Kennedy Endorses Obama _ 'Change in Air'
By DAVID ESPO,  AP

WASHINGTON — Summoning memories of his brother the slain  president, Sen. 
Edward M. Kennedy led two generations of the First Family of  Democratic politics 
Monday in endorsing Barack Obama for the White House,  declaring, "I feel 
change is in the air."

Obama is a man of rare "grit and grace," Kennedy said in remarks salted  with 
scarcely veiled criticism of the Illinois senator's chief rival for the  
presidential nomination, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, as well as her husband,  the 
former president.

Obama beamed as first Rhode Island Rep. Patrick Kennedy, then Caroline  
Kennedy and finally the country's best known liberal took turns bestowing their  
praise. "Today isn't just about politics for me. It's personal," Obama told a  
boisterous crowd packed into the American University basketball arena a few  
miles across town from the White House.

It was also about politics, though, and a rapidly approaching set of  
primaries and caucuses across more than 20 states on Feb. 5, with more than  1,600 
national convention delegates at stake.
Kennedy's endorsement was  ardently sought by all three of the remaining 
Democratic presidential  contenders, and he delivered it at a pivotal time in the 
race. A liberal lion in  his fifth decade in the Senate, the Massachusetts 
senator is in a position to  help Obama court voting groups who so far have 
tilted Clinton's way. These  include Hispanics, rank-and-file union workers and 
lower-income, older  voters.
Kennedy is expected to campaign actively for Obama beginning later  this 
week, beginning in Arizona, New Mexico and California. Caroline Kennedy,  the 
daughter of John Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1963, will also make  campaign 
appearances, officials said.

David Axelrod, a senior Obama adviser, said strategists also hope Kennedy  
can help blunt Clinton's charges that Obama's health plan would not provide  
coverage for all. "I don't think anybody believes that Ted Kennedy would endorse  
a candidate who wasn't thoroughly committed to the goal of universal health  
care," he said.
Clinton betrayed no disappointment at her rival's  gain.

"We're all proud of the people we have endorsing us," she said in a  
conference call with Arizona reporters. Addressing Kennedy's criticism of  politicians 
who pit groups against one another, she said she was "strongly in  favor of 
getting to where our politics can be about the real issues, trying to  find 
common ground."
So strong is the Kennedy family's hold on some Democrats  that as word spread 
on Sunday about the elder Kennedy's plans, Clinton announced  that she had 
the backing of Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, a daughter of Robert F.  Kennedy, 
Townsend lost the gubernatorial election in Maryland five years  ago.

In his remarks, Kennedy methodically sought to rebut many of the arguments  
leveled by Obama's critics.
"I know he's ready to be president on day one,"  Kennedy said, taking on one 
of Bill Clinton's frequent talking points.

"From the beginning, he opposed the war in Iraq. And let no one deny that  
truth," he said, an apparent reference to the former president's statement that  
Obama's early anti-war stance was a "fairy tale."
"With Barack Obama, we will  turn the page on the old politics of 
misrepresentation and distortion.
"With  Barack Obama we will close the book on the old politics of race 
against race,  gender against gender, ethnic group against ethnic group, and 
straight against  gay," Kennedy said.

The Massachusetts senator had remained on the sideline of the presidential  
campaign for months, saying he was friends with Obama, Clinton and former North 
 Carolina Sen. John Edwards, as well as several Senate colleagues who are no  
longer in the race.

Lately, according to several associates, Kennedy became angered with what  he 
viewed as racially divisive comments by Bill Clinton. Nearly two weeks ago,  
he played a personal role in arranging a brief truce between the Clintons and  
Obama on the issue.

Obama, 46, is nearly 30 years younger than Kennedy. "I was too young to  
remember John Kennedy, and I was just a child when Robert Kennedy ran for  
president," he said. "But in the stories I heard growing up, I saw how my  
grandparents and mother spoke about them, and about that period in our nation's  life — 
as a time of great hope and achievement."

Kennedy usually refers only sparingly to his assassinated brothers, John  and 
Robert, in his public remarks, and his endorsement of Obama was cast in  
terms that aides said were unusually personal.

"There was another time, when another young candidate was running for  
president and challenging America to cross a new frontier. He faced criticism  from 
the preceding Democratic president, who was widely respected in the party,"  
Kennedy said, referring to Harry S. Truman.

"And John Kennedy replied, 'The world is changing. The old ways will not  do. 
... It is time for a new generation of leadership.'
"So it is with Barack  Obama," he added.

Kennedy began by paying tribute to Sen. Clinton's advocacy for issues such  
as health care and women's rights. "Whoever is our nominee will have my  
enthusiastic support," he said.

But he quickly pivoted to a strong endorsement of Obama, who he said "has  
extraordinary gifts of leadership and character, matched to the extraordinary  
demands of this moment in history."
"I believe that a wave of change is  moving across America," Kennedy said.

Rep. Patrick Kennedy, the senator's son, completed the family tableau  
onstage with Obama. The congressman said, "In times such as these, we need, as  we 
had with my uncle, a leader who can inspire confidence and faith in our  
government. A sense that our government can be good again."





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