Senator Ted Kennedy Dies at 77

U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy, a Democrat from Massachusetts died just before midnight on August 25, 2009, at his home in Hyannis Port at age 77. He was the brother of American President John F. Kennedy and U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy.

One of Kennedy's former Senate colleagues and current Vice President Joe Biden gave an emotional retrospective of Kennedy's life at a U.S. Department of Energy press conference. He, like Obama, remarked upon his cross-aisle friendships in the Senate saying, "Don't you find it remarkable that one of the most partisan, liberal men in the last century serving in the Senate had so many of his -- so many of his foes embracing him, because they know he made them bigger, he made them more graceful by the way in which he conducted himself."

Biden also remarked that without Kennedy's help during Biden's 1972 Senate campaign, "I literally would not be standing here were it not for Teddy Kennedy -- not figuratively, this is not hyperbole -- literally." He also noted how Kennedy stood by his side when Biden lost his wife and daughter in a car accident.

Biden closed by paraphrasing Shakespeare, "I don't think we shall ever see his like again. I think the legacy he left is not just in the landmark legislation he passed, but in how he helped people look at themselves and look at one another."

The formal GCP event was set for 10 pm ET on the 25th (02:00 Aug 26 UTC) for 24 hours, to include a little time before his death and nearly a day for the news to spread. The result is Chisquare = 86457.404 on 86400 df, for p = 0.444 and Z = 0.141.

Senator Ted
Kennedy Dies at 77

It is important to keep in mind that we have only a tiny statistical effect, so that it is always hard to distinguish signal from noise. This means that every "success" might be largely driven by chance, and every "null" might include a real signal overwhelmed by noise. In the long run, a real effect can be identified only by patiently accumulating replications of similar analyses.


Go to Main Results Page

GCP Home