Comments on: Rest In Peace Ted Sorensen

By: Wen Bo Zhang

Wen Bo Zhang — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 20:07:20 +0000

How does it feel to dedicate one’s life to another person? Everybody is equal under life, since we all only have one life. But some of us will be remembered by history and most others will be lost. One person’s “somebody” status is established by millions of “nobodies”. So how does it feel to live as a “nobody” for one’s whole life? There’s only one life for each of us, and it is gone before we realize. For what do we live for, if we are “nobodies”?

By: Alex Garlick

Alex Garlick — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 14:27:46 +0000

Thanks for the post Matt. I did not know the extent of Sorensen’s service, and it is amazing. And JFK’s line: “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country” is an all-timer as well.

By: Tarsi

Tarsi — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 13:20:22 +0000

I saw him briefly this summer at our Hyde Park Summit at the FDR estate – he’d come to be present for the 75th anniversary of social security. He asked if he could speak the group of students from the Roosevelt Campus Network for a bit – and listening to him describe what it was like to be there during the Cuban Missile Crisis – and work alongside JFK – even for those fifteen minutes, was an amazing experience. It’s hard to believe that was two months ago. We were all seated on the floor in a semi-circle around him, he had a great sense of humor and eager to share his life experiences and encourage us to make the most of our own time that we had for the greater good.

By: Matthew Dickinson

Matthew Dickinson — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 04:19:39 +0000

Martin,

As I’m sure you know, Sorensen was an early booster of Obama’s presidential candidacy – viewing him in some respects as a young JFK. He later admitted that he was disappointed in Obama’s decision to escalate the U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan, viewing it as a potential “Vietnam”, but he nonetheless remained a strong supporter of Obama’s presidency.

By: Martin

Martin — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 04:10:17 +0000

I met Mr. Sorensen at a meeting at The Century Foundation, a Manhattan progressive nonprofit, in 2005, held to strategize getting the US to exit Iraq. From the moment he was assisted into the room (lamenting to people accompanying him that he’d lost too much of his eyesight) the bigwigs who’d come to the meeting held him in far more reverence than he seemed prepared to respond to. He had the sort of intellect that allowed him to listen from the sidelines while the conversation unfolded, then make the most exceptionally trenchant and lucid comments at key points. I think that’s the moment it sunk in that he was not your ordinary Beltway operative, and that the phrase “the best and the brightest” that described the Kennedy White House was far from self-congratulation.