After Mourning, Debates on Succession and Health Care

By Ben Pershing
Having been awakened by the news of Edward Kennedy's death Tuesday night, the political world spent Wednesday looking back at his life and today looks forward -- to three days of memorial services and processions, a debate over succession and the still uncertain fate of Kennedy's signature legislative issue.

"The path of remembrance for Senator Edward M. Kennedy will follow the trail of his celebrated life," writes the Boston Globe, as a procession begins today at 1 p.m. to transport Kennedy's body past notable landmarks from his family's biography and concludes Saturday with services in Boston and Arlington that will be attended by the top tier of current and former political luminaries. Reacting to Kennedy's death Wednesday, Vice President Biden was more emotional -- and memorable -- than President Obama was. "The burly, passionate youngest brother of a powerful family, and the cool, slim young candidate from nowhere made an odd couple, but Kennedy seemed to impart to Obama the emotion he was sometimes unable to project," Politico writes. Obama is expected to deliver the main eulogy at Kennedy's funeral Mass Saturday. Bill Clinton always excelled at times of collective mourning. Will Obama?

The media's response to Kennedy's death has been to flood the zone. Time and Newsweek have commemorative issue ready to go, and other magazines are sure to follow. TV networks reaired old documentaries or quickly assembled new ones. Politico's home page is adorned with roughly 30 Kennedy headlines this morning. "There was an unmistakably personal tone to the tributes, the anchors and correspondents sounding as though they, and the country, had lost a friend," observes Howard Kurtz.

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