I am so happy for my alma mater!!
Senator Edward M. Kennedy will not give the commencement address he was scheduled to deliver on Sunday at Wesleyan University and will be replaced as the speaker by Senator Barack Obama.
Mr. Obama offered last weekend to speak at the graduation after Mr. Kennedy was hospitalized because of a seizure caused by a malignant brain tumor, an aide to Mr. Kennedy said. Mr. Obama called Mr. Kennedy again on Thursday, and they agreed he would fill in.
Mr. Kennedy’s stepdaughter, Caroline Raclin, will be among the graduates. Mr. Kennedy’s son Edward Jr. graduated in 1983 from the university, which is in Middletown, Conn.
Mr. Kennedy, who received a diagnosis of a malignant glioma in the left parietal lobe of his brain, is resting at his home in Hyannis Port, Mass. Doctors are awaiting more test results to determine his course of treatment.
A statement from Mr. Kennedy’s office said he was “enormously grateful to Senator Obama and the support he’s received from all of his colleagues.”
Mr. Obama said in a statement, “Considering what he’s done for me and for our country, there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for him.”
Mr. Kennedy and his wife, Victoria, sailed for the second day in a row Thursday.
