Kennedy's absence leaves void, many say

DENVER -- This could be the first Democratic Convention in 40 years without an appearance by Edward Kennedy, who has done more to rouse, amuse, tease and just plain fascinate these quadrennial gatherings than any living politician.

"He's been a vital part of every convention since 1972," says Phil Johnston, a convention delegate and former Massachusetts Democratic Party chairman. "It's very poignant now to think where we've come after so many years."

Kennedy, whose immune system has been weakened by treatment for brain cancer, is scheduled to be honored in absentia Monday night with a videotape and a speech by his niece, Caroline Kennedy.

There's still a chance the 76-year-old senator will attend, his son, U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy, said Sunday. "If he's up to it in the 11th hour, and can get the green light from doctors, he might be able to pull it off," he told the Associated Press.

If the senator does turn up, it would be one more great moment for a politician that Gus Bickford, a Massachusetts delegate, calls "the Michael Phelps of conventions."

Since 1960, when Kennedy stood with the Wisconsin delegation as it put JFK over the top on the first ballot, he has missed only two conventions: 1964, when he was recovering from injuries suffered in a plane crash in western Massachusetts, and 1968, after his brother Robert's assassination. Even though he stayed home that year, he held the convention in suspense before rejecting a move to draft him onto the ticket.

In 1980, the one time he sought the nomination, Kennedy roused the crowd in a concession speech that ended, "the dream will never die."

MarDee Xifaras was at Madison Square Garden that night, in front with the rest of the Massachusetts delegation. "You felt you had a front row seat, literally, at an historic moment," she says. A signed copy of the text hangs in her living room: "It's an example of the many ways he'd reach out to you personally."

In 1988, he bashed Vice President Bush with the gleeful refrain, "Where was George?"