Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options
Matt Malone, S.J.January 27, 2008
Senator Barack Obama went fishing for endorsements and landed the equivalent of a thirty-five pound Cape Cod striper. Senator Ted Kennedy has decided to endorse Obama, the big winner in Saturday’s Democratic primary in South Carolina. This is big: Kennedy’s titanic political figure casts a huge shadow over Democratic Party politics and the endorsement will translate into increased interest in Obama among Latino groups, labor unions and liberal stalwarts, some of Kennedy’s biggest supporters. The $64,000 question, of course, is whether it will actually translate into enough votes. The conventional wisdom says no, but this election seems determined to defy the conventional wisdom. Kennedy usually sits out the primaries, so why is he doing this now? His associates told the New York Times that "Mr. Kennedy was upset over what he saw as attempts by the Clinton campaign to highlight Mr. Obama’s race and by what he viewed as distortions of Mr. Obama’s statements and record." I also suspect that Kennedy thinks that helping to elect the nation’s first African-American president might be a fitting capstone to a career dedicated to the cause of civil rights. What is also interesting is that the normally unified Kennedy clan is splitting its endorsements, mirroring the division within the Democratic Party itself. Three of Robert Kennedy’s children, Robert, Jr., Kerry and Kathleen are aligned with the Clintons. But the Kennedy family is famously hierarchical and Ted and Caroline (the late president’s daughter who endorsed Obama this weekend) reign atop the totem, so the prize of the Kennedy imprimatur goes to Obama.
Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.

The latest from america

Brazilian Cardinal Leonardo Steiner told America that Pope Leo would carry forward Pope Francis' legacy of synodality in the church.
Gerard O’ConnellMay 29, 2025
Like my discernment to enter religious life, it was a gut reaction I acted on and did not look back.
Rose RucobaMay 29, 2025
Pope Francis shares a laugh with Margaret Karram, president of the Focolare movement, at the end of a meeting with participants in an interreligious conference sponsored by the movement at the Vatican June 3, 2024. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)
Margaret Karram, president of the Rome-based Focolare movement, visited the United States to discuss current issues in peacemaking.
Connor HartiganMay 29, 2025
Nazario Gerardi plays Francis in “The Little Flowers of St. Francis” (The Criterion Collection)
We should seek to live simply, to take only what we need and share what we have, to see ourselves in kinship with all of creation.
John DoughertyMay 29, 2025