I transcribed the bit spoken by Nina Totenberg in the hour-long special I linked to. They're wrapping up the discussion, and she had a pretty good conclusion here:

"There was Good Ted and Bad Ted all along the way, but the Kennedys and Ted Kennedy in particular are positively Shakespearean in their tragedy, in their flaws, and in their greatness as well. And in the last 10, 15 years of his life, there were almost none of the old flaws that you saw. He married, it was a happy marriage, there was none of the carousing, and he was able to realize more legislative accomplishments, so that the redemption was complete by the end, in a way. There are all of these cliches, but they're cliches for a reason, he passed the torch to the next generation, to Barack Obama. It's a great drama."