U.S. presidential hopeful Barack Obama gained a key endorsement from America's most famous political dynasty on Monday as longtime Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy announced his support for his Illinois colleague.
U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy, right, endorses Barack Obama's bid for the Democratic presidential nomination Monday in Washington, D.C.
(Charles Rex Arbogast/Associated Press)
In an address to Obama supporters at American University in Washington, the veteran senator praised his colleague as a "man with extraordinary gifts of leadership and character," and a worthy heir to his assassinated brother, President John F. Kennedy.
"I feel change in the air," said the Massachusetts senator, whose comments sparked an uproar in the hall.
During his speech, Kennedy offered praise for his "friends" who are Obama's Democratic rivals, New York Senator Hillary Rodham and former South Carolina senator John Edwards.
But he also appeared to dismiss Clinton's message that her years of experience in Washington would make her the best candidate to be president "on Day One."
"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 the best in our world," Kennedy said. "I've found my candidate, and I think you have, too."
Obama and Clinton are the Democratic front-runners.
Kennedy was joined at Monday's event by his son, Representative Patrick Kennedy, and introduced by Caroline Kennedy, daughter of the late president, who said Obama "offers that same sense of hope and inspiration" as did her father.
Kennedy's endorsement was highly sought after by all the Democratic candidates, and will boost Obama's support among the party's liberal ranks, said Christopher Hull, who teaches politics at Washington's Georgetown University.
"The Kennedy endorsement is really the Good Housekeeping seal of approval from the liberals in the United States," Hull told CBC News on Monday. "This is someone that the Democrats look to as a leader, as someone who stands up on the left when no one else will."
Anger over attacks
Besides his status as a liberal icon and brother to John F. Kennedy and Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, the veteran senator boasts a broad national fundraising and political network.
"There are people who mount up horses when Kennedy speaks," the CBC's Henry Champ reported from Washington.
Kennedy's entry into the Democratic fray came despite a reported personal appeal by former president Bill Clinton on behalf of his wife, according to U.S. website Politico.
According to insiders, Kennedy grew increasingly infuriated by the former president's verbal attacks on Obama.
"We're told the straw really came after South Carolina," Champ said, after Bill Clinton appeared to downplay Obama's massive primary victory in the southern state on Saturday by pointing out Jesse Jackson won the state in 1984 and 1988, but never came close to the Democratic nomination.
Clinton, who had courted Kennedy for some time, pleaded with him to at least stay neutral in the contest, according to reports.
"Kennedy got angry, and now we have an endorsement for Barack Obama," Champ said.
Author Morrison backs Obama
Also on Monday, Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison — who declared Bill Clinton to be the nation's "first black president" — announced she was backing Obama.
In a letter, Morrison said her endorsement has little to do with Obama's race — he is the son of a black father from Kenya and a white mother from Kansas — but rather his personal gifts.
Toni Morrison, seen in November, has also endorsed Barack Obama.
(Seth Wenig/ Associated Press)
"In addition to keen intelligence, integrity and a rare authenticity, you exhibit something that has nothing to do with age, experience, race or gender and something I don't see in other candidates," Morrison wrote. "That something is a creative imagination which coupled with brilliance equals wisdom."
The anticipated endorsements come on the heels of an overwhelming victory for Obama in the South Carolina primary that propelled him well ahead of Clinton in the party's first test in the southern U.S.
Clinton and Obama now have two wins apiece as they head into Super Tuesday, when 22 contests are held countrywide on Feb. 5.
The winner needs 2,025 delegates to secure the nomination. But analysts say there may be no front-runner even after the Feb. 5 contests, meaning big states like Texas, Ohio and Pennsylvania could be important.
With files from the Associated Press
