Senator Edward M. Kennedy implored Americans on Monday to “reject the counsels of doubt and calculation,” as he extended his endorsement and placed the aura of his family’s name around the presidential candidacy of Senator Barack Obama.
“It is time again for a new generation of leadership,” Mr. Kennedy said, speaking over a crowd of cheering supporters here at American University. “It is time now for Barack Obama.”
Mr. Kennedy promised to campaign aggressively for Mr. Obama, a strong endorsement from a veteran Democratic leader that might influence some in the party’s liberal Democratic base torn between Mr. Obama and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.
“We, too, want a president who appeals to the hopes of those who still believe in the American dream and those around the world who still believe in the American ideal and who can lift our spirits and make us believe again,” Mr. Kennedy said. “I’ve found that candidate and I think you have, too.”
Not that I would be voting for Obama in November, but Ted’s endorsement is reason enough to run from Obama like the plague.
Kiss of death…
The icon of establishment politics annoints the poster-child of Change. Ahhh, these are remarkable days to be alive.
Wow, first Caroline and now her uncle.
Bill and Hill must really have antagonized the Hyannis mafia!
To quote the Jimmy Carter character from the infamous Saturday Night Live sketch – “Chappaquiddick.”
This is not what I would call a good character reference.
All, This may be engineered by the Clintons to be a kiss of death to Obama and to make Hillary look like the electable moderate in the race.
YBIC,
Phil Snyder
I think that even the powerbrokers of the Democratic Party are sick of the Clintons and are finally seeing what 4-8 years of these two would look like.
The Kennedy’s and Jimmy Carter have never been fans of Bill Clinton. Bill Clinton is a fiscal moderate who betrayed the left wing in his party especially when under his watch the welfare industry was reduced and reformed.
It is a measure of how important Ted Kennedy’s endorsement is [i]in Democratic politics[/i] that the Clintons’ angled for the endorsement themselves and, by credible accounts, Bill called Ted and urged him not to do this, that is, endorse Obama. Anyone who thinks this will [i]hurt[/i] Obama [i]in Democratic politics[/i] is kidding himself.
Next up: Al Gore?
I see “pork barrel” all over it. Teddy’s sure his horse will win this race because he recognizes how much folks just plain hate the Clintons’ Teddy wants to secure his finger in the pie and his handpicked successor’s future in Massachusetts. There will be more boondoggles for the Commonwealth than you can shake a stick at. If you thought the “big dig” was omething, you ain’t seen nothing yet–I picture the Cape Cod tunnel which will mysteriously go all the way around the Cape to exit at Hyannis! The whole thing reveals the flaw in the notion that becaue Obama is a new fresh face, he’s going to be a new kind of politician. Wrong! The Old Boys like Teddy will have Obama tagged, wrapped, signed, sealed and delivered in no time.
The important endorsement here is Caroline’s, IMHO, not Teddy’s. She has never endorsed anyone before, has been apolitical to this point, as far as I know, and in every appearance I have ever seen has been a warm, gracious, soft-spoken person.
#12 Maybe yes, maybe no. Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, among the many things she does, has acted as a spokesperosn for the NYC schools. It’s highly doubtful as to whether any of her three children have ever been inside, much less ateended an NYC school. While some (the Billary’s for instance) might want to exploit this apparent hypocrisy, I thinkthere’s something even larger at work. We are now far enough removed from JFK’s assassination that historians are taking a much more critical eye to the Kennedy legacy. Some have pointed out that JFK’s civil rights record was, while quite astounding by early 60’s standards, not the “great liberator” image that some might think. For instance, sending federal agents to Alabama was less about the civil rights of black citizens than it was about RFK’s fury that a state governor (George Wallace) would dare ignore a federal order in the name of states’ rights. Add to this, the Billary’s big faux pas in mentioning LBJ’s importance in civil rights legislation ahead of Martin Luther King’s. My guess is that Caroline is less interested in Obama qua Obama than she is in perserving her dad’s repurtation as the great civil rights president of the 20th century that made “Presdient Obama” possible.
#13, I don’t doubt that you may be right (especially since she has not heretofore endorsed anyone). But I, also, suspect that most of the country has the same impression of her that I do, which will absolutely be to Obama’s credit and credibility. I am sure that the Clintons are not pleased because their support has to come from Democratic Party regulars. Conservatives are not going to vote for either Hillary or Obama, and independents in NH and Iowa flocked to Obama. So Hillary has to have the party regulars vote, and she apparently just lost it in Mass (especially with Kerry already supporting Obama) and potentially in NY.
Are people really all that swayed by her? Does she have any qualification apart from “the daddy I can barely remember was president once upon a time?” I mean, I really could care less who Reagan’s kids endorse, or Amy Carter, or anyone else for that matter, apart from their own qualifications.
#15, I’m not a Kennedy family fan, nor was or am I a JFK fan. I have no idea if her endorsement means anything for sure. But there is still a mystique about the Kennedys that lives on today in the South, I know. And, I do suspect that her first time endorsement of anyone gives that person some credibility.
I love it now that liberals are starting to learn that the Clintons can not tell the truth.
Steven (post #1)
It looks like the ‘good folk’ of Florida felt that way, eh? 😉