Obama
praises Ted Kennedy at opening of Senate replica in Boston
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[March 31, 2015]
By Richard Valdmanis
BOSTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack
Obama praised the late Edward Kennedy on Monday at the opening of a
Senate chamber replica built in his honor, calling the former Democratic
Senator for Massachusetts an inspired leader who bridged the bipartisan
divide.
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"Now, since this is a joyous occasion, this is not the time for me
to suggest a slew of new ideas for reform. Although I do have some,"
Obama said at the ceremony in Boston. "What if we carried ourselves
more like Ted Kennedy?"
Obama was one of several speakers to praise "the lion of the Senate"
at the inauguration of the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the
United States Senate, including Vice President Joe Biden, former
U.S. Republican Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, and members of
the Kennedy family.
The centerpiece of the non-profit institute is a full-scale replica
of the U.S. Senate chamber. Groups of middle and high school
students will assemble in the roughly $79 million virtual Senate,
located on the University of Massachusetts campus in Boston, using
high-tech applications to act out the law-making process.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2015/Mar/31/images/ads/current/hartsburggrain_daily_sda_021115.png) The project is intended to boost civic engagement at a time when the
real Senate is gridlocked.
Obama said Congress had changed for the better in many ways since
Kennedy began his career there, including becoming more diverse.
Kennedy died in 2009 from brain cancer after serving in the Senate
for nearly 47 years, the fourth-longest in U.S. history.
"But Ted grieved the loss of camaraderie and collegiality, the
face-to-face interaction," Obama said.
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I think he regretted the arguments now made to cameras instead of
colleagues, directed at a narrow base instead of the body politic as
a whole; the outsized influence of money and special interests, and
how it all leads more Americans to turn away in disgust," he said.
The institute, co-founded by the late senator's widow Victoria
Reggie Kennedy, is intended to "accomplish Senator Kennedy's desire
to create a participatory experience where people could see what it
was like to be a Senator and act in the best interests of their
State and the United States," the institute said in a statement.
(Reporting by Richard Valdmanis; Additional reporting by Jeff Mason;
Editing by David Gregorio and Richard Chang)
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