WASHINGTON, D.C. - Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) formally endorsed presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) yesterday during a rally at American University, painting his colleague as the living incarnation of the ideals of his brother, John F. Kennedy, and of Martin Luther King, Jr.
"I feel change in the air," said Kennedy, who was joined by his son, Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.), and his niece, Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of former President John F. Kennedy. Both of the younger Kennedys also proclaimed their support for Obama.
Kennedy compared some frequent criticisms of the Illinois senator - his inexperience, idealism and youth - to the charges leveled against President Kennedy in his 1960 presidential campaign. Sen. Kennedy depicted these charges as the ploys of an old guard reluctant to come to grips with a new generation of leadership.
Obama "understands what Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called the 'fierce urgency of now,'" Kennedy said.
Kennedy's endorsement speech contained a few veiled swipes at Obama's chief rival, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.).
"We know the true record of Barack Obama," Kennedy said. "There is the courage he showed when so many others were silent or simply went along. From the beginning, he opposed the war in Iraq. And let no one deny that truth."
The Obama campaign has contended that Clinton has tried to obscure her initial position on the war in Iraq. She voted to authorize the war in 2003.
Kennedy also discounted critiques that Obama is not as politically experienced as Clinton. The Clinton campaign has repeatedly raised the question of whether Obama, a first-term senator, will be prepared to handle the pressures and responsibilities of the presidency as soon as he takes office.
"What counts in our leadership is not the length of years in Washington, but the reach of our vision, the strength of our beliefs and that rare quality of mind and spirit that can call forth the best in our country and our people," Kennedy said. "I know that he's ready to be president on day one."
After remarks from the three Kennedys, Obama took the stage to thunderous cheering from the crowd of 4,000. He acknowledged and praised the significance of the Kennedys in American politics.
"I stand here today with a great deal of humility," he said. "I know what your support means. I know the cherished place the Kennedy family holds in the hearts of the American people. And that is as it should be. Because the Kennedy family, more than any other, has always stood for what's best about the Democratic Party, and about America."
The Illinois senator related a story of how his father was accepted to an American school in part through a grant from the Kennedy Foundation. The grant paid for young Kenyans to travel to American colleges.
"So it is partly because of their generosity," Obama said, "that my father came to this country, and because he did, I stand before you today - inspired by America's past, filled with hope for America's future and determined to do my part in writing our next great chapter."
According to Professor of Political Science Jeffrey Berry, the endorsement could help Obama capture more votes from the party's liberal wing, a section with which Clinton has had success.
"More than anything else it says to the liberals in the Democratic Party that Obama is the real beacon of liberalism," Berry said. "Up until now, the dynamic has been one of experience versus hope, and I think Ted Kennedy's endorsement is a signal that there's really one true liberal in this race, and his name is Barack Obama."
Berry also said that the endorsement could help Obama gain support from Hispanics, a demographic with which he has not had much success.
"I think it's a dirty little secret about American politics that blacks and Hispanics are not natural allies in politics," Berry said. "Many assume that they are, [but] within the Democratic Party they're sometimes rivals and sometimes allies. I think Ted Kennedy's popular with every wing of the Democratic Party, but in part, minorities have seen him as ... someone who's in their corner, and a fighter."
American University provided a symbolic site for the speech, for President Kennedy delivered a famous commencement address there in 1963, calling on the Soviet Union to work with the United States on a nuclear test ban treaty.
Tufts Associate Professor of Political Science Deborah Schildkraut said that the endorsement was significant, but it would probably not be enough to give Obama a win here in Kennedy's home state. The former first lady leads Obama 59 percent to 22 percent, according to a Jan. 24 poll by SurveyUSA. The Massachusetts primary will be held next Tuesday.
"For certain [Massachusetts] voters who either recently made up their minds or are still on the fence, the endorsement is going to make them take a second look," Schildkraut said. "But it's also a big gap to close, and I don't think that one endorsement is going to completely close it."Obam
