robert byrd was really old

To get an idea of how long the grand old man of the Senate was around, watch the first thirty seconds of this clip of President Kennedy making a commencement speech at Byrd's university. The president refers to "My old colleague Senator Bob Byrd," in the course of making a self-deprecating joke. Today, President Obama paid tribute to Byrd on his passing.

(via The Corner)

Comments

[peter]

This speech plays a prominent part in James Douglass' sober analysis of the Kennedy assassination and Vietnam, "JFK and the Unspeakable" (Orbis, 2008).

[Anthony]

Really old. To give it some perspective, if you're a 50 year old native West Virginian, today is the first day of your life that Robert Byrd hasn't been one of your two senators.

I spent the first decade of my life with Mrs T. as PM. One of my first memories is President Reagan and her motoring around in a golf cart. But that's something else altogether.