WP: The Kennedy Factor
Obama Campaign Is Finding That Camelot Still Has a Magical Touch
By Shailagh Murray
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, February 5, 2008; Page A07
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy and Caroline Kennedy applaud Sen. Barack Obama at a rally for the candidate in New Jersey. (Preston Keres/WP)
HARTFORD, Conn., Feb. 4 -- The arc of Sen. Barack Obama's rise has passed through three distinct phases: Iowa. South Carolina. Kennedy. "The Kennedy endorsement was a 12 on a scale of one to 10," said former senator Thomas A. Daschle (S.D.), an Obama supporter who courted Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (Mass.) for months. "It will be written as one of the biggest turning points in the campaign."
Whether Daschle's prediction proves true, the embrace of Obama by the Kennedy family, headlined by Sen. Kennedy's official announcement last Monday, helped fuel the presidential campaign of the senator from Illinois in the days leading up to Super Tuesday. It gave him the benefit of an extensive political network and the star power of the three most prominent Kennedy women -- Caroline Kennedy, Ethel Kennedy and Maria Shriver -- and allowed him to not so implicitly associate himself with gauzy memories of the New Frontier.
"Obamalot" went on the road Monday, with the candidate joining the Senate's most prominent liberal and the daughter of John F. Kennedy for a final Northeast lap before 22 states hold Democratic contests on Tuesday. The two sat on stools on a stage in the heart of Kennedy Country, beaming proudly as Obama heaped praise on his new benefactors....Kennedy himself has focused most of his efforts over the past week on courting Hispanics, who polls show tend to favor Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. In private meetings with Hispanic leaders, on radio programs and with editorial board members, Kennedy has emphasized Obama's pro-immigration track record. On Friday, Obama was endorsed by La Opinion, the largest Spanish-language newspaper in California, and one of the names on Kennedy's call list.
His first foray into campaigning last week was in New Mexico, a Super Tuesday state that has the largest percentage of Hispanics in the country. Gov. Bill Richardson, a Democrat who dropped out of the race, counts Kennedy as a mentor and credits a campaign visit in 1982 as one of the reasons he won a House seat that year. "Look, the Hispanic community, especially the baby boomers, have a great deal of respect, of affection, for the Kennedys," he said....
Kennedy plays down the impact of his support of Obama. "It's for others to measure," he said in an interview as he waited to meet Obama on Monday morning at the Newark airport. Kennedy said his goal is "to give the opportunity for sort of a second look at Barack Obama." Democrats, he said, "don't have a lot of time to get focused on candidates, to study their records, to find out more about them. They want to do this, but they haven't had the time. We perhaps were able to give them some insight."...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/04/AR2008020403217_2.html?sid=ST2008020401936 
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
