Kennedy Rallies The Locals

CBSNews.com producer Jarrett Murphy is reporting from Boston this week.

Kennedy's speech ostensibly was about electing John Kerry to the White House, but it was steeped in the history that his family shared with Boston and its voters, and in the liberal principles of which Kennedy is an icon.

Referring to Boston as "hallowed ground that gave birth to these enduring American ideals," Kennedy made reference to his grandfather, his brothers John and Joe, and his Irish great-grandparents.

The biggest applause was for workplace protections, union rights and the minimum wage. The battle, Kennedy said, was against "with those who put their own narrow interest ahead of the public interest," the beneficiaries of "the sweetheart deal" and "the cries of the false patriots who bully dissenters into silence and submission."

"These are familiar fights," Kennedy said. "We fought and we won before."

Some of the speech seemed a reference to the 1980 address with which Kennedy ended his presidential campaign, when he assured his loyalists that "the dream will never die."

On Tuesday night, Kennedy talked about "dreams denied" and assured Democrats that a Kerry presidency would allow them to dream again. Kennedy even walked on to the stage to the strains of the Coldplay song "Clocks," which sings of "tides that I tried to swim against."

Speaking to delegates from Kennedy's hometown earlier in the day, it was clear that Kerry swims in the wake of the senior senator from Massachusetts. Local Democrats desperately want to elect Kerry president, but Kennedy holds a place in their hearts that transcends a single year's campaign.

Meeting in an ornate banquet room at a hotel on Boston's Copley Square, Bay State delegates and guests paid homage to the Kennedy legacy. Rep. Marty Meehan introduced his son, Robert Francis, followed by Rep. John Lewis of Georgia talking about John Kennedy's contributions to the civil rights movement.

Cameron Kerry, brother of the soon-to-be nominee, said Ted Kennedy told him this weekend that this election was "more important election than 1960, more important than 1968, more important than 1980" — referring to the three presidential races in which the three Kennedy brothers ran.

Despite the buttons displaying Kerry and Kennedy side-by-side under the banner "Boston's Favorite Sons," no one denied that while they fiercely support Kerry, their relationship with Kennedy is a different creature altogether.

"Senator Kennedy has always been an outstanding senator, probably the greatest senator in this century," said State Rep. Ruth B. Balser of Newton. "We love him."

The question for Kerry is what the contrast between him and Kennedy portends for his campaign. The conventional wisdom on Kerry is that he does not energize people — that he cannot connect. Kennedy gets none of that criticism.

Kerry's "not a backslapper that come in and is right at home in the traditional sense," said Fred Koed, an alternate delegate from Cohasset, Mass. He describes himself as a "big JFK guy" who attended the slain president's funeral. "I think he has got a big heart but the general public doesn't see it all the time."

"Kerry has always been much more reserved," said Peg MacKenzie of Weymouth, who is attending her sixth convention. "Of course, he's always been in Kennedy's shadow."

As much as it is highlighting Kerry, the convention is not doing much to reduce the Kennedy shadow. Delegates were given booklets of sayings by JFK. On the first night of the convention, Kennedy's "let the word go forth" quote flashed up on the large video screen at the front of the Fleet Center. The late president's voice echoed through the hall.

While 54 percent of Democrats in general have a favorable view of Kennedy, a CBS News poll found that 88 percent of delegates to the convention have a favorable view.

Why?

"Ted Kennedy's always been in my life," Linda Broadford of Weymouth, explained. Attending the 2000 convention in Los Angeles, she remembers meeting two women in the restroom after Kennedy gave a speech. The women were moved to tears by the senator's eloquence.

"I said, 'Well, he's mine,'" Broadford recalled. The women replied, "'No. He belongs to all of us.'"

Kerry, she said, "doesn't have the history that Ted Kennedy does for the whole country."

Plus, Kennedy "brought home the bacon every time," said Dorothy Kellygay.

This does not mean that Massachusetts are not deeply loyal to Kerry; they are. Koed says he has worked on Kerry campaigns for 20 years, planting Kerry signs, serving as a whip at conventions.

But in New England, Irish grandmothers display commemorative plates featuring the trinity of Jack, Bobby and the pope.

Koed thinks Kerry could someday earn that same adoration.

"I think he has it within him if he's given the challenge, and he's been given the challenge," he said.

By Jarrett Murphy