Kennedy's A Presence, Even if He's Absent

Ailing Senator to Be Honored With Tribute

DENVER, Aug. 24 -- Sen. Edward M. Kennedy may be too ill to attend the Democratic National Convention, but the patriarch of the party's first family will play a prominent part on opening night.

A tribute planned for Monday night will include a film by documentary producer Ken Burns, along with remarks from Caroline Kennedy, John F. Kennedy's daughter, who helped conduct Barack Obama's vice presidential search. A taped message from Kennedy will be played, but there is at least a chance that he will make the trip here if his doctors permit it. He was diagnosed with brain cancer in May and 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 on 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, has frequently 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," he 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 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 she turned to him after Obama's speech at the 2004 Democratic 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 and her husband and children; and numerous members of Robert Kennedy's family, including Ethel Kennedy.

The tribute will be the big public event of the week. But the Kennedys 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 the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'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 President Kennedy, 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 (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."