Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy endorsed Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., in his bid for president Monday — despite entreaties from Obama’s chief rival, Sen. Hillary Clinton, to stay politically neutral in the race.
On PBS’s Tavis Smiley, Kennedy said he had made the decision based on “who could galvanize this country, galvanize the Democratic party.”
Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, daughter of former president John F. Kennedy, joined Sen. Kennedy at a crowded Washington, D.C. rally to announce the endorsement. Schlossberg also praised Obama Sunday in a New York Times opinion-editorial.
“With Barack Obama, we will turn the page on the old politics of misrepresentation and distortion,” Sen. Kennedy said of his decision to support Obama. “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.”
“Every time I’ve been asked over the past year who I would support in the Democratic primary, my answer has always been the same: I’ll support the candidate who inspires me, who inspires all of us,” said Kennedy, who invoked the memory of his brother, the slain former President Kennedy.
Kennedy’s endorsement comes on the heels of the senator’s reported anger over comments former President Bill Clinton made about Obama on the campaign trail. Sen. Kennedy and former President Clinton had a heated telephone conversation earlier this month “over what Mr. Kennedy considered misleading statements by Mr. Clinton about Mr. Obama, as well as his injection of race into the campaign,” the New York Times reported.
The Kennedy endorsements pit “leading members of the nation’s most prominent Democratic families against one another,” according to the Times. Kennedy’s endorsement also comes as a blow to former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, who won Sen. Kennedy’s support in 2004 when he ran with Democratic nominee Sen. John Kerry.
Sen. Kennedy has worked very closely with both Sen. Clinton and her husband in the past, but aides say he was inspired by Obama’s “seeming ability to inspire political interest in a new generation,” and was also prompted by Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg’s involvement.
“Sometimes it takes a while to recognize that someone has a special ability to get us to believe in ourselves, to tie that belief to our highest ideals and imagine that together we can do great things. In those rare moments, when such a person comes along, we need to put aside our plans and reach for what we know is possible,” Schlossberg wrote. “We have that kind of opportunity with Senator Obama.”
Obama graciously accepted the Kennedys’ support and looked to align himself with the energetic spirit that embodied former president John F. Kennedy.
As someone who at the age of 20 worked very hard for Robert Kennedy and was only 5 feet from him when he was shot and sat on the grassy knoll in front of Good Samaritan Hospital until he died and the hearst carried him out, I feel that he would have been very disappointed in Teddy. The current campaign reminds me of Obama being on his Ivory Tower with his limousine liberals like Eugene McCarthy and the hard working blue collar workers and red, brown and black people and all who needed someone to champion them like RFK is embodied in Hillary Clinton. One thing that I learned during that campaign was that by their enemies shall ye know them and I feel very comfortable with Clinton.
I am really saddened by this endorsement by Ted Kennedy and Caroline for Obama. In my opinion they should have stayed neutral. Obama has not given any policy specifics on what exactly he is going to "change". This country needs a President who will work in the interest of hard working middle class Americans and Sen. Clinton is the only one who has laid out detailed plans on addressing issues like Economy, health care etc.
Only the Kennedy's know the true significance and importance of a certain Kennedy stood for and wanted to carry on. This is not for the rest of us to judge.
Senator Kennedy is one of the most liberal, forward thinking members of Congress. He has been a champion of many important and substantial causes, affecting many people, especially the disenfranchised. To relegate him to the old time political machine does him a disservice. I think Senator Obama has welcomed a mentor to balance the influence and prestige of a former president campaigning for his wife. Not that he is unable to hold his own, but to have equal support in conducting a campaign which has become pretty down and dirty due to the Clinton duo's below the belt attacks on him.
Let's hope this raises the level of discourse of the Democratic campaign.
"With Barack Obama, we will turn the page on the old politics of misrepresentation and distortion...we will close the book on the old politics of...gender against gender..."
(eye twitching)
THIS--from the guy who, while drunk, drove his mother's car off a bridge on Chappaquiddick and swam away, leaving Mary Jo Kopechne to die in the submerged car and who didn't contact police or any rescue squad until after her dead body was discovered in his car by the police the following morning, at least 7 hours later?
I think It is good for America to try with a new brand!
It is a great enndrsement, Not only for US for the Americans but also for the whole world,this endorsement shows that there are some people in America, who can be trusted and canlead the world for Change!!
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As someone who at the age of 20 worked very hard for Robert Kennedy and was only 5 feet from him when he was shot and sat on the grassy knoll in front of Good Samaritan Hospital until he died and the hearst carried him out, I feel that he would have been very disappointed in Teddy. The current campaign reminds me of Obama being on his Ivory Tower with his limousine liberals like Eugene McCarthy and the hard working blue collar workers and red, brown and black people and all who needed someone to champion them like RFK is embodied in Hillary Clinton. One thing that I learned during that campaign was that by their enemies shall ye know them and I feel very comfortable with Clinton.
I am really saddened by this endorsement by Ted Kennedy and Caroline for Obama. In my opinion they should have stayed neutral. Obama has not given any policy specifics on what exactly he is going to "change". This country needs a President who will work in the interest of hard working middle class Americans and Sen. Clinton is the only one who has laid out detailed plans on addressing issues like Economy, health care etc.
Only the Kennedy's know the true significance and importance of a certain Kennedy stood for and wanted to carry on. This is not for the rest of us to judge.
Senator Kennedy is one of the most liberal, forward thinking members of Congress. He has been a champion of many important and substantial causes, affecting many people, especially the disenfranchised. To relegate him to the old time political machine does him a disservice. I think Senator Obama has welcomed a mentor to balance the influence and prestige of a former president campaigning for his wife. Not that he is unable to hold his own, but to have equal support in conducting a campaign which has become pretty down and dirty due to the Clinton duo's below the belt attacks on him.
Let's hope this raises the level of discourse of the Democratic campaign.
"With Barack Obama, we will turn the page on the old politics of misrepresentation and distortion...we will close the book on the old politics of...gender against gender..."
(eye twitching)
THIS--from the guy who, while drunk, drove his mother's car off a bridge on Chappaquiddick and swam away, leaving Mary Jo Kopechne to die in the submerged car and who didn't contact police or any rescue squad until after her dead body was discovered in his car by the police the following morning, at least 7 hours later?
So. This endorsement helps Obama....how?
I think It is good for America to try with a new brand!
It is a great enndrsement, Not only for US for the Americans but also for the whole world,this endorsement shows that there are some people in America, who can be trusted and canlead the world for Change!!