WASHINGTON — Summoning memories of his brother the slain president, Sen. Edward 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 Rep. Patrick Kennedy of Rhode Island; and then Caroline Kennedy, a former president’s daughter; 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 about 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.
Edward 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 Latinos, rank-and- file union workers and lower-income, older voters.
Kennedy is expected to campaign for Obama beginning this week in Arizona, New Mexico and California.
Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of John Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1963, also will make campaign appearances, officials 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.
So strong is the Kennedy family’s hold on some Democrats that as word spread Sunday about the Kennedys’ plans, Clinton announced that she had the backing of Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, a daughter of the late Robert F. Kennedy who lost the gubernatorial election in Maryland five years ago.
In his remarks, Edward 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.
