It will be a short trip for Barack Obama from his vacation site in Martha’s Vineyard to Ted Kennedy’s funeral in Boston tomorrow, but the Senator’s interment will be the start of a longer, tougher journey for the President.
He will have to follow his mourning by channeling the departed’s gift for inside politics, summoning up Kennedy’s legendary blend of toughness and people skills to lure Senators out of their “ideological caves” and come together to rise above lobbyist pressures and political posturing to pass meaningful health care reform
Sen. Robert Byrd suggests, in expressing grief for Kennedy, that “in his honor and as a tribute to his commitment to his ideals, let us stop the shouting and name calling and have a civilized debate on health care reform which I hope, when legislation has been signed into law, will bear his name for his commitment to insuring the health of every American.”
In the coming weeks, the President will have to put more than Ted Kennedy’s name on health care reform.