Ted Kennedy highlights Dems' convention opener

DENVER — Sen. Edward Kennedy is in Denver and expected to attend tonight's session of the Democratic National Convention — an appearance likely to provoke an emotional outpouring on the first night of what already is billed as a historic party meeting.

Aides to the Massachusetts Democrat, diagnosed earlier this year with a malignant brain tumor, stopped short of saying he would speak. Kennedy taped a five-minute video message recently at his Cape Cod home, which is expected to be shown Monday night as part of a tribute to Kennedy.

Ted Kennedy has been a constant presence at Democratic conventions, most notably in 1980, when he electrified the convention with his "dream shall never die speech." Kennedy had challenged President Carter for the party nomination that year.

Tonight's tribute will include a film by documentary producer Ken Burns, along with remarks from Caroline Kennedy, President John F. Kennedy's daughter, who helped conduct Barack Obama's vice presidential search. A taped message from Kennedy also will be played, but there was at least a chance that he will make the trip here if his doctors permit it. Kennedy was diagnosed with brain cancer in May, and he has spent much of the summer recovering from surgery, chemotherapy and radiation treatment.

Shortly before his cancer diagnosis, Kennedy endorsed Obama, dealing a blow to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign and bestowing an establishment seal of approval for the insurgent senator from Illinois. But for those close to Kennedy, Obama was the obvious choice. His candidacy represented the culmination of a career-long pursuit for civil rights and an impulse to embrace the new, rather than resist it.

"There was another time, when another young candidate was running for president and challenging America to cross a New Frontier," Kennedy said in his endorsement speech. "He faced public criticism from the preceding Democratic president, who was widely respected in the party. Harry Truman said we needed 'someone with greater experience' — and added: 'May I urge you to be patient.' And John Kennedy replied: 'The world is changing. The old ways will not do. ... It is time for a new generation of leadership.' "

"So it is with Barack Obama," Kennedy said.

Obama, for his part, frequently has praised Kennedy and has invoked his name and those of his brothers. "Ted has been at the forefront of every single cause that's important to Democrats for my entire adult life," Obama said in an interview. "Having gotten to know him in the Senate, what I came to realize was, he's probably the hardest-working senator that we have. And during this campaign, what I've seen is the sheer joy he gets out of politics. He cares so deeply about the people he's fighting for, but he also just enjoys being in the mix and the give-and-take."

Obama has won the support of other members of the Kennedy family, including Maria Shriver and Ethel Kennedy, widow of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. At a fundraiser at Ethel Kennedy's home in Northern Virginia, her son, Max, introduced Obama by describing how his mother turned to him after Obama's speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention and said, "The man who just spoke is going to be president of the United States, and he is going to change this country."

One Kennedy source counted several dozen family members coming to the convention, including Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., the senator's son; Shriver, the wife of Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California; Jean Kennedy Smith and her family; Caroline Kennedy, her husband and children; and numerous members of Robert Kennedy's family, including Ethel Kennedy.

Kennedy's appearance could be the last at a national Democratic convention by a Kennedy brother, closing an era that began in 1956, when John Kennedy made a bid for the vice presidency. John Kennedy lost that bid, but it catapulted him to national prominence, and four years later, he won the presidency.

The tribute will be the big public event of the week, and no other Kennedys will speak at the convention. But they will gather to commemorate another family milestone — the 40th anniversary of Robert Kennedy's presidential bid.

Another historic event associated with John Kennedy will be marked: Obama's acceptance speech on Thursday night will coincide with the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech at the March on Washington. After the address, King and other leaders were invited to the White House to meet with the president, who told the group he was committed to passing civil rights legislation. He was killed before the Civil Rights Act passed in 1964, but his brother has since been involved in trying to expand its protections for many minorities.

"The Kennedy family has been with us from the very early days," said Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., the only surviving member of King's delegation to the White House on Aug. 28, 1963. "Every major civil rights battle, Senator Kennedy has been there. He's been a warrior. He's been a fighter. He's been a workhorse for civil rights."

A convention week that starts with a Kennedy tribute and ends with an African American accepting the Democratic presidential nomination "is unbelievable," said Lewis. "It is unreal. It is the coming together of history and maybe fate."

Compiled from McClatchy Newspapers and The Washington Post reports