Hillary Clinton's/Barak Obama's future. Which role would have more impact...

8 years in the White House or decades in the Senate? The commentaries of Ted Kennedy's career have caused me to think about this. I remember the 1980 Democratic Convention. I was there with the Massachusetts delegation helping to organize parties and gatherings. I was a kid. It was fun, exciting. I remember his wonderful speech and I remember thinking how crushing it must have been for him to see his dream, and his family's dream, end.

Politics is a brutal business, vastly more bruising now than it was in 1980. Ted Kennedy managed to pick himself up, dust himself off and devise a future for himself that has turned out to be nothing short of spectacular. Driving the dark country roads late last night from work, I was listening to a WBZ (Boston) radio talk show. There was no talk of the Oregon and Kentucky primary results, the talk was all Teddy. People from all parts of New England, a call from Ireland, one from China, all talking about what Ted Kennedy had done for them, personal stories, deeply moving stories.

I have one myself if you will forgive the length of this post. My father was a young JAG lawyer during WWII. After Pearl Harbor, he was assigned to defend Admiral Husband Kimmel who was the commander of the Pacific Fleet at the time of the attack and had been blamed by the FDR administration for allowing the attack to happen. Kimmel was drummed out of the Navy, defiled by Congress, stripped of his rank and retired in disgrace. My father was outraged because he firmly believed, and had the evidence, that the FDR administration knew the attack was coming and made Kimmel a scapegoat.

For the next 50 years, my Dad kept Kimmel's case alive. In 1999 Kimmel's case finally reached Congress...with the help of Ted Kennedy who was a friend if my Dad's. After many hearings and some remarkable bi-partisan maneuvers by Kennedy, Congress voted to reinstate Kimmel and restore his rank and, in some measure, his reputation. Kimmel's two sons were there to witness this. Kennedy sent my Dad the proclamation signed by the President and one of the pens. My father passed away barely a month later.

A saw Ted Kennedy at a party in Boston a few years later and mentioned how grateful my father had been for his help. In the middle of a crush of people, all of whom were pressing to talk to him, Ted Kennedy began to cry. Openly wept.

Two men, my father and Ted Kennedy, who never gave up on a cause.

So there is life after losing a Presidential primary. There are ways to make a tremendous impact on this country and on individual citizens and Ted Kennedy has showed all of us the way to do it.