John Kerry is suppose to be on larry King talking about Dana Reeves.

[wisteria]

Update. He will be calling in.

[ginnyinWI]

1. thanks--I would have missed this! n/t

[Island Blue]

2. JK was so well spoken, so compassionate - as always.

I got a little weepy when Larry replayed Dana speaking about Chris at his memorial service.

[wisteria]

3. He did well. He spoke eloquently of her and he expressed the need

for us to keep their dream alive. I was moved to tears also, when they played that clip from Christopher Reeves memorial service

[karynnj]

4. I caught the repeat

Kerry was surprisingly unguarded, not using his eloquence to hide emotions. Much as religion has been discussed here, his obvious turn to faith for solace was striking. Death does bring religion out - but I was surprised by it.

[beachmom]

5. Will anybody be able to get this? Audio or video?

I missed it, and would like to hear this side of Kerry, even if it is painful.

[karynnj]

9. The transcript of the show is on the web site

Does CNN replay these shows on the weekend?

Anway, here's 4 paragraphs and the link:

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D), MASSACHUSETTS (by telephone): Well, I didn't know Dana as well as I knew Chris but I -- but I knew her through Chris and through the family. She honored Chris and honored me and the whole campaign effort by coming to Ohio literally about a week and a half, less than two weeks after Chris died and joined me in an event there where she introduced me with this most unbelievable courage, unbelievable sort of glow in her.

And I sort of looked at her and I said, you know, you just seem so calm and so composed and so focused and sure of where you're going. And, she said it was Christopher. I mean it was just Chris. She was doing what Chris wanted her to do and going through it.

And, I think you know as you -- as you sort of measure what she did all those years, I mean she gave up so much herself to become a caretaker and to carry the burden. She really was stunning. I mean I have to tell you that I've seen people in tough situations and a lot of different folks who show courage but she showed about as much as any person I've ever seen.

KING: How do you explain it?

KERRY: God explains it. I don't. I mean this is, you know, this is one of those imponderables that get everybody else in touch with people who are suffering, with people who lose things and maybe it's God's way of, you know, making sure we all check in on what we're doing and how we're doing it.

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0603/07/lkl.01.html

[wisteria]

10. Thanks for posting the link.

I was wondering if he really used all of those, "sort of" and "you know" pauses. I don't recall hearing so many while listening. No big deal, we all do this. It was a difficult situation and words are almost always hard to come upon at times like these when faced with such sadness.

[karynnj]

11. I think he did

I think usually when he speaks - it's almost like he has already thought out the entire paragraph of words he's going to say before he opens his mouth. There are times where he does sort of slow down almost as if he is being cautious about what he was saying.

Here, I think it was saddness and consciously not hiding behind glib words that mask real feelings. He sounded very very real - and when he got more into religion, he seemed shy about saying too much, as if it were person.

Typically I think transcripts get cleaned up and these things removed - this was labelled a rough transcript. I think all of us do some of these things in informal speech. (I was surprised that he made a gaffe in the Ireland speech where he said Yugoslavia rather than Afghanistan when he was listing leaders - it was a surprise as he seems to very rarely make those type of flukey mistakes in speaking.)

[wisteria]

13. It is perfectly understandable, I don't want you to think I was being to

critical. I just asked out of curiosity. The important thing is to have him keep on speaking up and getting the credit he so much deserves. You know, sort of what I mean?

[karynnj]

15. I didn't think you were critical

It really sounded fine - very real, very sad and very personal and vulnerable. I think it was better than if he had spouted smooth platitudes. As you can see the other panelists referenced his comments. His comment on these things making you think about what you are doing was profound. (He's said things like that before and it really shows through in his own life.)

[jenndar]

12. Oh, wow.

Thanks for that.

[_dynamicdems]

6. This was great...especially the people on the show who backed up what

Sen. Kerry said about doing something for research. There was a lot of anger about the funding being cut. It shocked me to realize how much this is going to hurt the Christopher Reeve Foundation. Depak Chopra was very interesting. He came off as very supportive of John Kerry. Maybe people will fight back on the cuts to health care and research now. It just seems such a waste to lose both Christopher Reeve and Dana Reeve and to also lose on the issues they spent a good part of their lives fighting for.

[beachmom]

7. Hey, great blog, DD!!

I hadn't read your bottom signature well until now, and took a look at your blog. Really inspiring and moving. Makes me feel like we can conquer the world!!

[_dynamicdems]

8. Thank you! I'll be happy to conquer the GOP! : D n/t

[jillan]

14. I loved this part

"You know the question is really, you know, what are we going to do with this? You know are we going to have the Larry King show tonight and sort of go through this public grieving which is important but she wouldn't be happy with that and he wouldn't unless we translate it into what they were fighting for, which is, you know, a cure to these kinds of things.

And they both believed deeply in the ability of science and research to be able to provide that and that's what they were fighting for. That's what we need to keep fighting for."

Thanks for posting this - I too missed it on CNN.