." >> reporter: kennedy family members groted the mourners, his son patrick, his widow vicki. it was hard to tell who got more from the hand shakes, the mourners or the kennedys. >> oh, absolutely, it's deeply comforting. >> reporter: 13 condolence books were set up in the parking lot. when this man from cameroon was a student in the u.s., his government's red tape delayed his tuition money. kennedy called cameroon's president and solved the problem. >> nobody would do that. i just picked up my phone, called him because somebody introduced me to him and he just took it from there. >> reporter: with the public viewing now over, the kennedys want a lighter hearted celebration of the senator's life at the memorial tonight, a chance for friends and family to share some stories and have some laughs. harry? >> smith: jim axelrod in boston. thanks. peter canellos is editorial page editor of the "boston globe" and he edited a "boston globe" biography of senator kennedy called "last lion: the fall and rise of ted kennedy" and joins us this evening. peter, good evening. >> thank you. >>

but you cannot in my view say that in july of 2009 that you know depactly what the grote level of your economy is going to be in 2011 or what your level of downemployment is going to be. it will become clearer that the actions we have taken are having an effect, but you cannot say now what you think the right level of allocation for a particular level of service is going to be. >> i don't want to get involved in the grant strategy of afghanistan, but how much are we spending in afghanistan this year? >> i would say in afghanistan we are spending about three billion pounds in addition to the defense budget. >> when we work out what we can do or not do? apparently we bought up the entire poppy crob in 2002 at a cost of 1 million pound. i'm told you cannot by an afghan, but can only rent him. are there other choices that can be made apardon from an expensive military program. are we looking at other things? i know you don't want to get into the details. i'm just giving you one example , about some debate about where we may be thinking of spending money. >> but the debate is clear. one is