Some Back-Story On The Ted Kennedy Endorsement...

[WillyT]

Don't know if you guys have already seen this, but...

According to Gloria Borger on a CNN panel with AC, she said that originally, Teddy was gonna stay out of endorsing a candidate for now, out of respect for the Clintons.

But when Bill went over the top in South Carolina, Teddy placed a call to tell him to tone it down.

Remember that story? Kennedy and Leahy asking Bill to pipe down???

Well, according to a source in Kennedy's office, the Senator was "more angry at the end of that phone call than when he placed it."

Sounds to me like Bill tried to defend what he was doing, and wasn't gonna take Teddy's advice.

And guess what happened next?

Oh that's right...you don't have to.

:shrug:

[anamandujano]

1. We've already heard that Kennedy decided after Iowa

so that blows this theory.

[saracat]

2. Where did you hear that? These stories are fast and furious!

[anamandujano]

6. Read it here at DU on several threads.

Maybe someone can find the info. I don't like searching (and can't until I donate again.)

[WillyT]

4. Link Please ???

:shrug:

[WillyT]

10. Here's Mine:

<snip>

BORGER: No. I think that Barack Obama personally believes that Bill Clinton's campaigning went over the line. And I know for a fact that Ted Kennedy called the former president and said to him, "Look, you have got to stop doing this." And I was told by somebody very close to the senator that when he got off that first phone call he was angrier than he was when he placed it.

So it was very clear that President Clinton was defending what he was saying. And I think that was sort of the final straw for Kennedy.

<snip>

Link: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0801/28/acd.02.html

:shrug:

[anamandujano]

15. Found it!

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/28/us/politics/28kennedy.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

Good long article, but here's the salient part.

Before the Iowa caucuses, Mr. Kennedy had planned to stay out of the race, largely because he had so many friends in the contest, chiefly Senator Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut. He also said he was waiting for one of the candidates to spark a movement.

“I want to see who out there is going to be able to inspire not only our party, but others, because I think we’re going to need the inspiration in order to bring a change in American foreign policy and domestic policy,” Mr. Kennedy said last year on ABC News’s “This Week.”

After Mr. Obama won the Iowa caucuses, associates to both men said, Mr. Kennedy concluded that Mr. Obama had transcended racial lines and the historical divisions the Kennedy family had worked to tear down. Mr. Kennedy was also impressed at how Mr. Obama was not defined as a black candidate, but seen as a transformational figure.

It was then, associates said, that Mr. Kennedy began talking with his children, nieces and nephews, including Caroline Kennedy, who had reached her own judgment some time ago independently of her uncle. They then agreed last week to move ahead with their endorsements, coordinating their decision before the Feb. 5 contests.

[grantcart]

3. well if your going to discuss anything about the Clintons

you will have to provide proof on every fact and links. When provided they still won't agree with any of it.

Can you, for example, prove that Senator Kennedy has a phone?

[WillyT]

7. ROFLMAO !!!

:bounce::rofl::bounce:

Perfect!

:hi:

[grantcart]

9. lol the thing is those other posts asking for links were typed

while i was typing mine. . . I thought mine was going to be the first one - they beat me with 3 link requests

[saracat]

5. I sort of believe this.This whole election is about a clash of ego's! And I include Obama

and Hillary in this statement.Edwards is the only adult and the only one focusing on issues.

[kerrygoddess]

12. Touche!

You are right about that my friend.

[EFerrari]

8. That's the same story I heard today, too, on one of the cable networks

but I can't tell you which one. Probably MSNBC, They love their drama.

[WillyT]

11. See Post #10

:hi:

[orleans]

13. it was msnbc that said that story because i don't think i watched cnn

all day (but i could be wrong! who can really remember what they watched anymore? }( )

[EFerrari]

14. I never watch those shows but today I did turn on MSNBC

so, maybe they all had it going on. :shrug:

[orleans]

17. i had msnbc on, then cspan waiting for dennis--and all this

blabla, so back to msnbc (cnn for a second) then wait! maybe dennis is coming on next--back to the span with more blabla

then they adjourn

and i'm left, sitting on the living room floor, with a stack of paperwork, feeling rather let down, thinking: "shit!"

[GoldieAZ49]

16. The Jesse Jackson comment was the deciding factor

according to this article

http://news.bostonherald.com/news/national/politics/2008/view.bg?articleid=1069441

Ted boiling over Bubba

Reports: Kennedy clan rift over racial attacks on Obama

By Jessica Van Sack
Monday, January 28, 2008 - Updated 12h ago

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy’s endorsement of presidential hopeful Illinois Sen. Barack Obama reportedly came after mounting anger toward the Clintons over the racial overtones of campaign attacks against Obama.

Quoting anonymous sources, both the Washington Post and New York Times reported that Kennedy was frustrated with attacks on Obama by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, which he thought to be misleading. Sources confirmed Kennedy expressed his angst to Bill Clinton directly.

According to the Post, the senior senator’s frustration boiled over Saturday when the former president sought to downplay Obama’s South Carolina win by comparing him to the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who won the Palmetto State in his long-shot 1984 and 1988 campaigns.


In bracing for his wife’s South Carolina defeat at a rally in Columbia, S.C., Bill Clinton told a reporter, “Jesse Jackson won South Carolina in ’84 and ’88. Jackson ran a good campaign. And Obama ran a good campaign here.”

Meanwhile, there is widespread speculation on the campaign trail that Bill Clinton will tone down his hatchet-man role in the campaign after weeks of being on the front lines.

The senior Bay State senator’s nod for Obama today is an especially painful blow as it comes as Hillary Clinton is scheduled to campaign in Springfield, followed by a high-rolling Hub fund-raiser.

Kennedy plans to campaign aggressively for Obama in the critical days leading up to the multistate Super Tuesday primary Feb. 5. The Obama campaign announced late last night that Kennedy will campaign for Obama today at American University in Washington, D.C., along with his niece Caroline Kennedy.

The hotly contested Democratic contest has spawned a political family feud of sorts within the famous Kennedy clan, prompting the children of Sen. Kennedy’s slain brother, Robert Kennedy, to affirm their support for Clinton.

“I respect Caroline and Teddy’s decision but I have made a different choice,” said Kathleen Kennedy Townsend in a statement released yesterday by the Clinton campaign after news of the senator’s endorsement was leaked.

Townsend also noted her brother Robert, an avid environmentalist, and Mary Kerry, a human rights activist, endorsed the New York senator.

Caroline Kennedy declared her support in a weekend New York Times op-ed, and in a state where devoted Irish-Catholics still dutifully keep portraits of JFK on their mantles, the late president’s daughter may be especially effective.

“It’s a special kind of endorsement,” said Paul Watanabe, political science professor at the University of Massachusetts at Boston.

The latest SurveyUSA poll shows Clinton with a tidy lead in the Bay State, running with 59 percent compared to Obama’s 22 percent and former Sen. John Edwards’ 11 percent.

“The Clintons put on a full-court press to get the Kennedy endorsement,” a longtime Kennedy confidante told the Herald.

Former Democratic National Committee Chairman Steve Grossman, an active Clinton operative and longtime friend of the Kennedys, sought to downplay the senator’s endorsement.

“The people of this state are going to make up their minds based on record of achievement and ability of candidates,” he said.