last night in the immediate aftermath of the news he had passed and i suggested his legacy might be endurance and perpetual position of being in a comeback. was that true do you think of senator kennedy ultimately? >> i think it was true. this was a guy whose life was not in any way easy, especially after 1968. he did not go through a day in which he could be entirely certain that he would not meet the same fate as his brothers did. you know, all sorts of other problems within that family. this was not a plaster saint but looking at the story over all, you look at the way that an individual conquers these demons and look at the way ted kennedy did that. >> michael beschloss, nbc news presidential historian, with the last word for us and great thanks for it and your time tonight, sir. >> a pleasure, keith. be well. >> one final note which may summarize how senator edward moore kennedy sr. did what deand left the wake that he has left. it may come across as self-important. if it does i'm sorry. i'm actually just a bit player in this anecdote.

my last contact with the senator came the day before the inauguration at a luncheon his son ted jr. introduced himself and said his father had hoped to be with him for the specific purpose of telling me this. but that he was husbanding his faculties for the big day that was to follow. and he decided to stay in. my father wanted you to know, he told me, that he was always a viewer but since he's been at home so much you've become his newscast. so he said, tell keith to keep up the good work. it was a compliment and then came the instruction wrapped in humor. he also said, don't screw it up because he's watching. a lesson one hopes for those who follow him in this fight for reform nand in all things. good night and good luck. here now, chris matthews and the premiere of his special "the kennedy brothers" a "hardball" documentary. the kennedy brothers. they stirred the country's blood

and maddened their rivals. bill sapphire, richard nixon's speechwriter, put it this way. when you beat a kennedy, you beat the best. the trouble was, nobody did. following the death of senator edward kennedy, here's the "hardball" political story of how these extraordinary brothers sought the american presidency. >> we can make this the best generation. >> let us offer new hope. >> in the 1950s, politics meant men in gray flannel suits, guys like dwight eisenhower, robert taft, adlai stevenson, and richard nixon. they were dull, stodgy. then in 1956 someone new appeared on the political radar.

to the democratic convention in chicago that summer a young politician battled the old guard for the vice presidential nomination. and in the process, catapulted himself onto the national stage. his name was jack kennedy. >> i want to take this opportunity first to express my appreciation. >> he was young, alive, great looking, and while he lost the nomination, he wowed the country. >> he tried to get it. he came very, very close. as it turned out, he did not get it but he did become overnight a national figure. >> then there was his stunningly beautiful wife. for us, 1956 was jacqueline kennedy's debut. >> tell me, were you able to adjust to this? >> well, yes, because i've never known anything else since i've been married. >> no one could ever be counted as a loser with her at his side. we also met his family. boy, dehave lots of brothers and sisters. and his fabulously wealthy

father. joseph kennedy sr. was our ambassador to great britain in the late 1930s but by 1940 his political career was over. he had nailed himself as a defeatist or worse when he predicted the war with nazi germany would end democracy in britain and possibly in the u.s. so his dreechams of the white he were now for his sons. >> once his own political future was undone he could pour all of his life energy into those boys. >> he wanted them to go places that he, himself, could not have gone. >> first up was the handsome, hard-charging oldest brother, joe jr. he took his first political steps in 1940 as a delegate to the democratic presidential convention. he was on his way, but then the war came. a war that claimed his life when his b-24 bomber exploded in mid air during a secret mission to bomb german missile sites. >> there's no question that joe

jr. was meant to be the head of the family. had he lived, he was the one that joe sr. thought would have been the man to go into politics and carry that kennedy legacy into the future. when joe jr. died, then that burden of carrying the family legacy fell onto jack. >> in 1946, 29-year-old jack ran for congress for massachusetts' 11th district cutting in front of local politicians who had been waiting patiently for the seat to open. the year before he died, while beginning to dictate his memoirs, jack confessed to having been something of a carpet bagger. >> i was an outsider really. i'd never lived very much in the district. my family roots were there but i had lived in new york for ten years and on top of that i had gone to harvard, not a particularly popular institution at that time in the 11th congressional district. >> the kennedy tactics for 1946 would be used in following campaigns. one was an astute use of public

relations, image building. joe sr. had been a hollywood mogul and knew how to promote. >> he basically would go on and took hollywood publicity techniques and applied them to politics. >> fortunately, joe sr. also had a good product to sell. lieutenant kennedy had rescued his crew when his pt boat was rammed by japanese destroyer, a story joe sr. got reprinted in "readers digest" and handed out a hundred thousand free copies to local voters. to win, there was a willingness by both father and son to do whatever was necessary. though raised a young aristocrat jack found himself trudging up countless triple decker walkups to meet working class voters tochlt the amazement of many old hands the thin, young upstart won. he was part of a new generation of veterans taking power all over the country that year. it was clear that congressman kennedy was a young man in a hurry. >> congressman kennedy, how do

you feel about your race for the senate up here? >> well, i think it's going very well. >> in 1952 only 35 years old jack ran for the senate against henry cabot lodge, the popular incumbent, and old line boston. kennedy's campaign manager was fellow irish catholic larry o'brien. >> my father was only one generation removed from very bitter experiences. this presented an opportunity for the irish catholic community in massachusetts to step up to the next plateau. >> the kennedy campaign exploited the catholic voters' grudge and as they had in '46 the family mobilized. his sisters hosted teas, a chance for aspiring irish and italian ladies to share the allure of the celebrated kennedys. kennedy ended up defeating lodge and he was now a u.s. senator. but it was clear that jack had a bigger prize in mind. >> i don't think head any

natur -- he had any natural interest in the senate. i think he felt if this was the game he wanted to be captain. >> kennedy had his eye on the white house. he recruited the best and the brightest. advance man kenny o'donnell and campaign managers larry o'brien and younger brother bobby. >> i believe that the real trend now for senator kennedy and the democratic party, we are extremely encouraged. >> to make sure his brother's presidential campaign succeeded bobby ran interference. toughness was in the kennedy dna, an immigrant's toughness, and bobby was the least assimilated of them all. >> the role he found was the guy who did the dirty deeds, all the hard stuff. telling people off. telling them to go away. saying no. that allows jack to stay above the fray. >> with his impressive campaign team in place jack was now ready for the toughest test yet. the 1960s.

can lock nature's power?

[ female announcer ] think again. experts at good housekeeping gave pantene nature fusion their seal. for damage protection results leading salon brands can't beat. the amazing fusion of the shampoo's cassia complex with pantene pro-v science... makes fragile hair stronger against damage in just 14 days. get damage protection results leading salon brands can't beat. [ female announcer ] nature fusion from pantene.

from that first dollar forward, cash flow isn't just an important thing to small business. it's everything. that's why pnc is introducing your new cfo, cash flow options designed to effectively improve your cash flow. cfo helps every dollar work harder. from the very first dollar to the last dollar of the day. get in touch with your new cfo. pnc. leading the way.

join us to register this week to vote, to stand for progress, to move, to move, to go forward until the united states achieves that great goal of practicing what it preaches. >> for 1960 jack's campaign team developed a new playbook, one that had become familiar in every presidential campaign since. use the power of television and most importantly take the candidate's case directly to primary voters, unheard of at the time, and use their toughness, political savvy, and money to win it all. it was a campaign like no other. >> well, i hope we're going to do well but i guess we'll know better by the time the votes are counted. >> they actually made a targeted list based on a cold-blooded,

cogent analysis of what states might be important, what states they could win in. he traveled around the country to those states for almost a year. he very rarely, if ever, ran into anybody from any other competing campaign. >> most other top democratic candidates, including senate majority leader lyndon johnson, didn't campaign in the primaries. they would stubbornly do it the old fashioned way, working the smoke filled roochlts convention hall itself. >> the question is would i accept a second spot on the kennedy ticket? i think the question could have better been put if kennedy would accept a second spot on the johnson ticket. >> johnson did not think kennedy had any serious chance of being nominated for president because he was a young upstart who was not part of the inner circle or club in the senate. >> kennedy and a popular liberal from minnesota, senator hubert humphrey, were left alone to contest the early primaries. >> thank you, ladies and gentlemen, of the great city of charleston, west virginia. >> in 1960 the key battleground

was west virginia, a heavily protestant state where kennedy's religion would be put to the test. compared to the cool jack, humphrey looked and sounded like a typical politician. >> this is my wife, ms. johnson. mrs. humphrey, how do you do? glad to see you. >> as planned, kennedy's team played up their man's youth and war record, contrasting lieutenant kennedy's hero status with humphrey's failure to serve in world war ii, a fact that still amuses kennedy friend ben bradl bradley, who served on a destroyer in the pacific. >> humphrey wasn't in world war ii. you know, what was he, a hospital mate or something like that? >> you guys are unbelievable. >> no, but i mean -- >> this is what i'm talking about. you guys kept score on who was in the front. >> we knew people's war records. we sure did. >> remember, senator john f. kennedy can be our next

president. >> kennedy trailed humphrey by 20% with weeks left. so his campaign turned up the heat, buying tv time to address head on what his pollsters saw as growing concerns about kennedy's catholic religion. >> i don't happen to believe that one of those serious issues is where i go to church on sunday. >> the strategy worked. senator kennedy crushed humphrey with 60% of the vote. but more went into this victory than appeals to patriotism and fair play. it was common knowledge in west virginia that county politicians could be swayed by cash. the kennedys had it. lots of it. and used it. >> i offer my congratulations to my friend and senate colleague jack kennedy. >> humphrey dropped out, the newest victim of the kennedy juggernaut. at the democratic convention in july, jack kennedy, a few votes shy of the nomination, fought off a growing challenge from lyndon johnson. johnson's people revealed that

kennedy suffered from addison's disease, which had the kennedy people not succeeded in denying it would have killed jack's chances. bobby kennedy couldn't contain his anger. >> there were a number of instances over the course of the 1960 convention where he approached johnson people, waved his finger in someone's face and said, you johnson people are going to get yours. >> i come to you today full of admiration for senator johnson. >> but the "yours" johnson's people ended up gegt was jack's pick for vice president. he had done his political analysis. he needed the local man on the ticket to get the votes. with a hard fought nomination in hand the kennedy campaign fixed its sights on baegt richard nixon. contrasting jack's vitality and promise to get the country moving again, with a candidate tied to the status quo of the 1950s. >> the republican nominee of course is a young man, but his

approach is as old as mckinley. >> nixon was thrown at first bite coby the coldness and efficiency of the kennedy frontal assault. he had known and liked jack since they came to the house together in 1947. jack's father had donated money to nixon's senate campaign. jack hand delivered the check to nixon's office and even told newspaper columnist charles bartlett, a close friend, that he'd vote for nixon for president if he, jack, didn't get the nomination. but jack kennedy was not one to let political fellowship affect his game. >> good evening. the television -- >> kennedy's team knew the new medium of television was the way to persuade voters. his sun tanned, radiant image was worth a thousand words and hundreds of thousands of votes. to exploit his edge on the tube, they brought in bill wilson, a seasoned tv producer. in the first presidential debate, wilson made sure viewers saw lots of shots of the ashen-faced nixon who had

famously refused to wear makeup. >> i wanted more reaction shots. you've gotten kennedy seven times. we need six more on nixon. and it was like night and day between the before the debate and after the debate. the crowd was enormous. it was loud. it was noisy. ♪ everyone is voting for jack 'cuz he's got what all the rest lack ♪ >> with a theme song by frank sinatra the kennedy campaign was far more glamorous than nixon's. it also put lou harris's scientific polls to work in a way that had never been done before. team kennedy focused like a laser on winning big states and their electoral votes while nixon campaigned in all 50 states. >> we surveyed 38 states for kennedy and wrote off about half the states.

wrote off whole states and, okay. i'm going to lose them. >> in the end just 100,000 votes separated kennedy and nixon out of 70 million cast, 1/10 of 1%. >> at 7:19 a.m. eastern time senator kennedy was elected president of the united states. >> true to their big state strategy kennedy had an overwhelming majority in the electoral college. >> kennedy has won 296. that alone is enough. >> in those big states, many of the voters were catholic. kennedy had turned an historic negative into an electoral positive. >> kennedy played the catholic issue extremely well, making sure that he got all the catholic votes and had a minimum reverse effect among noncatholic voters. >> so now my wife and i prepare for a new administration and for a new baby. thank you. >> the kennedys had played

politics perfectly and their tough tactics continued as jack picked his cabinet, listening to his father's advice that he needed to keep bobby close at hand. >> i am pleased to accept the position of the attorney generalship of the united states. >> with jack in the white house and brother bob eight justice the stage was set for the era of kennedys. , and guess what... i've still got room for the internet. with my new netbook from at&t. with its built-in 3g network, it's fast and small, so it goes places other laptops can't. anything before takeoff mr. kurtis? prime rib, medium rare. i'm bill kurtis, and i've got plenty of room for the internet. and the nation's fastest 3g network. (announcer) sign up today and get a netbook for $199.99 after mail-in rebate. with built-in access to the nation's fastest 3g network. only from at&t. tylenol pm quiets the pain that keeps you awake.

and helps you sleep, in a non-habit forming way. (announcer) we understand. you need to save money. [ engine powers down ] gentlemen, you booked your hotels on orbitz.

well, the price went down, so you're all getting a check thanks. for the difference. except for you -- you didn't book with orbitz, so you're not getting a check. well, i think we've all learned a valuable lesson today. good day, gentlemen. thanks a lot. thank you. introducing hotel price assurance, where if another orbitz customer books the same hotel for less, we send you a check for the difference, automatically.

just as jack had been a different type of politician, the kennedy white house was unlike anything americans had ever seen. suddenly, we had a first family that was beautiful, stylish, with just the right touch of aristocracy. >> he took the best qualities of the rich, old wasp, old guard, and infused it with the energy and vitality of rising immigrants. >> just like jack's hero james bond we never saw jfk sweat.

a political 007 president kennedy was smooth, sophisticated, savoring the action. >> what was jack kennedy like? >> i think he was cool. >> my uncle jack was dispassionate, detached, cool. >> he was cool. >> what the country learned only later was how well this suave exterior hid a secret life, the risky affairs that if revealed could have ruined everything, his addison's disease which had almost killed him in 1947 and again during a 1954 back operation that required him to take steroids and a reliance on energy boosting amphetamines, drugs which may have compromised his judgment. >> he was a shakespearian character. everything about his health was a lie. he looked like a god but he was as bobby would say if a mosquito bites my brother he dies.

>> but america, knowing none of this, had bigger worries, as the country faced numerous challenges -- from the bay of pigs to the berlin wall. the toughest test came in october, 1962, when u.s. spy planes photographed soviet nuclear missile bases being built in cuba just 90 miles away. >> we will not prematurely or unnecessarily risk the cost of worldwide nuclear war in which even the fruits of victory would be ashes in our mouth. >> jack's key advisor during the 13 days of the cuban crisis was his old campaign manager. together, the kennedy brothers came up with a creative solution. the u.s. put a naval quarantine in place while secretly agreeing to pull obsolete u.s. missiles out of turkey. in exchange, the soviets removed their missiles from cuba. the crisis was averted. it was the kennedys' finest hour. >> what did your dad say about it afterwards? >> well, what he said was, we

are going to nuclear holocaust, the end of the world. >> back home, another issue was reaching the boiling point. civil rights. kennedy knew every step he took could hurt him in the upcoming 1964 election. >> he didn't want to move too fast. he didn't want to antagonize southern white democratic voters. so we had to stay with him. we had to continue to encourage him. he wanted to be able to say to southern democrats that if these -- these people are pushing me. they're putting pressure on me. >> i think if the president would sign an executive order declaring segregation unconstitutional on the basis of the 14th amendment, this would do a great deal to lead us out of this dark night of violence and prejudice which we still face in so many areas.

♪ we are we are >> in the spring of '63 in alabama, fire hoses and police dogs were used to brutally disperse nonviolent protestors. >> kennedy realized that it was becoming a moral issue and as president of the united states head to respond. >> spurred to action and pushed by bobby, kennedy delivered one of his most powerful addresses. >> we are confronted primarily with a moral issue. it is as old as the scriptures and as clear as the american constitution. the heart of the question is whether all americans ought to be afforded equal rights and equal opportunities. whether we are going to treat our fellow americans as we want to be treated. >> by the fall of 1963, kennedy had introduced a strong civil rights bill to congress.

his first thousand days had seen many successes -- the peace corps, the moon program, negotiating a nuclear test ban treaty, and a growing economy. among the failures? the increasingly troubled american commitment in vietnam. in late november, president kennedy and jackie flew to texas to do some political damage control for his approaching re-election campaign. on the 22nd, they landed in dallas. >> good evening. the essential facts are these. president kennedy was murdered in dallas, texas. he was shot by a sniper hiding in a building near his parade route. >> a wave of sadness and horror swept the nation while the kennedy family struggled to comprehend their loss. even in her grief, the president's widow began to

romanticize jack's legacy. she coined the term "camelot" to describe the kennedy white house. >> jacqueline kennedy was one of the great pr women of all time and she really knew how to play not just to the press but how to play it. >> once jackie labeled camelot what it did was remind later generations of the fact there was a moment when there was this young president. there was a moment when people believed that they could change the world. >> our problems are man made. therefore they can be solved by man. >> celt brags of jack's legacy elevated and enshrined the kennedy brothers. it would become the foundation for not one but two attempted restorations. now wias the next brother's tur to carry the kennedy torch. bobby, the tough, behind-the-scenes enforcer, has to step forward to the spotlight. hearts happy...

...and big hearts happy too. because as part of a heart healthy diet... ...those delicious oats in cheerios can help naturally lower cholesterol. (cheerios spilling) cheerios. how can something so little... ...help you do something so big.

call or click today.

hi everyone. here's what's happening. taliban attacks killed two u.s. service members in afghanistan today and this brings the total number of american troops killed so far this month to 43. right now july stands as the deadliest month of the war with 44 u.s. troops killed action. author dominic dunne died at his home in manhattan today. the special correspondent for "vanity fair" was best known for his coverage of crimes committed by the rich and famous. dunne was 83 years old. now back to "the kennedy brothers." sort of an eerie feeling as you see the effects of one president being moved out and the effects of the new president, president johnson, coming in. >> those who knew bobby say that after his brother's death he seemed in a trance yet even as he brooded he began to position

himself as jack's rightful heir. in 1964, after lyndon johnson denied him the chance to be his vice president, bobby resigned as attorney general and ran as the senator from new york. he hadn't lived in the state since he was a boy but the kennedys were never ones to play by the rulebook or wait their turn. >> no one committed to participating in public life can sit on the sidelines with so much at stake. >> yet facing taunts that he was a carpet bagger and haunted by the suspicion that the cheers were not for him but for his lost brother, bobby had trouble finding his political footing. >> the largest minority of hecklers you've ever had? >> i don't know. i've had them elsewhere. i don't know. >> he didn't want to trade on his brother's name. on the other hand, he didn't quite know what to say on behalf

of himself. >> kennedy ended up defeating the popular incumbent senator ken keating by riding on lyndon johnson's long presidential coat tails. but even as the new senator joined his younger brother ted on the hill, he was poise ford higher office. and everyone knew it. >> the feelings from most of those who watched him was that his presidential years were almost inevitable. there was always that feeling among the press and among his colleagues that one day they were going to have to deal with him on quite a different level. >> robert kennedy wasn't a cool politician like his older brother jack. he was emotional, intense, full of passion. >> the inadequacy of human compassion, the defectiveness of our sensibility, with the sufferings of our fellows, they mark the limit of our ability to use knowledge for the well being of our fellow human beings

throughout the world. >> and as the vietnam war death toll rose and protestors took to the streets, bobby found his voice. >> we lose nothing by sitting down with the north vietnamese to see if we can resolve this conflict and i am in favor of doing that. >> even though he wanted to reclaim the white house bobby wasn't ready to take on the president who was expanding the war, a war his brother had backed. >> he was quite resolute that he wasn't going to run. then it became clear we couldn't really go through another four years of the johnson presidency. >> part of them said you don't undertake something unless you think you can win. part of them said you have to do what's right. >> while bobby anguished another anti-war candidate stepped up. minnesota senator eugene mccarthy. in march, 1968, mccarthy, a virtual unknown, proved johnson's clear vulnerability,

losing the new hampshire primary to the president by a handful of votes. a few days later, bobby was in and announcing in the same senate chamber his brother had. >> i do not run for the presidency merely to oppose any man but to propose new policies. >> many people saw bobby's announcement as naked political calculation. >> the opportunist, you know, you waited until you saw that lyndon was really vulnerable. you let mccarthy pave the way and you follow in his wake. it was an ill time, inopportune time to do it but he did it so he was off and running. >> robert kennedy's impassioned 1968 campaign had little in common with the well oiled kennedy campaign machine that made jack president eight years earlier. >> the bobby kennedy campaign, what was different about that from what you remember and knew about the jack kennedy campaigns?

>> well, it was a lot less organized. as you know, my father was very ambivalent as to whether to run and it was put together more in the haphazard way. it was the spirit that got him through rather than the organization. >> are you going to vote for this man who's singing? yes! >> there was this enormous, enormous surge everywhere he went of youthful enthusiasm. it was extraordinary. you know, grabbing and mauling him and snatching his cuff links and kids on tricycles and bikes pumping along the motorcade. >> on march 31st, the kennedy campaign had the floor fall out from under it. >> i shall not seek and i will not accept the nomination of my party for another term as your

president. >> bobby had been running against lyndon johnson and his war policies. and now for a brief time he was at sea. that changed on april 4th. >> i have some very sad news for all of you. martin luther king was shot and was killed tonight. >> from that night, in indianapolis, his campaign had a new direction. >> what we need in the united states is not violence and lawlessness but is love and wisdom and compassion toward one another and a feeling of justice for those who still suffer within our country. >> he wasn't just running against a president or a war but trying to heal a country's racial and economic wounds as well. bobby went on to win in indiana and then in nebraska. but he lost the oregon primary

to mccarthy, a first for a kennedy in presidential politics. to have any chance, bobby needed to best mccarthy in california. on june 4th, 1968, he did just that. and won in south dakota, too. for a brief moment, bobby was atop a wave of excitement that might, just might have secured him the nomination. >> my thanks to all of you and now it's on to chicago and let's win there. >> is there a doctor? is there a doctor? >> senator robert francis kennedy died at 1:44 a.m. today, june 6th, 1968. he was 42 years old.

>> i believe that robert kennedy would have won and i think he could have defeated richard nixon. no nixon, war end, no watergate? what would this country have been like over the ensuing 40 years? >> present at the hospital, the youngest kennedy brother, ted. >> i saw him briefly, his face just contorted with grief. i've never seen a man so torn as he was that night for all kinds of reasons. >> 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. >> it was that eulogy that

turned bobby kennedy into the saintly liberal figure we associate with bobby kennedy. so all along, it was ted who was investing the kennedy name with sort of concrete values, you know, civil rights, anti-war, health care, education. and that is a key to their endurance, that people consider the kennedys to be a fixed brand name. >> now there was only one brother left. ( conversation )

garth, you're up. hold on, i'm at capitalone.com picking a photo... for my credit card. here's one from my prom. oh, what memories. how 'bout one from our golf outing? ( shouting ) i know, maybe one of my first-born son. dad, mom says the boys gotta go. personalize your card by uploading... your own photo at capitalone.com. what's in your wallet? ♪

maybe one of the most important... s shopping for ♪ which one's me - a cool convertible or an suv? ♪ ♪ too bad i didn't know my credit was whack ♪ ♪ 'cause now i'm driving off the lot in a used sub-compact. ♪ ♪ f-r-e-e, that spells free credit report dot com, baby. ♪ ♪ saw their ads on my tv ♪ thought about going but was too lazy ♪

♪ now instead of looking fly and rollin' phat ♪ ♪ my legs are sticking to the vinyl ♪ ♪ and my posse's getting laughed at. ♪ ♪ f-r-e-e, that spells free- credit report dot com, baby. ♪ i know when it's the perfect time to change my tires. when it comes to shaving i know when to change my blade. (announcer) gillette fusion's indicator strip fades to white when it may be time to change. fresh blade. better shave. of the four kennedy brothers ted, the youngest, was the most connected to the others. in 1946 the family gathered in

hyannis port to celebrate jack's 29th birthday. when teddy rose to speak, the 14-year-old raised his glass and said, i'd like to drink a toast to the brother who isn't here. he stunned the room into silence. >> i think the three of them were not only a kind of band of brothers all their own, in mythology, but in reality. >> in 1960, ted was given a key role in jack's campaign, overseeing the western states. >> in the state of oregon they do give jack enthusiastic and overwhelming endorsement. >> when jack's senate seat came open in 1962 father joe made the call declaring ted all of 30 years old would be the candidate. >> jack and bobby did not wanted to run for the senate. they felt he was too young. >> joe said, no. it's his turn now. he's helped you. now you help him. >> there are hot times brewing on the massachusetts political

scene. at the state democratic convention, edward j. mccormick, 38-year-old nephew of house speaker mccormick, seeks the party nomination for senator in a contest with edward "ted" kennedy the kennedy operation swung into action again, even dusting off jack's slogan from 1952. he can do more for massachusetts. ted won but the joy of ted kennedy's victory was sadly muted. prior to his triumph joe sr. suffered a debilitating stroke. but his fourth son was now on his way. and unlike his brothers, ted found a home in the senate. >> i think teddy kennedy was very happy being a senator. he just seemed more comfortable there within two days than either of the brothers may have felt being there for several years. >> then on the night of july 18th, 1969, with kennedy poised to perhaps challenge nixon in 1972, he drove off a bridge on an island near martha's

vineyard. the passenger with him, robert kennedy's staffer mary jo kopechne, was killed. kennedy said he was driving her back to catch a ferry to the vineyard when the accident occurred. >> there is no proof, truth whatever to the widely circulated rumors of immoral conduct leveled at my behavior and hers regarding that evening. >> there are many reasons to believe they weren't headed to the ferry. first of all, mary jo left her purse and keys, her motel keys, back at the cottage. they also didn't head for the ferry. they headed in a different direction over a dirt road heading out to the beach. and the fer hary had stopped running more than a half hour before they left the party. >> it seemed that ted kennedy's political career and any hope at the presidency was over. but in 1970 just 16 months later the people of massachusetts overwhelmingly re-elected him to the senate. in a may, 1971 poll, he led all

democrats as a challenger to president nixon's re-election, a kennedy restoration still seemed possible. nixon was not anxious for a rematch as becomes clear in the watergate tapes. >> teddy? who knows about the kennedys? shouldn't they be investigated? >> teddy, we are covering personally. >> did deanything? >> no, no. he's very clean. very clean. >> he's being careful now. >> nixon got a break in 1972. >> the prime reason for not running is because of responsibility to my family. >> for ted, being a kennedy brother was a heavy burden. >> senator, there is obviously a great price that one has to pay these days for political life. is the price worth the pain? >> well, i suppose it is.

>> i, jimmy carter, do solemnly swear that i will faithly -- >> with ted sitting out again in 1976 jimmy carter and the democrats retook the white house but senator kennedy had little affection for carter and vice versa. >> president carter probably regarded teddy kennedy as a constant, daily, hourly challenge and for the kennedys i thought they regarded carter as sort of a bumpkin. >> in 1979 with carter's popularity at a record low teddy decided to revive the kennedy party and do what his brother bob di, run against a sitting democratic president. >> today i formally announce that i'm candidate for president of the united states. >> there did seem to be this family legacy to be satisfied to be the president and more than he obviously knew from watching his brothers that the presidency

had a power that no matter how big a senator you could be you could still do more for the things you cared about if you were president. >> he did it in some degree of discomfort because he's taking on a president of his own party. he also i think had personal reservations about whether his personal skills fit well with the presidency. >> that became clear after kennedy agreed to a high profile television interview with cbs's roger mudd taped prior to announcing his candidacy. >> why do you want to be president? >> well, i'm -- were i to make the announcement and to run, the reasons that the reasons that i would run is because i have a great belief in this country. >> unfortunately, ted's campaign turned out much like his interview. ill prepared, unfocused, awkward, un-kennedy of the of

the 34 primaries, carter won 24, kennedy just 10. >> it wasn't a very well-run campaign, and it never got traction. i think the main reason was t t that -- that he probably had not felt it in his -- you know, in his skin that this was his destiny. >> at the convention, ted gave more of an acceptance speech than what it was supposed to be, an endorsement of carter. >> for me a few hours ago this campaign came to an end. for all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dreams shall never die. >> they got to see the ted kennedy they should have gotten to see earlier in that campaign. >> by convention's end with the balloons falling and the democrats vetting president carter, kennedy's speechwriter

shrum quietly counseled ted to be a good soldier and a team player. >> i looked at him and i said, you are going to raise his hand? and he said yes. and i got up and looked at him out in the audience and it never happened. >> there were some people in the crowd still shouting, we want ted, we want ted. i went, you know, this is slightly awkward. >> and i guess finally at the very end there was some sort of brief hand touch, but it was in full view of the nation, this absolute physical contempt for the senator towards the president. >> the kennedy campaign machine, which for decades had intimidated and destroyed political foes from lodge to humphrey from johnson to nixon could now only w0u7d. for those savoring a kennedy generation, the dream had been deferred. gecko: yeah right, that makes sense.

boss: trust is key when talking about geico. you gotta feel it. why don't you and i practice that with a little exercise where i fall backwards and you catch me. gecko: uh no sir, honestly... uh...i don't think...uh... boss: no, no. we can do this. gecko: oh dear. vo: geico. fifteen minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance. i switched to a complete multivitamin with more. only one a day men's 50+ advantage... has gingko for memory and concentration. plus support for heart health. that's a great call. one a day men's. new anti-aging eye roller. reduces puffiness immediately -- and also helps with lines and wrinkles. not surgery. this is our way to do your eyes. new regenerist anti-aging eye roller.

in the decades following his 1980s presidential bid, ted kennedy finally let go of his dream of reclaiming the white house. in the end, the youngest of the kennedy brothers found that his true calling was the u.s. senate, fighting for health care especially. >> this administration missed the boat, so to speak, in understanding where we were going. >> i think senator kennedy has a very, very deep feeling that he's carrying on a legacy that really matters. he's gone beyond caring it on, he's expanded it and probably passed more significant legislation than many presidents have. >> in 1957, jack kennedy was chosen to select the greatest senators in history. of course, he could only look backwa backward. looking forward, he could have included his youngest brother. >> he's willing to be bipartisan. i think he goes down in history as one of the all-time great liberal senators and democrat

senators, no question about it. >> in january 2008, ted kennedy once more responded to the siren call of the white house. not for himself but to support a presidential candidate who personified the kennedy vision, that legacy, that dream that would never die. >> i know what america can achieve. i've seen it. i've lived it. and with barack obama we can do it again! >> despite being challenged by a serious illness, kennedy refused to quit, going to denver to speak to the democratic convention. >> and this november the torch will be passed again to a new generation of americans, so with barack obama and for you and for me, our country will be

committed to his cause. the work begins anew. the hope rises again, and the dream lives on. >> my father said 40 years ago there will be an african-american president, and i think there was a sense that what barack obama was doing was continuing the sense of engagement, excitement. >> in truth, the next generation of kennedys is a guy named obama. >> yes, we can. thank you. god bless you and make god bless the united states of america. >> for 50 years now, this story of the kennedy brothers' dogged pursuit of the presidency has been without parallel. what caught us up