Ted Kennedy made his run for the White House 11 years too late

TED KENNEDY was both the most loved and one of most hated and divisive politicians in the United States. Republicans frequently depicted him as the embodiment of evil and amorality, as well as a relic of the self-indulgent liberalism of the 1960s.

Coming from a family touched by greatness and plagued by unfathomable tragedy, he was the passionate and sustained voice that liberalism needed during decades of conservative domination.

The late senator was unquestionably one of the most effective legislators in US history. He was one of the driving forces in promoting racial integration in the 1960s, in combating poverty and in promoting gender equality in the 1970s, in supporting disability in the 1980s and in driving education reform in the 1990s. Critics accused him of pushing for bigger government as the solution for every problem.