The Kennedy Endorsement
(John P. Filo/CBS)
The midday Washington rally at which Ted, Caroline, and Patrick Kennedy endorsed Barack Obama may or may not have enough political weight to change the outcome of the primaries. What it definitely did have was a huge supply of political irony.
First, the candidate whose entire campaign is premised on the need to “turn the page,” who defines the contest as one “between the past and the future,” received the blessing of the political figure most solidly identified with a storied past. Ted Kennedy was elected to the United States Senate in 1962, when Barack Obama was 15 months old. He remains, after 45 years in the Senate, the “last liberal lion,” the embodiment of a kind of Democrat anchored in a New Deal-Fair Deal-New Frontier-Great society era. For those of us of a certain age, our strongest memories of Caroline come from the magazine photographs of her dancing in the Oval Office, while her father clapped his hands … or more likely, from the black-and-white photos of her at her father’s funeral.
For a lot more Americans, there’s another iconic image – the grainy home movie footage of a teenaged Bill Clinton reaching out to shake the hand of President Kennedy at a Boys’ Nation gathering in the early 60s. Back in 1992, the Clinton campaign showcased that image as a way to argue that the torch had been passed to another young, vigorous Democrat. And those pictures of the Clintons sailing with the Kennedys off Cape Cod during his Presidency were not exactly accidents.
But if the Kennedys are links to what seems to many Democrats a golden past, it is today’s impact that matters. And, if longtime Democratic pollster Geoff Garin is right, that impact, too, is essentially measured not by Kennedy’s appeal to unions or Hispanics.
The real value of "Ted Kennedy for Barack Obama, demographically, is generationally," Garin notes. "Up to now Barack Obama had been doing extremely well with young people, but as you get up in the different age cohorts, Hillary did better and better.
“Ted Kennedy is someone who speaks to a certain generation of Democrats among whom Barack Obama had not been doing very well. And so for that generation, all of a sudden you have the best of the good housekeeping seal of approval," he said. "Edward Kennedy the brother of John and Robert, those are names and people who mean a lot to a certain generation of democrats and the generation where Barack Obama had yet to make his mark."
It may well take all of Kennedy’s political clout – and more – for Obama to close the significant gap between him and Clinton in most of the February 5th states. But for someone arguing that it is time for a new generation of leadership, the blessing of the iconic family from an earlier time is a pearl of great price.
The Kennedys'' standing by Obama is not about succession of a dynasty, as is the case with the Clintons -- it''s the passing of the mantle as the recognized vanguards of those democratic ideals.
These democratic ideals which we believe in are not defined as young or old -- and your attempt to deride the Kennedys'' endorsement of Obama through that filter is quite sad. Just because so many of the young can see and hear more clearly a passionate voice that heralds the true ideals of democracy doesn''t mean that the icons of those ideals cannot join the chorus and trumpet the voice as a true one.
If all this bugs ya, well, maybe it is you who''s getting old.
It should be plain for all to see that Hillary Clinton is bought and paid for and most definitely is STATUS QUO
and what''''s even more plain to see is how the Democratic Party and the MSM is CREATING obama as the front runner
with all these "big" endorsements in such "big" ways.....it''''s obvious that he is the next Washington puppet on a string.
BUYER BEWARE!!!
Here is a great article on JFK and his experience before he became President.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2008/0801w.widmer.html
This is not Barrack Obama.
Likewise, RFK was in the White House during his Brother''s term. RFK was JFK''s closest confidant, much like Hillary was to Bill during Bill''s terms. So Robert had hands on, direct/indirect involvement in national and international issues.
AND MY GOSH....WAS ANYONE CRYING "KENNEDY DYNASTY" WHEN BOBBY RAN FROM PRESIDENT 5 YEARS AFTER JFK?
I so hate that America and the media gets so suck into the glamour, the hype in something where we should be analyzing the details and the core.
Obama''s handlers have made into him to a silouette of a man...a JFK, RFK and MLK rolled all into one. But at the core he''s none of them. You could believe what JFK, RFK and MLK said they were going to do by what they had already done--they had a rich history of already doing what they were promising. Where is that with Barrack?
WAKE UP AMERICA!
Who is Barack Obama?
U. S. presidential candidate, Barack Hussein Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, to Barack Hussein Obama, Sr.,a black MUSLIM from Nyangoma-Kogel, Kenya and Ann Dunham, a white ATHEIST from Wichita,Kansas. Obama''s parents met at he University of Hawaii.
When Obama was two years old, his parents divorced. His father returned to Kenya. His mother married Lolo Soetoro, a RADICAL Muslim from Indonesia.
At age 6 the family relocated to Indonesia. Obama attended a MUSLIM school in Jakarta. He also spent two years in a Catholic school.Obama takes great care to conceal the fact that he''s Muslim.He is quick to point out that, He was once a Muslim, but that he also attended Catholic school. Obama''s political handlers are attempting to make it appear that that he is not a radical.
Obama''s introduction to Islam came via his father, and that this influence was temporary at best. In reality, the senior Obama returned to Kenya soon after the divorce, and never had any direct influence over his son''s
education. Lolo Soetoro,second husband of Obama''s mother, introduced his stepson to Islam. Obama was enrolled in a Wahabi school in Jakarta.
Barack is not so gracious enough even to congratulate Hillary when she won the Nevada caucus.
The CHANGE we need is to bring back the prosperity during the Clinton years. We do not need another TRAINEE for the next 4 years as President Bush did during his first 4 years even up to this during his term on the office.