Kennedy Endorsement Shakes Democratic Race; GOP Focuses on Florida

Today, Obama was happy to accept the comparisons to John F. and Robert Kennedy.

SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D-Ill.), Presidential Candidate: I was too young to remember John Kennedy, and I was just a child when Robert Kennedy ran for president.

But in the stories I heard growing up, I saw how my grandparents and mother spoke about them and about that period of our nation's life as a time of great hope and achievement.

They inspired my family as they inspired families all across the country.

And I think my own sense of what is possible in this country, part of the reason I stand here today, comes in part from what they said America was like in the days of John and Robert Kennedy.

GWEN IFILL: Clinton countered today by calling attention to the endorsements she has received from three children of Robert Kennedy, former Maryland Lieutenant Governor Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Robert Francis Kennedy Jr., and Mary Kerry Kennedy.

Campaigning in Hartford, Conn., today, Clinton didn't mention her Democratic rival, focusing her fire instead on President Bush, who tonight delivers his final State of the Union address.

SEN. HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON (D-N.Y.), Presidential Candidate: I believe we can do better than what we have seen the last seven years with the cronyism and the corruption and the no-bid contracts and the indifference and the incompetence.

I believe we can actually start appointing qualified people for the positions we asked them to hold in the government again.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-Ariz.), Presidential Candidate: In Iraq, we are succeeding. In Iraq, we are succeeding, despite -- particularly back in 2007, when things were at their worst, there were a few of us, a few of us that stood up and said, the Rumsfeld strategy is failing. It's got to be replaced by the Petraeus strategy. And, my friends, we are succeeding.

But, if you forget everything I say to you today, please remember this: Al-Qaida is on the run. They are not defeated. They are not defeated. And we have got a long way to go. And the only person to set a date for withdrawal from Iraq is one General David Petraeus, one of the great generals and leaders that this nation has ever been blessed with, not by some candidate, not by Senator Clinton and Senator Obama, who want to wave the white flag of surrender, so that then al-Qaida will be able to tell the world that they defeated the United States of America. I will never let that happen.

GWEN IFILL: Meanwhile, Mitt Romney campaigned in Fort Myers, taking McCain to task for his support of a campaign finance overhaul, immigration reform and energy legislation.

MITT ROMNEY (R), Presidential Candidate: He's known for three major pieces of legislation, have his name at the top, one, McCain-Feingold, that attacked the First Amendment. It was supposed to take the influence of money out of politics. It made things worse, not better.

Then there was McCain-Kennedy, which people who have looked at it said, look, that was an amnesty bill. That hasn't worked. Now there is McCain-Lieberman, his third great piece of legislation. That would add about $1,000 per year to your gasoline bill here in Florida.

GWEN IFILL: And Rudy Giuliani, who has staked his campaign on the outcome in Florida, argued for civility.

RUDOLPH GIULIANI (R), Presidential Candidate: I am sick and tired of all this negative campaigning. I am sick and tired of all this name-calling. This is no way to conduct a presidential election. The best way to conduct a presidential election is to appeal to the hopes and the dreams and the aspirations and the philosophies and the thoughts of the American people. That's what we're doing.

I believe the people of Florida are going to look at all that name calling and they're going to say, no, no, no.

GWEN IFILL: With campaign stops scheduled from California to Massachusetts, the Democrats have already moved on to the next stage of the competition: the 22 Super Tuesday primaries next week.

But, within Democratic circles, there was still lingering criticism of Bill Clinton, who over the weekend downplayed Obama's victory by comparing him to the last major black candidate for president.

BILL CLINTON, Former President of the United States: Jesse Jackson won South Carolina twice, in '84 and '88. And he ran a good campaign. And Senator Obama has run a good campaign.

GWEN IFILL: Obama did not respond to Clinton's remarks, but said the election should not be about things that divide the nation.

BARACK OBAMA: So, make no mistake. The choice in this election is not between regions or religions or genders. It is not about rich vs. poor, young vs. old, and it is certainly not about black vs. white.

It is about -- it is about the past vs. the future.

It is about looking backwards or marching forwards. It's about whether we are going to seize this moment to write the next great American story, so some day we can tell our children that this was the time when we healed our nation, this was the time when we repaired our world, and this was the time when we renewed the America -- that this was the time when we renewed the America that has led generations of weary travelers from all over the world to find opportunity and liberty and hope on our doorstep.

GWEN IFILL: And Kennedy pointedly suggested Democrats turn the page.

EDWARD KENNEDY: With Barack Obama, we will close the book on the old politics of race against race, gender against gender, ethnic group against ethnic group, and straight against gay.

EDWARD KENNEDY: I love this country. I believe in the bright light of hope and possibility. I always have, even in the darkest hours.

I know what America can achieve. I have seen it. I have lived it.

And with Barack Obama, we can do it again.

AUDIENCE: Yes, we can! Yes, we can! Yes, we can! Yes, we can! Yes, we can! Yes, we can!

David, the Kennedy endorsement, we gave it a lot of time tonight. Every other broadcast has given it a lot of time. The wires have made a major -- see this as a major event. Is it a major event?

DAVID BROOKS: I think so. It's by far the most important endorsement of the year or of the campaign. And it's that for a couple of reasons.

The first is just the last clip we heard from Ted Kennedy. Here's the consummate insider, the legislator, saying Barack Obama is ready on day one. If anybody knows the inside of government, it's Ted Kennedy for Democrats. And so that carries a lot of weight.

And then the second thing is when -- in that room, when Caroline Kennedy walks up, her slenderness sort of evoking her father, and then when Ted Kennedy walks up, evoking his brothers, you see the whole history of the Democratic Party sort of swinging behind Obama. And he can clue in to the '60s, the '60s idealism and tie it to himself. And it just has a -- it had a big emotional wallop there in the room.

JIM LEHRER: You were in the room, right?

DAVID BROOKS: I was there. And you just don't expect to see that. I didn't expect Ted Kennedy to endorse. I didn't know who he was for, but I didn't think he'd endorse. The fact that he swung behind Obama and a lot of top Democrats are now swinging behind him is a sign of something shifting, at least at the elite of the Democratic Party.

JIM LEHRER: Something shifting, Ruth?

RUTH MARCUS: I think something may be shifting.

And just to amplify on what David was saying, I agree that this is a big deal. He is the biggest dog in the Democratic Party who is not already aligned with a certain candidate, but also the timing is magnificent for Barack Obama. We're on the verge of a bunch of important states, 22 important states.

JIM LEHRER: Super Tuesday, Feb. 5. Yes.

RUTH MARCUS: Super Tuesday coming up. A lot of people haven't made up their mind. A lot of people who thought they had made up their mind may be recalculating and rethinking.

And, also, I think that the double Kennedys or however many Kennedys there were really play very well to a particular demographic group that Barack Obama has been weakest with: working-class men, white men, union workers.

And also, for women of a certain age -- and I'm going to put myself in that category -- Caroline Kennedy's endorsement really does mean something. We remember her in the White House. And Hillary Clinton has been particularly strong among older women. And I think that also has a kind of emotional punch.

JIM LEHRER: We've been talking on this program the last couple of weeks about, how important are endorsements? You think this one is different than most endorsements, right?

RUTH MARCUS: I think this one is different than most endorsements with the possible exception -- I've never really been clear on how important it was of Oprah -- but certainly in the endorsement wars, everybody wanted this one.

Every candidate wanted this one. And it is a little bit of a leading indicator, Senator Clinton brought out her dueling Kennedys today. But I have to say -- and no dis on Kathleen Kennedy Townsend or anybody else, but she's no Teddy Kennedy. And his Kennedys outranked her Kennedys.

JIM LEHRER: And of course the big word now, of course, tied into all of this is momentum after South Carolina. How does the South Carolina victory look, what, 48 hours later, David?

DAVID BROOKS: Well, it was a precursor to this, because what had happened -- and this was one big event in the Democratic Party, but there was another big event. And that was across the leadership of the party. And that was a negative event. It was revulsion against the Clintons.

And a lot of people still like the Clintons, will always like the Clintons in the Democratic Party. But there was revulsion against the toxicity of their attack on Barack Obama. And I think the size of the margin in South Carolina was an indicator that a lot of voters in South Carolina just wanted to send a message, this is not acceptable, to go after somebody in the way you're going after Barack Obama.

And that sentiment is shared among the leadership of the political class here. I've been stunned by, on the left and the right, in the media and out of the media, people are really -- something switched in the last couple weeks, attitudes toward Hill and -- Bill and Hillary Clinton.

JIM LEHRER: Yes. Do you agree?

RUTH MARCUS: I do agree.

And I think that Senator Clinton to some extent squandered a bunch of goodwill that she had coming out of New Hampshire, looking human, misting up. And now they -- she not only lost, but she lost ugly. And she lost gracelessly. And she lost in a way that she allowed her husband to really eclipse her in the public consciousness and to remind some people that -- even Democrats who like the Clintons -- that while it was, the '90s were good times for the most part, there was also a downside.

And I think it was a very -- I agree with what David had to say about Democrats. It was a very unfortunate series of events over the weekend.

JIM LEHRER: But is it fair to blame Hillary Clinton for all of this? I mean, how much is it a shared responsibility with her husband? Or is it...

RUTH MARCUS: Well, I think it's a shared responsibility with her husband. And she was on TV yesterday sort of saying, well, spouses say the darnedest things. And we're so -- aren't we all lucky that our spouses are so committed to us?

But, you know, to me, it really felt this weekend like two for the price of two, to some extent. And if she is the candidate, she is responsible for what people in her campaign say, including her husband.

JIM LEHRER: But there's still a long way to go, David. And you've said on this broadcast more than once that it's been a long time since you have been as impressed with a candidate as you have been with Hillary Clinton up to this point, before things started to kind of go a little askew.

DAVID BROOKS: She's run a fine campaign. And looking ahead, she's got a lot of support out there.

You look at the big states, in California, in Michigan, in Illinois, New York, New Jersey, she's got huge leads.

JIM LEHRER: Huge polling leads.

DAVID BROOKS: So, I think there's definitely momentum behind Obama, but a lot of people would have to change their mind or take another look. And this has not been a year where we have seen predictable shifts in momentum. So, who knows what is going to happen? So, she still -- I would say still has the inside track.