Senator Ted Kennedy is gone but two things immediately come to mind. In public policy, you can respectfully negotiate without capitulating. Second, young people should notice that Kennedy did so much in life after youth drama and partying. This is America, the land of opportunity. Those opportunities include moving forward from self-inflicted adversity and I for one think that Presidents Obama, George W. Bush, and Clinton would never have enter the oval office if those who want pure and unblemished public servants had their way.
Actually, I like politicians who are a little nicked up –like real folks– and persevering, photogenic Vanessa Williams is my favorite former Miss. America. During the 1994-midterm elections, a wave of conservatism swept the nation and Democrats were moving toward the center or switching to the GOP to save their careers. Speaker of the House Tom Foley became the first sitting speaker to not win reelection since 1862 but Senator Kennedy stood by his liberal beliefs and beat a young Mitt Romney 58% to 41%.
Kennedy’s campaign staffers adopted the Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers song “I Won’t Back Down” as an unofficial theme. Think what you want about conservatives but they function with that same mentality and think President Obama will have Senator Kennedy in mind as his White House “gets done” what they were put there to do.
Project Logic Ga 
“Youthful partying and drama?” Ted Kennedy did not outgrow his “youthful partying and drama” until fairly late in life. You may want to overlook the vehicular manslaughter which he was never punished and apparently enjoyed joking about (per his biographer Ed Klein) (I do not) but his indiscretions continued long into the eighties and early nineties (just look up Michael Kelly’s GQ piece, the “Dodd Sandwich” and the William Kennedy Smith rape trial). Are you really arguing that a Kennedy winning an election in Mass is evidence of never backing down? Really? If they didn’t care about his expulsion from Harvard, his public drunkenness, his womanizing, and, oh yeah, the vehicular manslaughter, do you really think the Contract with America was going to force him out of office? Really? As to his impact on public policy, the lesson that should be learned is if you give an inch, they will take a mile because a federal bureaucracy never dies and will only grow if only to justify its growth and existence.
PS: Despite my animus for BHO and WJC, EMK does not merit mention in a discussion of overcoming past transgressions. At least they worked for and earned their positions. Kennedy is the quintessential example of “born on third and thought he hit a triple.” His only job, aside from maybe working on his brother’s campaign, was that of a senator, a position which was bought, paid for, and held because of his family’s largesse.