Ted Kennedy was proud to a "Liberal" in a nation that looked down on liberals. They were often called socialists and worse by Republicans.

When most Americans supported the war in Iraq, he didn't. 

Throughout his 47 years as a senator he supported the underdogs in the U.S. like the poor, the sick, the disabled, children and immigrants.

From the eulogies of his sons Ted Jr. and Partick, he was a role model and a loving father.

President Obama admired Ted for the personal concern that he showed to him when he became a senator. He also talked about the letters that Ted wrote to the families of the victums of 9/11.

Personally, I remember him giving the eulogy for his brother Bob in 1968. The words he used could be applied to Senator Kennedy today:

"My brother need not be idealized, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life, to be remembered simply as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it. Those of us who loved him and who take him to his rest today, pray that what he was to us and what he wished for others will some day come to pass for all the world. As he said many times, in many parts of this nation, to those he touched and who sought to touch him:"