The local media is going through a tumultuous phase, and it shows in unexpected ways. As longtime staffers head abroad or to a different medium, the institutional memory of our favorite publications fades a little.

But that doesn’t explain the drastic shift in viewpoints that we’ve noticed from the local papers recently.

(more…)

Everyone from the national pundits to the woman who applied a full face of makeup next to you on the Green Line this morning has an opinion about Sen. Ted Kennedy’s speech at the Democratic National Convention last night. Was watching the ailing senator a sad reminder of our mortality, or tangible proof that the dream shall never die? After the jump, we review the reaction from around the Internet.

(more…)

Come on. Like you thought for one minute that Ted Kennedy wasn’t going to show up at the Democratic National Convention. Both papers reported this morning that the Liberal Lion was hoping to make an appearance in Denver, and Kennedy’s staff confirms that the senior senator is in the Mile-High City right now.

It became clear that the convention needed Kennedy back in July when reports of cost overruns and a ridiculously demanding menu surfaced. But if the early reports out of Denver are any indication, he has a lot of people to straighten out.

Starting with the Clintons.

(more…)

The last time we checked, Ted Kennedy is still with the living. But that hasn’t stopped the DNC from creating a 15-minute long tribute video that will air at the Democratic National Convention later this month.

So for those of you keeping score at home, the convention will have both an Orrin Hatch-penned ode to the senator and a tribute video package for the Liberal Lion.

We assume the party is still commissioning the sculptor for the life-sized statue of the senior senator.

(more…)

For years, Ted Kennedy and Utah Republican Orrin Hatch have been the Senate’s odd couple. When the liberal lion and the conservative, um, Rocky Mountain Elk, ended up on the same committee, they found they had to work together to get anything accomplished, and soon became friends. How bromantic.

It’s understandable that Hatch was devastated when he learned about Kennedy’s brain tumor. And like so many tortured souls, he turned to music to soothe his pain and penned a song about his friend Kennedy.

(more…)

With stories like this, we wish we had the rich, sonorous voice of a voice-over artist.

Ted Kennedy’s triumphant return to the floor of the Senate yesterday continues to get more dramatic. Not only did he end the Republican filibuster on an important Medicare bill, but he cast the deciding vote.

If Martin Scorsese isn’t writing a screenplay about the last years of the liberal lion’s life, we’ll eat our hat.

(more…)

Earlier this afternoon, CNN reported that Ted Kennedy was pondering a return to Capitol Hill to end a Republican filibuster on Medicare legislation. Their source said it was doubtful that the Massachusetts senator would actually make the trip, since he’s been weakened by cancer treatments.

It turns out Kennedy’s strong enough to venture to Washington. CNN now reports that the lion’s been spotted on the floor of the Senate.

(more…)

We here at Boston Daily are excited for the 2008 Democratic National Convention because the event will take place in Denver, and not in our backyard as it did four years ago. So, we’ll be able to get to work without getting a cavity search on the T.

Perhaps the thing we’re looking forward to most is the idea that Ted Kennedy could give a speech that will rival the oratorical genius he displayed at the 1980 DNC.

But it seems Democrats have some issues to sort out before the convention even gets underway. Yesterday, the New York Times reported the DNC is running behind schedule and over budget.

(more…)

A week after he had surgery to remove a brain tumor, Sen. Ted Kennedy will return home to the Cape to continue his recuperation, according to his son Patrick.

[Kennedy] says his father will focus on health care legislation and on getting Barack Obama elected president. (more…)

While Ted Kennedy is recuperating from surgery in North Carolina, it doesn’t mean the Kennedy clan is entirely removed from the presidential election process. Boston.com reports that Caroline Kennedy is joining a team that will vet possible running mates for Barack Obama.

(more…)