Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/democrats-give-tribute-to-senator-kennedy-in-denver Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript Political analysts Mark Shields and David Brooks discuss the dedication to Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., and the state of the Democratic Party as Kennedy passes the torch to Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. JIM LEHRER: This is an event, Mark and David, that nobody thought it would happen. It just seemed implausible. MARK SHIELDS, Syndicated Columnist: It's truly remarkable. And it's an emotional moment for (inaudible) JIM LEHRER: There's the Bidens, Senator Biden, and also it is implausible in that he would be able to come, not only to come, but to make a speech that — this man still knows how to make a speech. DAVID BROOKS, Columnist, New York Times: And to promise that he'd be there in January… JIM LEHRER: Exactly. DAVID BROOKS: … which was, you know, willing himself onward. MARK SHIELDS: He ended it, Jim, with the same speech, the same phrases he used in 1980 in Madison Square Garden. JIM LEHRER: Is that right? MARK SHIELDS: Instead of the dream — instead of the dream never dies, he said the dream lives on, the hope rises again. We begin anew. I mean, that was how he ended that… DAVID BROOKS: To think that, when Ted Kennedy and Caroline Kennedy endorsed Barack Obama at American University, after the defeat in New Hampshire, I believe that was a big moment for the Obama campaign. It really gave it a new spirit.I've also been told that very early in the process, when Obama was thinking about running, it was a conversation with Kennedy that gave him a little fortitude to go ahead into the race.