The early champion of the universal health care movement (Ted Kennedy) has very actively endorsed Obama...The Liberal Lion in the Senate is a true progressive and his endorsement helped John Kerry get the nomination in 2004...Kerry was not a dynamic speaker like Obama but he was a good candidate (except when it comes to effectively responding to the SmearVet attacks)...Yet, John Kerry won more votes in the General Election than Bill Clinton ever won in any of his presidential elections -- the only reason John Kerry lost to Bush is due to Rove's dirty tricks and a unique ability to steal the election in Ohio (where the former CEO of Diebold said his company would deliver for a GOP candidate)....Yet, it's interesting that Senior Senator John Kerry chose to endorse Obama early on...and we see the pragmatic progressive Bill Bradley on the Obama bandwagon, and Pat Leahy who is the head of the Judiciary committee in the Senate...Yet, the BIG endorsement was Ted Kennedy's...fyi...
Democratic dynasties clash as Obama claims JFK's mantle
01/28/08
WASHINGTON (AFP) — Two branches of US political royalty clashed Monday as liberal lion Edward Kennedy snubbed the Clintons and backed Barack Obama as the inspirational heir to his slain brother, John F. Kennedy.
In a stinging rebuff to Obama's White House rival Hillary Clinton, the Massachusetts senator said it was time for new leadership, with new ideas, to "turn the page on the old politics of misrepresentation and distortion."
"And in Barack Obama, I see not just the audacity, but the possibility of hope for the America that is yet to be," the 75-year-old patriarch of the tragedy-scarred clan told a raucous rally at Washington's American University.
"I know that he's ready to be president on day one. And when he raises his hand on Inauguration Day, at that very moment, we will lift the spirits of our nation and begin to restore America's standing in the world."
Clinton meanwhile invaded Kennedy's home turf in Springfield, Massachusetts, addressing a rally that focused heavily on policy promises such as universal healthcare and benefits for military veterans.
While the Obama campaign has wowed audiences with an electrifying message for change, Clinton has been focusing on the nuts-and-bolts concerns of Democrats worried for their jobs in uncertain economic times.
Intervening in this year's tough Democratic battle for the White House nomination, Kennedy reached back to an older era predating president Bill Clinton, recalling when he first entered the Senate in 1962.
"We had a new president who inspired the nation, especially the young, to seek a new frontier," he said, alongside Obama and JFK's daughter Caroline.
"Those inspired young people marched, sat in at lunch counters, protested the war in Vietnam and served honorably in that war even when they opposed it."
"They realized that when they asked what they could do for their country, they could change the world," Kennedy said. "This is another such time."
Kennedy is the last surviving brother of president John F. Kennedy and presidential hopeful Robert Kennedy -- who were both assassinated in the tumultuous 1960s.
Over the ensuing decades, Bill and Hillary Clinton came to represent a new guard of the Democratic Party -- but also, for their critics, an emblem of divisiveness tainted by political and personal scandal.
Beyond the symbolism of his endorsement, Kennedy can bring to the Obama campaign his strong popularity among trade unionists, Irish-Americans and Latinos, along with his fundraising network, as he joins him on the stump.
The timing was important coming just after Obama swept Saturday's South Carolina primaries by a two to one margin over Hillary Clinton, in the lead-up to "Super Tuesday" on February 5 when 22 states will vote.
The Clinton campaign counter-punched with the endorsement of three children of Bobby Kennedy, and played down the value of high-profile endorsements.
"We feel very good about where we are in Massachusetts, we don't think that it will be hugely significant at this point," one top aide to the New York senator said.
The Clintons are very aware of Kennedy's powerful draw among Democrats and had been counting on him to stay neutral in the race, according to media reports.
But Kennedy came off the fence after the former president launched a series of bruising assaults on Obama before the South Carolina primary, reportedly arguing that Bill Clinton had injected the race card into the acrimonious contest.
In another blow, Nobel prize-winning author Toni Morrison, who in 1998 called Bill Clinton "the first black president," came out for Obama on Monday in a letter praising the Illinois senator's "wisdom."
In his own speech at American University -- which JFK himself addressed five months before he was gunned down in November 1963 -- Obama said the Kennedy family, more than any other, had always stood for "what is best about America."
Implicitly attacking the Clintons, he said Ted Kennedy's record of service was "a testimony to what can be achieved when you focus on lifting the country up rather than tearing political opponents down."
If the "cynics" can be defeated, Obama added, "then we'll not just win these primaries, we will not just win this general election, we will change the course of history and write a new chapter for change in this country." |
