Ted Sorensen opened his speech with a joke at President George W. Bush’s expense, closed with a poem endorsing White House hopeful Barack Obama and filled the center with personal anecdotes about himself and former President John F. Kennedy.

Sorensen, Kennedy’s Special Counsel and speechwriter for 10 years, spoke to a nearly full Student Center ballroom Wednesday night. His speech, titled “A Life on the Edge of History,” featured the now 80-year-old policy analyst’s experiences ranging from his childhood in Lincoln, Neb., to the night Kennedy was elected president in 1960.

“I had no interest in politics until I was (age) four,” he said.

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Aside from his series of jokes about President Bush, presidential contender John McCain and his running mate Sarah Palin, Sorensen used his speaking slot to point out similarities between this year’s Obama presidential campaign and the 1960 Kennedy White House race. He said criticism about Obama being a young, first-term senator with African roots is similar to Kennedy’s situation four decades ago – a rookie national legislator raised Roman Catholic in a Protestant-heavy country.

But Sorensen said it was Kennedy’s ability to strike down the criticism from then-Republican challenger Richard Nixon that won him to the White House.

Kennedy hired Sorensen as his legislative aide in 1953. At that time, Kennedy was one of 52 newly elected U.S. senators. Sorensen said he knew he had a special bond with the legislator from Cape Cod in 1956 as Kennedy began to receive a large number of speaking invitations from across the nation.

“He said to me, ‘You might as well go with me,'” Sorensen said with a smile. He said those words and a solo tour of the 50 states with Kennedy made him realize his importance in the administration.

Most people recognize Kennedy’s presidential inaugural address he delivered in January 1961, but may not know that is was Sorensen who prepared the speech. But during a question and answering session following Wednesday night’s speech, Sorensen said those were Kennedy’s words because he inspired them.

Sorensen, who also served as a top-adviser to Anwar Sadat, king of Egypt during the 1970s, and South African President Nelson Mandella, will remain on campus today to speak to a political science class and attend a luncheon with pre-selected students. He will be speaking again tonight at SIU’s campus in Edwardsville.

Following his speech, Sorensen held an autograph session where copies of his memoirs were available for purchase.

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Though he is not a close adviser to Obama, Sorensen said he predicts the rookie senator from Illinois to be victorious in November.

Daily Egyptian reporter Barton Lorimor can be reached at 536-3311 ext. 263 or [email protected].