSNBC two tiered news platform on 16th just past Union Station. The reports from folks who scrambled to their seats inside the Pepsi Center the “hall went silent, you could hear a pin drop”. Many folks in front of the screens at the MSNBC had tears in their eyes some rolling down their cheeks (me). Those Kennedy’s (especially Teddy) can rock the house. That man has soul from his toes to the top of his toes. That soul seems to emanate from every pour of that man’s body. What is it? For me it is how this extremely wealthy family (who could sit on their cushions and eat bon bons) get out there and work for the poor, the middle class, health care. Teddy is an inspiration beyond all words. (my little sign ended up on MSNBC “We Love you Teddy”
Yesterday went into the Pepsi Center around 5 felt bad for the folks that they were herding in between 7-9, who were not going to get seats (wondering why they do not radio out to the guards outside that the place was packed). These folks(probably a couple of thousand) end up watching the speeches from the many screens out in the hallways. They could have stayed in their hotel rooms and watched or hell they could have stayed home. Being inside the Pepsi Center is over rated (my last convention was in 92) when I was able to be down on the main floor. Now that changes things. With the immense amount of security this changes the dynamics considerably,
Hillary’s speech was full of grace and grit. Went down to MSNBC after speech and my little cardboard sign that said “Hillary grit and grace” made it on.
EW. There has been lots of people giving it to MSNBC yelling “do your job”. Lots of cheering for Keith, Chris and RAchel. I actually feel sorry for Nora O Donnel (she gets none of this at all) While folks are always calling out for Rachel.
Chris Matthews seems to be the one most accessible to the peasants. He come out and talks, shakes hands, signs book and papers ( he signed my “give impeachment a chance” sign.(which has yet to make it on to the screen. Talked the Code Pink folks down in front of MSNBC yesterday (after being down at the Sheraton on !6th as the Emily’s list program was going on) afternoon. They were able to get the crowd rocking with some great songs and chants.
One of the most exciting and informative activities that I have participated in were the Native American, Hispanic (Hillary spoke), African American and Senior caucuses in the Convention Center. Took notes. Will share later. Seniors focused on how McCain will continue to privatize social security and how that needs to be focused on.
Had the pleasure of talking with Mrs. Matilda Garcia the oldest delegate at the convention. (she is 89). Ew I will send you her phone number she loves being interviewed.
From Code Pink’s
NEW POST ALERT
Torture At The Democratic National Convention
To some extent I agree with PetePierce. This is an opportunity for the Democrats to pound on the Republican ticket and the Bush legacy, free TV time, with attack dogs who needn’t face major consequences, and they haven’t done much of it.
I’m not going anywhere with it Pete. I said my peace. You can hear it or ignore it. I think you made your choice.
As for you “anxiously look[ing] forward to a plethora of eurudite comments.” Here it is: I think you’re a pompous ass.
I think Harry Reid read my comment. Well put-together speech, although he cannot help his speaking style.
Patrick Murphy!!