RFK’s Kids Stand With Clinton

Three Kennedy siblings — from left, Kerry Kennedy, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — stand with their mother, Ethel Kennedy, at New York’s State of the State address on Jan. 9. Gov. Eliot Spitzer proposed naming New York City’s Triborough Bridge after Robert F. Kennedy. (AP Photo)

Kennedys for Clinton

She stands for Democrats and for the nation, these family members say.

 EDITORIAL

By Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Kerry Kennedy

January 29, 2008

This is a wonderful year for Democrats. Our party is blessed with the most impressive array of primary candidates in modern history. All would make superb presidents.

By now you may have read or heard that our cousin, Caroline Kennedy, and our uncle, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, have come out in favor of Sen. Barack Obama. We, however, are supporting Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton because we believe that she is the strongest candidate for our party and our country.

While talk of unity and compromise are inspiring to a nation wary of divisiveness, America stands at a historic crossroads where real issues divide our political landscapes. Democrats believe that America should not be torturing people, eavesdropping on our citizens or imprisoning them without habeas corpus or other constitutional rights. We should not be an imperial power. We need healthcare for all and a clean, safe environment.

The loftiest poetry will not solve these issues. We need a president willing to engage in a fistfight to safeguard and restore our national virtues.

We have worked with Hillary Clinton for 15 years (and in Kathleen’s case, 25 years) and witnessed the power and depth of her convictions firsthand. We’ve seen her formidable work ethic, courage in the face of adversity and her dignity and clear head in crisis. We’ve also seen her two-fisted willingness to enter the brawl when America’s principles are challenged. Her measured rhetoric, political savvy and pragmatism shield the heart of our nation’s most determined and most democratic warrior.

She has been an uncompromising and loyal ally for each of us in our battles to protect the environment and to promote human rights around the world and juvenile justice in America. Hillary is a problem-solver, listening to people and then achieving solutions by changing attitudes.

Her transformational leadership was on display when she ran for the Senate seat in New York that had been held by our father, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. She faced rabid, heavily funded attacks from the far right and the challenge of prevailing in traditionally Republican upstate New York. Traveling with her, we watched admiringly as she persuasively articulated an inspiring and unifying vision rooted in American values and history. Then, through patience, hard work, leadership and political acumen, she transformed many of those rock-solid conservative counties into solid Democratic strongholds.

We look forward to working beside her in the general election as she uses those same talents to change once rigid opinions and political affiliations across the nation.

Like our father, Hillary has devoted her life to embracing and including those on the bottom rung of society’s ladder — giving voice to the alienated and disenfranchised and working to alleviate poverty and injustice, while urging that we cannot advance ourselves as a nation by leaving our poorer brothers and sisters behind.

She’s been an equally effective champion for human rights and for women’s rights, a worldwide cause that will profit enormously by her elevation to the presidency. She has worked for peace in Northern Ireland and fought to bridge religious, racial and ethnic divides from Bosnia to the Middle East to South Africa. She has shown a rare understanding that American values can only be exported by moral leadership, by a strong home economy and by a detailed understanding of the history and cultural backdrops of the nations we engage.

She understands, as our current administration does not, the uses of power. The world, she says, is hungry for U.S. leadership but will not accept our bullying. She knows the difference and will reestablish America’s lost prestige and moral authority.

Hillary Clinton’s political career has been centered in comforting the afflicted, afflicting the comfortable and reminding Americans what it means to be American. As a young lawyer, she focused on children’s issues and legal aid. As first lady of Arkansas, she brought healthcare to rural areas and helped reform the state’s lagging education system.

As first lady, she courageously took on healthcare reform. When a massive propaganda campaign by Big Pharma and the radical right derailed her efforts, she didn’t give up. She helped create the nationally acclaimed Children’s Health Insurance Program. That kind of persistence in pursuit of our highest ideals is the brand of leadership America now requires. Inspirational leadership comes in many forms.

Seldom has history confronted America with such daunting challenges: a catastrophic foreign policy that has cost us our international leadership and aggravated the threat of terror; a misbegotten war that is squandering precious American lives and treasure; a healthcare system that leaves millions of Americans without coverage; irresponsible corporate power that is corroding our democracy and outsourcing our jobs, aggravating global warming and other environmental crises and reducing our economy to shambles.

We need a leader who is battle-tested, resilient and sure-footed on the shifting landscapes of domestic and foreign policy. Hillary Clinton will move our country forward while promoting its noblest ideals.

Kathleen Kennedy Townsend is the former lieutenant governor of Maryland, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is an environmental advocate and Kerry Kennedy is a human rights activist.

Copyright 2008, The Los Angeles Times. 

Ted Kennedy’s Obama Endorsement – TRANSCRIPT

FROM TEDDY WITH LOVE

On January 28, 2008, Caroline Kennedy, Patrick Kennedy, and Senator Edward M. Kennedy gathered onstage at American University in Washington, D.C. to endorse presidential candidate Barack Obama.

Here is the full text of Ted Kennedy’s rousing speech in support of Senator Obama:

Thank you, Caroline. Thank you for that wonderful introduction and for your courage and bold vision, for your insight and understanding, and for the power and reach of your words. Like you, we too “want a president who appeals to the hopes of those who still believe in the American Dream, and those around the world who still believe in the American ideal; and who can lift our spirits, and make us believe again.” Thank you, Caroline. Your mother and father would be so proud today.

Thank you, Patrick, for your leadership in Congress and for being here to celebrate and support a leader who truly has the power to inspire and make America good again, “from sea to shining sea.” Thank you, American University.

I feel change in the air.

Every time I’ve been asked over the past year who I would support in the Democratic Primary, my answer has always been the same: I’ll support the candidate who inspires me, who inspires all of us, who can lift our vision and summon our hopes and renew our belief that our country’s best days are still to come.

I’ve found that candidate. And it looks to me like you have too.

But first, let me say how much I respect the strength, the work and dedication of two other Democrats still in the race, Hillary Clinton and John Edwards. They are my friends; they have been my colleagues in the Senate. John Edwards has been a powerful advocate for economic and social justice. And Hillary Clinton has been in the forefront on issues ranging from health care to the rights of women around the world. Whoever is our nominee will have my enthusiastic support.

Let there be no doubt: We are all committed to seeing a Democratic President in 2008. But I believe there is one candidate who has extraordinary gifts of leadership and character, matched to the extraordinary demands of this moment in history. He understands what Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called the “fierce urgency of now.”

He will be a president who refuses to be trapped in the patterns of the past. He is a leader who sees the world clearly without being cynical. He is a fighter who cares passionately about the causes he believes in, without demonizing those who hold a different view. He is tough-minded, but he also has an uncommon capacity to appeal to “the better angels of our nature.”

I am proud to stand here today and offer my help, my voice, my energy and my commitment to make Barack Obama the next President of the United States.

Like most of the nation, I was moved four years ago as he told us a profound truth—that we are not, we must not be, just red states and blue states, but one United States. And since that time I have marveled at his grit and his grace as he traveled this country and inspired record turnouts of people of all ages, of all races, of all genders, of all parties and faiths to get “fired up” and “ready to go.”

I’ve seen him connect with people from every walk of life and with Senators on both sides of the aisle. With every person he meets, every crowd he inspires, and everyone he touches, he generates new hope that our greatest days as a nation are still ahead, and this generation of Americans, like others before us, can unite to meet our own rendezvous with destiny.

We know the true record of Barack Obama. There is the courage he showed when so many others were silent or simply went along. From the beginning, he opposed the war in Iraq.And let no one deny that truth.

There is the great intelligence of someone who could have had a glittering career in corporate law, but chose instead to serve his community and then enter public life.

There is the tireless skill of a Senator who was there in the early mornings to help us hammer out a needed compromise on immigration reform— who always saw a way to protect both national security and the dignity of people who do not have a vote. For them, he was a voice for justice.

And there is the clear effectiveness of Barack Obama in fashioning legislation to put high quality teachers in our classrooms—and in pushing and prodding the Senate to pass the most far-reaching ethics reform in its history.

Now, with Barack Obama, there is a new national leader who has given America a different kind of campaign—a campaign not just about himself, but about all of us. A campaign about the country we will become, if we can rise above the old politics that parses us into separate groups and puts us at odds with one another.

I remember another such time, in the 1960s, when I came to the Senate at the age of 30. We had a new president who inspired the nation, especially the young, to seek a new frontier. Those inspired young people marched, sat in at lunch counters, protested the war in Vietnam and served honorably in that war even when they opposed it. They realized that when they asked what they could do for their country, they could change the world.

It was the young who led the first Earth Day and issued a clarion call to protect the environment; the young who enlisted in the cause of civil rights and equality for women; the young who joined the Peace Corps and showed the world the hopeful face of America.

At the fifth anniversary celebration of the Peace Corps, I asked one of those young Americans why they had volunteered. And I will never forget the answer: “It was the first time someone asked me to do something for my country.”

This is another such time.

I sense the same kind of yearning today, the same kind of hunger to move on and move America forward. I see it not just in young people, but in all our people. And in Barack Obama, I see not just the audacity, but the possibility of hope for the America that is yet to be.

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 our people.

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. With Barack Obama, we will close the door on the old economics that has written off the poor and left the middle class poorer and less secure. He offers a strategy for prosperity—so that America will once again lead the world in better standards of life.

With Barack Obama, we will break the old gridlock and finally make health care what it should be in America—a fundamental right for all, not just an expensive privilege for the few. We will make the United States the great leader and not the great roadblock in the fateful fight against global warming.

And with Barack Obama, we will end a war in Iraq that he has always stood against, that has cost us the lives of thousands of our sons and daughters, and that America never should have fought.

I have seen him in the Senate. He will keep us strong and defend the nation against real threats of terrorism and proliferation. So let us reject the counsels of doubt and calculation.Let us remember that when Franklin Roosevelt envisioned Social Security, he didn’t decide—no, it was too ambitious, too big a dream, too hard. When John Kennedy thought of going to the moon, he didn’t say no, it was too far, maybe we couldn’t get there and shouldn’t even try.

I am convinced we can reach our goals only if we are “not petty when our cause is so great”— only if we find a way past the stale ideas and stalemate of our times – only if we replace the politics of fear with the politics of hope – and only if we have the courage to choose change.

Barack Obama is the one person running for President who can bring us that change. Barack Obama is the one person running for President who can be that change.

I love this country. I believe in the bright light of hope and possibility. I always have, even in the darkest hours. I know what America can achieve. I’ve seen it. I’ve lived it—and with Barack Obama, we can do it again.

I know that he’s ready to be President on day one. And when he raises his hand on Inauguration Day, at that very moment, we will lift the spirits of our nation and begin to restore America’s standing in the world.

There was another time, when another young candidate was running for President and challenging America to cross a New Frontier. He faced public criticism from the preceding Democratic President, who was widely respected in the party. Harry Truman said we needed “someone with greater experience”—and added: “May I urge you to be patient.” 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 has lit a spark of hope amid the fierce urgency of now. I believe that a wave of change is moving across America. If we do not turn aside, if we dare to set our course for the shores of hope, we together will go beyond the divisions of the past and find our place to build the America of the future.

My friends, I ask you to join in this historic journey — to have the courage to choose change. It is time again for a new generation of leadership. It is time now for Barack Obama.

Ted Kennedy Endorses Obama

KENNEDY CHOOSES OBAMA, SPURNING PLEA BY CLINTONS

Look, up in the sky…it’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s…Ted! Where’s he gonna land?

Your camp or mine?

◊

Senator Edward M. Kennedy, rejecting entreaties from the Clintons and their supporters, is set to endorse Senator Barack Obama’s presidential bid today as part of an effort to lend Kennedy charisma and connections before the 22-state Feb. 5 showdown for the Democratic nomination.

Both the Clintons and their allies had pressed Mr. Kennedy for weeks to remain neutral in the Democratic race, but Mr. Kennedy had become increasingly disenchanted with the tone of the Clinton campaign, aides said.

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He and former President Bill Clinton had a heated telephone exchange earlier this month over what Mr. Kennedy considered misleading statements by Mr. Clinton about Mr. Obama, as well as his injection of race into the campaign.

Mr. Kennedy called Mr. Clinton Sunday to tell him of his decision.

The endorsement, which followed a public appeal on Mr. Obama’s behalf by Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of President John F. Kennedy, was a blow to the Clinton campaign and pits leading members of the nation’s most prominent Democratic families against one another.

Mr. Kennedy, a major figure in party politics for more than 40 years, intends to campaign aggressively for Mr. Obama, beginning with an appearance and rally with him in Washington on Monday. He will be introduced by Ms. Kennedy.

Mr. Kennedy then heads west with Mr. Obama, followed by appearances in the Northeast. Strategists see him bolstering Mr. Obama’s credibility and helping him firm up support from unions and Hispanics, as well as the party base.

The endorsement appears to support assertions that Mr. Clinton’s campaigning on behalf of his wife in South Carolina has in some ways hurt her candidacy.

Campaign officials, without acknowledging any faults on Mr. Clinton’s part, have said they will change tactics and try to shift Mr. Clinton back into the role he played before her loss in the Iowa caucuses, emphasizing her record and experience.

Mr. Kennedy, of Massachusetts, has worked closely with Mrs. Clinton, of New York, on health care and other legislation and has had a friendly relationship with both Clintons, but associates said he was intrigued by Mr. Obama’s seeming ability to inspire political interest in a new generation. For his part, Mr. Obama actively courted Mr. Kennedy for several years, seeking him out for Senate advice and guidance before making the decision to enter the presidential race.

Mr. Kennedy had been seriously considering an endorsement for weeks — a break with his traditional practice of staying clear of primaries.

He remained uncertain of his decision as late as the middle of last week. But, according to allies, when he learned that his niece’s endorsement would appear as an Op-Ed piece in The New York Times on Sunday, he decided to bolster that with his own public embrace of the campaign at a joint rally at American University in Washington on Monday, giving Mr. Obama, of Illinois a potentially powerful one-two Kennedy punch.

As Mr. Obama flew here on Sunday, he smiled when asked about his new wave of support from the Kennedy family.

“For somebody who, I think, has been such an important part of our national imagination and who generally shies away from involvement in day-to-day politics to step out like that is something that I’m very grateful for,” Mr. Obama said of Caroline Kennedy’s support. Ms. Kennedy declined requests on Sunday to discuss her endorsement.

Trying to dilute the impact of the twin endorsements by the brother and daughter of the late president, the Clinton campaign on Sunday issued a statement of support from Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, a former lieutenant governor in Maryland and a daughter of Robert F. Kennedy.

“I respect Caroline and Teddy’s decision, but I have made a different choice,” Ms. Townsend said in her statement, adding: “At this moment when so much is at stake at home and overseas, I urge our fellow Americans to support Hillary Clinton. That is why my brother Bobby, my sister Kerry, and I are supporting Hillary Clinton.”

But two years ago, Ms. Townsend’s mother, Ethel Kennedy, referred to Mr. Obama in an interview as “our next president” and likened him to her late husband.

The Kennedy endorsement grants Mr. Obama, who has been framed by the Clintons as being short on experience, the approval of one of the Senate’s senior members.

Before the Iowa caucuses, Mr. Kennedy had planned to stay out of the race, largely because he had so many friends in the contest, chiefly Senator Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut. He also said he was waiting for one of the candidates to spark a movement.

“I want to see who out there is going to be able to inspire not only our party, but others, because I think we’re going to need the inspiration in order to bring a change in American foreign policy and domestic policy,” Mr. Kennedy said last year on ABC News’s “This Week.”

After Mr. Obama won the Iowa caucuses, associates to both men said, Mr. Kennedy concluded that Mr. Obama had transcended racial lines and the historical divisions the Kennedy family had worked to tear down. Mr. Kennedy was also impressed at how Mr. Obama was not defined as a black candidate, but seen as a transformational figure.

It was then, associates said, that Mr. Kennedy began talking with his children, nieces and nephews, including Caroline Kennedy, who had reached her own judgment some time ago independently of her uncle. They then agreed last week to move ahead with their endorsements, coordinating their decision before the Feb. 5 contests.

Mr. Kennedy has a long history of working with the former president and Mrs. Clinton on health, education and other social issues and, according to his associates, has a good relationship with both. While the Clintons were in the White House, the families socialized and sailed off Cape Cod.

Mr. Obama courted Mr. Kennedy as well, using late-night sessions in the Senate to get some tutoring about the intricacies of the institution. Conversations about the White House began more than a year ago, with Mr. Obama paying Mr. Kennedy a visit to seek his thoughts about whether he should run for president. Mr. Kennedy told him that he should because such opportunities rarely come along.

On the night of Mr. Obama’s national political debut at the Democratic National Convention in 2004, he was preceded on stage by Mr. Kennedy, a symbolic bookend of the party’s dean and its new generation.

A year later, near the end of Mr. Obama’s first year in the Senate, Ethel Kennedy asked him to speak at a ceremony for her husband’s 80th birthday. At the time, she referred to Mr. Obama as “our next president.”

“I think he feels it. He feels it just like Bobby did,” Mrs. Kennedy said in an interview that day, comparing her late husband’s quest for social justice to Mr. Obama’s. “He has the passion in his heart. He’s not selling you. It’s just him.”

By JEFF ZELENY and CARL HULSE

Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

The Kennedys: A House Divided in `08 Race

It’s Kennedy Envy on the Campaign Trail

The Hillary Clinton camp didn’t waste any time trying to blunt the effect of Barack Obama’s big Kennedy endorsements. Caroline Kennedy endorsed Obama in a New York Times piece Sunday. And Teddy Kennedy will be endorsing Obama on Monday.

The Clinton campaign hurried out a statement at midafternoon Sunday reminding everybody they’ve got some Kennedys too.

Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Bobby Kennedy’s daughter, has endorsed Hillary: “I respect Caroline and Teddy’s decision but I have made a different choice . . . She shares so many of the concerns of my father.” And Ms. Townsend noted that her siblings — brother Bobby and sister Kerry — are also supporting Hillary Clinton.

So for those keeping score at home, it’s JFK’s daughter and brother for Barack. Bobby Kennedy’s kids for Hillary. Got that?

4:20 PM Sun, Jan 27, 2008 | Permalink
Wayne Slater  

The Dallas Morning News

Caroline Kennedy Endorses Obama

SOUTH CAROLINA BRINGS CAROLINE INTO THE FRAY

For 28 years, Caroline Kennedy-Schlossberg steadfastly refused to endorse any presidential candidate, always wisely staying out of the political pillowfight.

All that changed as of about an hour ago when the last surviving member of the John F. Kennedy family broke her nearly three decade-long long silence and formally endorsed Barack Obama. 

The news came just moments before Obama took the stage to thank supporters who handed him a whopping 2-to-1 victory over Senator Hillary Clinton in tonight’s South Carolina Democratic primary.

Maybe she didn’t have time to “change”? Although Michelle Obama is always immaculately attired, her choice of the Jackie Kennedy-esque pink suit seems somewhat ill-advised in light of Caroline Kennedy’s nearly-simultaneous endorsement. (AP photo)

“A PRESIDENT LIKE MY FATHER”

In her New York Times Op-Ed column (which hits newsstands tomorrow), Caroline explained the endorsement this way: 

“My reasons are patriotic, political and personal, and the three are intertwined. All my life, people have told me that my father changed their lives, that they got involved in public service or politics because he asked them to. And the generation he inspired has passed that spirit on to its children. I meet young people who were born long after John F. Kennedy was president, yet who ask me how to live out his ideals.

Sometimes it takes a while to recognize that someone has a special ability to get us to believe in ourselves, to tie that belief to our highest ideals and imagine that together we can do great things. In those rare moments, when such a person comes along, we need to put aside our plans and reach for what we know is possible.

We have that kind of opportunity with Senator Obama. It isn’t that the other candidates are not experienced or knowledgeable. But this year, that may not be enough. We need a change in the leadership of this country — just as we did in 1960.

…He has built a movement that is changing the face of politics in this country, and he has demonstrated a special gift for inspiring young people — known for a willingness to volunteer, but an aversion to politics — to become engaged in the political process.

I want a president who understands that his responsibility is to articulate a vision and encourage others to achieve it; who holds himself, and those around him, to the highest ethical standards; who appeals to the hopes of those who still believe in the American Dream, and those around the world who still believe in the American ideal; and who can lift our spirits, and make us believe again that our country needs every one of us to get involved.

I have never had a president who inspired me the way people tell me that my father inspired them. But for the first time, I believe I have found the man who could be that president — not just for me, but for a new generation of Americans. “

A HOUSE DIVIDED? 

All eyes now turn to the senior senator from Massachusetts, one of the most conspicuous of Democratic fence sitters, who is known to have become mighty annoyed with Clinton campaign tactics in recent weeks. (See related story: “Teddy Tells Bill to Chill”)

Meanwhile, many of the Robert Kennedys – RFK Jr., Rory Kennedy, Kerry Kennedy and Kathleen Kennedy-Townsend – have been out on the campaign trail stumping for Hillary Clinton. (Although their mother, RFK’s widow Ethel, is reportedly an Obama supporter.)

Caroline’s endorsement of Senator Obama certainly creates an interesting dynamic both within the Democratic party and indeed the Kennedy family itself. Does this point to the possibility that the House of Kennedy is a house divided in the 2008 election?

Perhaps it will actually turn out to be a good thing in the end. A little healthy competition has always been welcomed within the Kennedy ranks, not to mention a spirited, passionate, good ol’ Irish family political debate. (Like the kind we always had at my house!) What some of us wouldn’t give to be a fly on the wall at that pow-wow!

Ah, but we were so much older then…we’re younger than that now: the late president’s family – John F. Kennedy Jr., Caroline Kennedy-Schlossberg and Jacqueline Kennedy-Onassis with then-president Bill Clinton back in the day.

 

 

Copyright RFKin2008.com.

Teddy Tells Bill to Chill

TOP DEMOCRATS TO CLINTON: “CHILL, BILL”

Leading Democrats have called on Bill Clinton to tone down his attacks on Barack Obama, while Obama himself has called the former president’s attacks “troubling and “not factually accurate,” according to news reports.

In an ABC interview on “Good Morning America,” Obama said he’s ready to confront Clinton, saying his stumping for Hillary’s presidential campaign has been “troubling,” ABCNews.com reported yesterday.

Obama told ABC News’ Robin Roberts today, “You know the former president, who I think all of us have a lot of regard for, has taken his advocacy on behalf of his wife to a level that I think is pretty troubling. He continues to make statements that are not supported by the facts – whether it’s about my record of opposition to the war in Iraq or our approach to organizing in Las Vegas. This has become a habit, and one of the things that we’re gonna have to do is to directly confront Bill Clinton when he’s making statements that are not factually accurate.”

Clinton had referred to Obama’s claim that he opposed the Iraq war from the start as a “fairy tale,” noting Obama has voted to fund the war as a senator. Clinton also has claimed Nevada union officials were pressuring their members to vote for Obama.

Clinton’s “fairy tale” remark drew fire from black political leaders who suggested it was a racially charged dismissal of Obama’s candidacy, a claim Obama himself later disputed. He also refered to an Obama presidency as “a roll of the dice.”

(Clinton and Senator Kennedy during happier days. Image: Boston Globe.)

Meanwhile, Newsweek, citing anonymous sources, reported yesterday on its Web site that Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) have told Clinton “heatedly” in phone conversations that he needs to tone down his attacks on Obama. Newsweek reported that Clinton, Kennedy and Emanuel had all declined to comment.

Newsweek noted that while Bill Clinton is seen as a huge fund-raising draw and brings Democratic starpower to the campaign, he’s been losing his temper with the media and raising concerns that his long-term image as a statesman may be harmed.

“This is excruciating,” the magazine quoted a “member of the Clintons’ circle” as saying. “But the stakes couldn’t be higher. It’s worth it to tarnish himself a bit now to win the presidency.”

 

(Editor’s note: This tension creates an interesting dynamic, as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other members of the Kennedy family have endorsed Hillary Clinton. As of yet, Senator Edward Kennedy is declining to endorse any candidate in the race.

But if I were to wager a guess, I might think that Senator Kennedy is only enchoing the feelings of many Democrats when he expresses disdain for the tone of recent attacks on Obama. Stories like this breaking on MLK day only serve to remind us that the media simply can’t resist any opportunity to stir the pot, even on a national holiday to honor the memory of a fallen civil rights leader.)

Story from The Boston Herald. Copyright 2008 Herald Media.

Stars Support Kennedy’s Environmental Cause

 STARS IN BANFF SHINE A LIGHT ON KENNEDY’S CAUSE

Alexandra Burroughs

Calgary Herald

Sunday, January 20, 2008

BANFF – Hollywood glamour peaked in the mountains of Banff Saturday night when dozens of stars came out for a red carpet gala in support of the environment.

Susan Sarandon, one of the most highly anticipated guests of the night, arrived in a short, stunning cocktail dress with drop back that showed off a new tattoo. It is the Oscar winner’s first trip to Banff to support Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Waterkeeper Alliance.

“We’re really only here for today, so we just sort of took it easy and walked around town,” said Sarandon, as she posed for photos with longtime partner and fellow Oscar winner Tim Robbins, who attended the event last year.

“I know that everyone understands now how important it is to keep our water clean. I’ve been working with Bobby Kennedy for years. I’ve been with him and lobbied with him and I know this organization is one I can trust.”

Margaret Trudeau came to the event with an arm in a sling after separating her right shoulder in a mishap on Friday.

“I fell skiing,” she said. “I had to take it easy today.”

When asked what she was wearing, she replied: “I’m wearing anything that would fit!”

Inside the party, celebs such as Alec Baldwin, Alicia Silverstone, Kelsey Grammer, Justin Trudeau, Jason Priestley and Luke Perry sipped cocktails and got busy bidding on the silent auction to raise money for Waterkeepers, which protects water sources throughout the world.

“It is a good cause and it’s got a lot of celebrity appeal,” said Anthony Jankowski, an accountant who came with his wife, Jennifer, to celebrate her 30th birthday.

“We’re from Calgary, and in southern and central Alberta we hear a lot about a water shortage, so we thought it would be a good cause to support.”

After the cocktail hour, party-goers, who paid $500 each or $10,000 for a table with a celebrity, dined on salmon tartar and Alberta beef tenderloin. Vegetarian and vegan celebs, such as Baldwin and Silverstone, were treated to a special selection of organic offerings.

After dinner, Baldwin was expected to emcee the festivities, which included an incredible live auction. Among the items up for bidding were: a private concert by Gord Downie of the Tragically Hip featuring the Sadies; a luxurious week-long whitewater rafting trip with Kennedy in Chile; and a week with Mark Messier at his home in the Bahamas.

Although celebrities were willing to share their names for the event, these activists know there’s a lot more to environmentalism than fundraising. Many are closely watching the presidential primaries with the hopes that change will come with the next White House.

“Edwards,” said Sarandon flatly when asked who she supports. “He’s the only one that’s against nuclear power and hasn’t taken lobby money.”

Edwards, who finished a distant third in Saturday’s Nevada caucus, wasn’t at the top of everyone’s list, but the Democrats certainly were. With a host named Kennedy, however, that might not be a surprise to many.

“Anybody on the Democratics’ side is going to be a lot more environmentally conscientious because it seems like they are not as beholden to big business corporations that are actually the polluters,” said Fran Drescher.

Earlier in the weekend, Kennedy announced Waterkeepers recently won a landmark court appeal that will allow Canada to bring criminal prosecutions against American companies that pollute Canadian air and water.

“These are issues that affect everybody, so it doesn’t matter if you’re a Republican or a Democrat if you’re breathing air that’s causing cancer or drinking water that’s polluted,” says actor-director Chad Lowe.

This event has been running in Banff and Lake Louise for eight consecutive years, but Kennedy’s connection to Banff goes back to 1966, when he visited the mountain town with his father Robert F. Kennedy, who was assassinated while running for president two years later.

“I remember them going fishing at Cascade in their Cadillac convertible,” says Dave Moberg, a 40-year employee of the Banff Springs who’s known to friends, including Kennedy, as “Mo.”

“At that age, he and his brother were a little mischievous and playful. They damaged the grandfather clock in the vice-regal suite. (Kennedy) remembers and he chuckles about it. I think he thought he trashed the suite, but he didn’t.”

By press time, that appeared to be the consensus at the gala. Former Doobie Brother Michael McDonald was expected to take the stage following Baldwin’s work as emcee.

Although final numbers won’t be in until Monday, last year’s event raised $1 million for Waterkeepers.

aburroughs@theherald.canwest.com

© The Calgary Herald 2008

“Oswald’s Ghost” Cannot Speak (How convenient!)

THE SPIN NEVER ENDS

Well, it looks like the usual suspects are at it again, making yet another effort under the guise of ”investigative reporting” to convince the American public that there was no conspiracy in the assassination of our 35th president, John F. Kennedy.

Tonight PBS will air a new documentary film, “Oswald’s Ghost.” It’s produced by Robert Stone, not Oliver Stone – an important distinction — indeed, the two filmmakers’ approaches to this subject are worlds apart.

Expect it to be another narrative of Lee Oswald as a troubled loner who somehow miraculously managed to take down the President of the United States at high noon on a busy downtown Dallas street, all by himself. This version of events is likely to appeal to those who prefer the accidental view of history, or who find the very notion of a domestic conspiracy just far too disturbing to even contemplate.

Expect to see more attacks on JFK assassination researchers who have taken the conspiratorial view of history, the late Jim Garrison and of course, Oliver Stone. Expect to see Arlen Specter once again wheezing through his explanation of why that one bullet was so magical. Even Norman Mailer chimes in with a few final words on Oswald.

Oswald’s ghost cannot speak to clarify the record or defend himself. If he could, I somehow get the feeling he would not give this documentary a resounding endorsement.

We present below a preview from (who else?) The Dallas Morning News, where one can always expect to find fair and balanced coverage of anything JFK-related. (cough)

OSWALD’S GHOST

Why one deadly day in Dallas continues to fascinate us

12:00 AM CST on Monday, January 14, 2008

By CHRIS VOGNAR / The Dallas Morning News
cvognar@dallasnews.com

How long does it take to exorcise a ghost? This is no garden-variety specter, mind you. It ripped a hole in the center of the country’s universe some 44 years back, then left vexing questions in its wake. It has haunted us ever since.

It pays another visit tonight at 9, summoned by documentary maker Robert Stone. Mr. Stone’s Oswald’s Ghost kicks off the new season of American Experience then hits DVD shelves Tuesday. The film had its regional premiere in November at the Texas Theatre in Oak Cliff, where one Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested Nov. 22, 1963.

Ruby moves in for the kill. Dallas Police Headquarters, Nov. 24, 1963

“METICULOUS AND RESPONSIBLE” – So Sayeth the Morning News 

Oswald’s Ghost is a meticulous and responsible dissection of the Kennedy assassination, but it’s also much more. Using archival footage (much of it never before seen) and interviews with the likes of Dan Rather, former Dallas Morning News reporter Hugh Aynesworth and the late Norman Mailer, Ghost examines the unfulfilled need for closure born of an improbable and life-shattering Dallas day. It’s not just a film about conspiracy theories, but an examination of that within us that needs to keep the theories alive.

The driving question, as stated early on by presidential historian Robert Dallek, is this: “How could someone as inconsequential as Lee Harvey Oswald kill someone as consequential as John F. Kennedy?” Doesn’t there have to be a bigger, shadowy answer? Multiple gunmen? Anti-communist conspirators? Foreign governments seeking payback for previous CIA plots? Such explanations help make sense of a senseless act. And human beings have never been particularly comfortable with that which doesn’t make sense.

So Mr. Stone takes us through various conspiracy theories, engaging some, dismissing others. Jim Garrison, the former New Orleans district attorney played by Kevin Costner in the controversial JFK, goes in for a thorough and convincing drubbing, with some suggesting that he forever set back the efforts of more reasonable theorists. We see a young Philadelphia lawyer and Warren Commission junior counsel named Arlen Specter explain the “magic bullet” theory,” and we’re confronted with the unsettling but undeniable notion that the late ’60s zeitgeist, soaked in distrust and the blood of two Kennedys and a King, made conspiracy seem like the only logical explanation.

Mr. Stone achieves something greater than nuts and bolts here. He explores the qualities that make us want to fathom the unfathomable. “The real shock was philosophical,” explains Mailer, “as if God had renounced his sanction from America.” It’s a shock from which we haven’t really recovered, though Mr. Stone renders our attempts with quietly poetic flourishes. At one point he shows the covers of various conspiracy books slowly spiraling into the abyss of a black screen, a bottomless pit of irresolvable frustration and grief.

Some of the images are as familiar as your morning commute. You’ve seen the mobs of tourists that flock to Dealey Plaza during all seasons. They stand and get their pictures taken with loved ones. They look for the spot where it happened. It’s a fairly ghoulish enterprise when you think about it, but the place has some kind of magnetic pull. They all crowd around as if they’re looking for something. But what do they expect to find?

And are they all that different from the rest of us?

(EDITOR’S NOTE: Here is one document PBS will not show you tonight — one of many showing that Oswald in fact worked for the CIA, under cover of ONI. He was also an FBI informant, information J. Edgar Hoover was not ignorant of. Facts are stubborn, if not inconvenient, things.)

  

* Assassination researchers have yet to reach consensus on the authenticity of this document.  If it is genuine, however, it only serves to confirm the long-suspected — that Lee Harvey Oswald had been a government agent for at least six years, working for a variety of intelligence agencies. If the document is a fake, you’d have to call its creator a genius.

Here is a link to another blog that discusses the validity of the McCone/Rowley document in great detail.

Democrats Hope To Recreate Camelot in `08

DEMOCRATS SEEKING A NEW CAMELOT

Lynda Hurst
Feature writer

TORONTO STAR

The polls may have got it wrong this week in New Hampshire, but nobody is counting Barack Obama over and out.

There is something about the 46-year-old junior senator from Illinois that speaks to the always-simmering idealism of the Democratic Party. Ever since John F. Kennedy, it’s been in search of another hero, a charismatic leader whose appeal is fresh, optimistic and potentially universal. A leader who could bring back the magic, however much a myth, of JFK’s Camelot.

Even non-supporters concede that Obama ignites the kind of visceral excitement last seen when people tumbled over each other to get a glimpse of Kennedy.

In fact, the parallels between the two men are striking. Obama comes with baggage he has no control over: his race. But so did Kennedy, with his religion.

He had to persuade party chiefs it wasn’t “too soon” for a Roman Catholic to run, that Americans were ready. Then he had to convince voters his religion wouldn’t influence his thinking, all the while placating church leaders who thought he wasn’t Catholic enough.

“I am not the Catholic candidate for president,” said Kennedy. “I am the Democratic Party’s candidate for president who also happens to be a Catholic.”

Substitute “African-American” for Catholic, and it could be Obama.

In May 1960, when JFK won the primary in staunchly Protestant West Virginia, the religion issue vanished overnight. It will be tougher for Obama. Being the son of a white Kansan mother and a black Kenyan father will still count against him in parts of the U.S.

He too has heard the “too soon” argument from some senior Democrats. He’s certainly heard from several black leaders that he isn’t “black enough.”

Obama is also likely to be hit by the “Bradley effect,” possibly already was in New Hampshire.

(The effect involves a black candidate and what whites say about their voting intent vs. whom they actually pick. It’s named after Tom Bradley, the black mayor of Los Angeles, who surprisingly lost a 1982 governorship bid after polls showed he’d win handily.)

The next major primary is Jan. 26 in South Carolina, where for the first time Obama faces a large black vote. It could be his West Virginia or halt his campaign in its tracks.

DEJA VU’

The comparative youth of both men now, as then, is a major drawback. JFK was just 30 when he entered politics in Massachusetts, barely 42 when he began his run for the White House. He was seen as an upstart by party honchos and, with the U.S. engaged in the Cold War, far too young to be trusted with the presidency.

Obama’s lack of experience nationally has also been criticized, not least by his main competitor, Hillary Clinton. A state legislator for seven years, he’s been a junior senator for three, the last one of which he spent running for the leadership.

Like JFK, he faces a nation in the throes of anxiety and disillusionment. Just as nuclear war between the U.S. and Soviet Union once seemed inevitable, the current war on terrorism seems unwinnable and unending.

But Kennedy believed judgment, not experience, is the key criterion for leadership: “Experience is like tail-lights on a boat which illuminate where we have been,” he once said, “when we should be focusing on where we should be going.”

He won the narrowest of victories over Republican Richard Nixon and, in his inauguration speech, played up his youth: “In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger … The torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans.”

The hypnotizing words were actually written by speechwriter Ted Sorensen. There are few knights of the round table left, but Sorensen, now 80, is one of them and he’s actively supporting Obama. He sees him as heir to JFK’s legacy, with the same magnetic charm and “fantastically winning smile,” but more important, the same ability to motivate Americans.

People want to be inspired again, Sorensen told South Carolina’s The State newspaper last month, the way Kennedy did with his famous “Ask not what your country can do for you …” invocation.

“People are now ready for a call to service,” said Sorensen. “They want to have a hero, think great thoughts, hear bold visions again. And they want to be asked to serve. Service is good for the national character. Kennedy believed that strongly.”

Brad Warthen, The State‘s editorial page director, says Obama, like JFK, has “grace and style – he is who he is. And he certainly has a Pied Piper effect on young people.” If he sweeps South Carolina, with its racially mixed voters, he could go all the way.

If not, Obama can remind himself that the “Camelot” of JFK’s presidency didn’t exist until after his death. It was Jackie Kennedy who planted the image in the public mind, telling historian Theodore White he loved listening to the record of the Broadway show: “Don’t let it be forgot, that once there was a spot, for one brief shining moment, that was known as Camelot.”

White, 20 years later in his book In Search of History, wrote that “the magic Camelot of John F. Kennedy never existed.” There were no Merlins, no Sir Galahads. Kennedy was tough and unromantic. But he was a leader. “He posed for the first time the great question … What kind of people are we Americans? What do we want to become?”

The Obama-Kennedy Connection

If something about those inspiring speeches Barack Obama delivers sounds familiar, it’s certainly possible that former JFK adviser/wordsmith Ted Sorensen has helped out with a few lines here and there. 

(Note to Obama: whatever your campaign is paying Sorensen, double it!!)

Obama’s Kennedy Connection

 

By Robert Stein

There were echoes in his Iowa victory speech last Thursday night that may come from the influence on Barack Obama of the man who worked with JFK on “Profiles in Courage” and many of his greatest speeches, including the famous 1961 “Ask Not” Inaugural Address.

At 79, Ted Sorensen has been out on the campaign trail, introducing Obama and comparing him to the President he served almost half a century ago.

“Obama is older than Kennedy was when Kennedy ran for president,” Sorensen has been pointing out. “He’s had the same experience in the Senate as Kennedy had when he ran for president, and he’s had the same opportunity to view the country from abroad as Kennedy did when he ran for president.”

Sorensen, who doesn’t see well now and needs help getting up to speak, tells crowds, “Don’t worry about my eyesight. I have more vision than the President of the United States.”

Taking the oath of office, John F. Kennedy said “the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans–born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage–and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this Nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world.’

In Des Moines, Obama said, “The time has come for a president who will be honest about the choices and the challenges we face, who will listen to you and learn from you, even when we disagree, who won’t just tell you what you want to hear, but what you need to know…who restores our moral standing, who understands that 9/11 is not a way to scare up votes but a challenge that should unite America and the world against the common threats of the 21st century.”

Sorensen was at Robert Kennedy’s side when he campaigned for President in 1968 and would say, “Some men see things as they are and say why. I dream things that never were and say why not.” Now Obama is telling Americans “our destiny will not be written for us, but by us, by all those men and women who are not content to settle for the world as it is, who have the courage to remake the world as it should be.”

(Ask Not What Your Candidate Can Do For You – Ask What You Can Do For Your Candidate: Sorensen with Barack Obama)

In the last debate, Hillary Clinton observed that “words are not actions, as beautifully presented and passionately felt as they are.” But Obama insisted that “words do inspire. Words do help people get involved…Don’t discount that power.”

With Ted Sorensen at his side, Barack Obama is not likely to forget that.

Barack Obama: Brought To You By JFK

The other Obama-Kennedy connection

How a Kenyan airlift that brought a young scholar named Obama to America in 1960 – where he met a wife and fathered a son – was saved by a young senator from Massachusetts.

(PHOTO CAPTION: Senator John F. Kennedy takes a break at a local lunch counter while campaigning for President in Nashua, New Hampshire, 1960.)

Elana Schor in Washington
Thursday January 10, 2008

Guardian Unlimited 

In his command of the US political stage over the past year, Barack Obama has inspired many a comparison to John F Kennedy. Both young senators brought a lofty message, an appealing young family and a movie-star aura to the presidential race. But the two men forged a less known link – before Obama was even born.

The bond began with Kenyan labour leader Tom Mboya, an advocate for African nationalism who helped his country gain independence in 1963. In the late 1950s, Mboya was seeking support for a scholarship program that would send Kenyan students to US colleges – similar to other exchanges the US backed in developing nations during the Cold War with the Soviet Union. Mboya appealed to the state department. When that trail went cold, he turned to then-senator Kennedy. Kennedy, who chaired the senate subcommittee on Africa, arranged a $100,000 grant through his family’s foundation to help Mboya keep the program running.

“It was not a matter in which we sought to be involved,” Kennedy said in an August 1960 senate speech. “Nevertheless, Mr Mboya came to see us and asked for help, when none of the other foundations could give it, when the federal government had turned it down quite precisely. We felt something ought to be done.”

One of the first students airlifted to America was Barack Obama Sr, who married a white Kansas native named Ann Dunham during his US studies. Their son, born in 1961 and named for his father, has only once mentioned his Kennedy connection on the campaign trail.

“[T]he Kennedys decided: ‘We’re going to do an airlift,’” senator Obama said during a March speech in Selma, Alabama. “We’re going to go to Africa and start bringing young Africans over to this country and give them scholarships to study so they can learn what a wonderful country America is. This young man named Barack Obama [Sr] got one of those tickets and came over to this country.”

Many of the airlifted students worked their way up to elite universities in America before returning to help Kenya adjust to independence, and Obama Sr was no exception. He left the family to take a Harvard scholarship when the young Obama was only 2 years old, beginning the future presidential candidate’s remarkable personal journey to Indonesia, New York and Chicago and Capitol Hill.

“Obama is hailed in Kenya as one of the great results of the airlift,” said Cora Weiss, who led the US group that helped Mboya organise the airlift. At a recent reception for alumni of the program, she recalled, one Kenyan journalist made a rousing toast to the student exchange that produced “the next president of the United States”. Thanks to a bizarre twist in the airlift saga, Kennedy ended up discussing his Obama connection much more openly than Obama mentions the late president’s role in his life.

The bitterly fought presidential campaign of 1960 pitted Kennedy against Richard Nixon, then the vice president, who tried to steal his opponent’s thunder by winning state department money for the airlift before the Kennedy family’s grant could go through. A thoroughly modern political scuffle erupted over who would claim credit for supporting Obama’s father and the other Kenyan students. Kennedy ultimately prevailed.

A woman holds a Kenyan flag as Barack Obama greets supporters in Austin, Texas. Photograph: LM Otero/AP

KENNEDY’S GIFT TO KENYA BECOMES KENYA’S GIFT TO THE UNITED STATES

Joel Barkan, an Africa scholar at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, said Kennedy’s gift to Kenya helped forge a relationship with America that has remained strong for decades.

“There’s no other African country where there is such admiration for the US … There has always been a disproportionate number of Kenyan students in America to study. Their children come here, their grandchildren come here,” Barkan said.

Kenyan environmentalist Wangari Maathai, winner of the 2004 Nobel peace prize, also studied in America thanks to the airlift.

Obama has made his own offering to Kenya in recent days, as a tide of violence unleashed by disputed election results threatens to topple one of Africa’s most stable governments. In the midst of his grinding campaign schedule, the Illinois senator taped a radio message urging an end to the fighting and reached out personally to opposition leader Raila Odinga and Kenyan president Mwai Kibaki.

Strangely, the same weight of political dynasty that Obama is seeking to lift in America – putting a name other than Bush or Clinton in the White House – links the senator to both sides in the current Kenyan struggle.

Odinga stood beside Obama during stops on the latter’s Kenyan homecoming in 2006, and the Kenyan presidential hopeful claimed on Tuesday to be a cousin of the US candidate. Odinga is also tied to airlift organiser Mboya, who was a political rival of his father during the 1960s.

All of the men belong to the Kenyan Luo tribe, which takes a particular pride in senator Obama’s astounding rise in America. But the jubilation at the Obama victory in Iowa has been matched by anger at president Kibaki, a member of the Kikuyu tribe. The election was called for Kibaki on December 27 despite strong evidence on the ground of an Odinga win, prodding both sides to bloody clashes and riots that have killed as many as 1000 people, according to opposition estimates.

“Before the Kenya elections occurred … there was a popular question circulating among Kenyan intellectuals: ‘Which country will be first to have a Luo president, Kenya or the United States?’” wrote Dr Ali Mazrui, a Kenyan academic who directs the global studies program at Binghamton university in New York.

“The question was only half in jest,” Mazrui added. “Raila Odinga supporters are now convinced Kenya would have been the first, but for the electoral fraud by Kibaki supporters.”

Meanwhile, Kibaki has asserted his own tie to the White House race: he recalls working with the elder Obama in the Kenyan planning ministry in the 1970s, after the senator’s father returned home following the airlift.

While a spokesman for the Obama campaign declined to comment further on Kennedy’s role in the airlift, the senator discussed the instability in Kenya with reporters in New Hampshire on primary day.

“[I]t’s important to me, obviously, because my father was from there, and I still have family that lives there,” Obama said, according to the pool transcript. “I think it’s important to the United States as well, though. Kenya is, has been a stable democratic government in a region that, uh, you know could end up being a base for, you know, terrorist activity, for ethnic violence that results in refugees. It could be very destabilising if the violence there is not contained.”

Weiss, the airlift organiser who now leads the Hague Appeal for Peace campaign, has begun researching how many members of the newly elected Kenyan parliament are alumni of the exchange program.

“Airlift students became the nation builders of the new Kenya and a handful of other countries in Africa,” Weiss said, adding: “It was all because of Tom Mboya’s vision. If it helped to produce the next president of the US, hooray.”

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2008

NYC Bridge May Be Renamed For RFK

  

Enduring Wish May Come True in RFK Bridge

BY JACOB GERSHMAN – Staff Reporter of the Sun
January 8, 2008

From the New York Sun

It has been an enduring wish of the Kennedy family that the Triborough Bridge be renamed in honor of Robert F. Kennedy, the former New York senator who was assassinated almost 40 years ago.

According to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Governor Carey in 1975 said he was planning to permanently attach the senator’s name to the bridge until the proposal was scuttled by the man responsible for its construction, Robert Moses. Governor Pataki, the younger Mr. Kennedy said, considered the idea but never acted.

A month ago, Governor Spitzer called Mr. Kennedy and told him that he would grant the family’s wish and launch an effort to rechristen the monumental complex of water crossings, a viaduct, and 14 miles of approach roads that connects Manhattan, Queens, and the Bronx. The bridge also serves as a pathway to the airport named after RFK’s older brother.

“He would be really, really happy that the bridge was going to be named in his honor,” Mr. Kennedy, 53, told The New York Sun yesterday. “One of the things he made an effort to do was connect people from upstate New York with the city and Long Island. So it’s really appropriate because the Triborough physically does that.”

Mr. Spitzer is expected to announce the plan tomorrow in his annual State of the State address to lawmakers in Albany.

Originally, the Democratic governor intended to use the speech to publicize his intention to rename another important New York site, a source in the administration said. Early drafts of the speech highlighted a plan to name Hudson River Park, the yet-to-be-completed span of walkways and bike paths running along Manhattan’s West Side, after Governor Pataki.

Mr. Pataki, a Republican, won’t be attending the address, a factor that apparently led to removing mention of the plan from the speech, according to a source.

Mr. Spitzer’s Triborough proposal, which must be approved by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, is certain to reignite a debate among residents about the meaning and purpose of attaching people’s names to pieces of the city.

What contribution to the city or attachment to the state justifies such an honor? Should a bridge or a park be named after a person, or should a simple but accurate descriptive title — such as Central park — suffice? And do new names stick in the collective memory? Think Newark Liberty International Airport.

In the case of Kennedy, according to one leading historian, the renaming may rekindle questions about the assassinated civil rights leader’s connection to New York, a point of contention in his 1964 senatorial bid against the Republican incumbent, Kenneth Keating, who labeled Kennedy a carpetbagger.

“He really wasn’t a resident of New York,” the editor of the Encyclopedia of New York City, Kenneth Jackson, said in an interview. “It’s awful the way he died. He certainly was an important person in American history, just not an important person in New York history.”

Mr. Jackson said other New York figures, notably Frederick Law Olmsted, the designer of Central Park and Prospect Park, and Andrew Haswell Green, who was instrumental in consolidating the five boroughs, arguably have stronger claims on such recognition than Kennedy.

Kennedy was born in Massachusetts but spent his childhood in Riverdale in the Bronx and Bronxville in Westchester. He served as senator from 1965 until his death on June 6, 1968.

“I have a lot of respect for Kenneth Jackson, but that issue was settled when my father ran for Senate there,” Mr. Kennedy told the Sun.

In 2004, the late New York writer Jack Newfield wrote a column in the Sun championing the Triborough idea.

“Whatever is named for RFK should have some symbolic meaning of unity. Ethel Kennedy’s idea of re-naming the Triborough Bridge seems ideal in this way, since it links three boroughs of immigrant diversity. RFK was able to build bridges between blacks and whites, young and old, left and right, rich and poor. He was a bridge over troubled waters,” Newfield wrote.

Said President Roosevelt on the day the bridge was opened to the public on July 11, 1936: “This Triborough Bridge was neither in its conception nor in its building a matter of purely local concern. Nation, state and city, each in its own way, has contributed to the gigantic undertaking.”

Op-Ed: The Night Dr. King’s Dream Came True

“NOW IS THE TIME TO MAKE REAL THE PROMISES OF DEMOCRACY”

Dr. Martin Luther King, from his immortal ”I Have A Dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial, Washington, DC, August 28, 1963.

“THEY SAID THIS DAY WOULD NEVER COME”

- Barack Obama, Victory Speech in Iowa, January 3, 2008

Last night, America changed forever — and for the better.

Last night, Democratic voters in Iowa shocked the world — and the political establishment.

Last night, 12 days before his birthday and in the 40th year since his assassination, the people of Iowa made Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream come true. They judged a man not by the color of his skin, but by the content of his character.

Last night, Iowa Democrats honored the highest ideals that President John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy stood and fought for — the ideals that Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Medgar Evers, and so many other lesser-known but equally brave Americans gave their lives for. They handed Senator Barack Obama a clear and decisive victory in the first caucus of the 2008 presidential race.

Last night, history was made, a massive milestone reached in what JFK once called the long twilight struggle. The struggle is far from over; we cannot for one moment forget the sacrifices it took to get us where we are — right now, right here in America.

Few under the age of 30 who were fortunate enough to grow up in a largely colorblind and desegregated society can imagine a time when their black brothers and sisters could not even sit beside them at a public lunch counter. Not so long ago in this country, a black American simply seeking to attend a state-run university had to be escorted in by federal troops after riots erupted in the streets. The very act of casting a vote was enough to put one’s safety in danger. In 1961 — the year Barack Obama was born – merely asserting a citizen’s right to travel subjected the Freedom Riders to brutal beatings, assault with firehoses, and the teeth of Bull Connor’s unforgiving, bloodthirsty police dogs.

Few of us over the age of 30 could have imagined the reality of an African-American man being a serious contender for President of the United States in our lifetimes. Few could honestly believe that in the American heartland, in a state whose population is nearly 95% white, Iowans would choose a black man as the candidate best qualified to lead our country.

But they did. And it’s wonderful. Somewhere, MLK is smiling. 

“WE ARE ONE PEOPLE. AND OUR TIME FOR CHANGE HAS COME.” – OBAMA

While Barack Obama is not the first black candidate to win a presidential primary (that honor goes to the Reverend Jesse Jackson, who won five primaries in 1984 and 11 contests in 1988), he has upped the stakes considerably. Jackson’s wins made history, but his long history as a civil rights activist unfortunately caused him to be labeled as a radical. Many said Jackson was too liberal, too polarizing a figure to be the party nominee, and gave him little hope of winning a general election. By contrast, Obama appeals to mainstream American voters of both parties, giving him a far better chance to compete in November.

Jackson, a former King aide, was standing beside him on the balcony of the Hotel Lorraine in Memphis when MLK was murdered. His presidential bids in `84 and `88 revived the spirit of Dr. King and this helped propel Jackson’s candidacy to victory in several primaries. Jackson carried mostly left-leaning states with large black populations (Louisiana, the District of Columbia, South Carolina, Virginia and Mississippi in 1984, adding Alabama, Georgia, Puerto Rico, Michigan, Delaware and Vermont four years later), and was considered a frontrunner for the Democratic nomination early in 1988.

Can it happen again? Can Obama do even better? Many believe that he can. What made his surprise win in Iowa so remarkable was not just the fact that he pulled it off in a a key early primary state which is almost all white, but the David-and-Goliath aspect of this race made his victory even more interesting. His opponent was a former first lady and the projected winner in nearly every pre-caucus poll. Jesse Jackson did not have to campaign against a former president (stumping for his wife) of his own party – and an incredibly powerful, well-financed political machine.

But perhaps the most critical difference of all is that Obama seems to be bringing the right message for the times in which we live. A message of hope, of change, of unity — and that this message is clearly striking a deep chord with America’s youth, who will be our future.

In his victory speech last night, Senator Obama spoke of hope winning over fear. “We are choosing unity over division and sending a powerful message that change is coming to America.

“We are not a collection of red states and blue states. We are the United States!” 

It doesn’t matter if Barack Obama is your candidate or not. At present, he is not my candidate. He is not Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s candidate. What matters is the seismic change in American society and culture Obama’s victory last night represents. And that will reverberate forever.

“THE TORCH HAS BEEN PASSED” – JOHN EDWARDS

Obama’s inspirational victory speech will perhaps eclipse the brilliant and heartfelt one delivered by John Edwards, who pulled off an impressive second-place showing last night. This is unfortunate indeed, because one need look no further than Edwards’ words to hear the populist echoes of RFK.

“35 million people in America went hungry last year in the richest country on earth!” Edwards said with indignation. ”We are better than this. Enough is enough!”

He told the assembled audience that “tonight, you have created and started a tidal wave of change that will sweep across the country,” and twice invoked President Kennedy’s message of “the torch being passed” to a new generation of Americans.

WHAT HAPPENED TO HILLARY?

For many, the biggest shocker of the night was Hillary coming in behind Obama and Edwards. Every poll going into the caucus showed her leading with at least a few percentage points over the competition. Not a single overpaid pundit predicted that Hillary would place third in Iowa. And nobody could seem to figure out what went wrong.

On the postgame CNN broadcast, Larry King asked former Clinton White House adviser David Gergen, “What happened to Hillary?”

“She got rolled by Barack Obama,” Gergen replied dryly.

Sacred cow Carl Bernstein was scratching his head in befuddlement over the results. “There’s something happening here…” the old man said, clearly unable to define exactly what it was.

Describing the group assembled around Hillary during her speech at the Hotel Fort Des Moines, he quite rightly observed: “You look at the faces behind Hillary and they’re all old faces. Barack Obama brings the youth. You could clearly see the devastation on Bill Clinton’s face.” David Gergen was quick to concur.

Meanwhile, over on Fox, Rush Limbaugh was having a field day, implying that Clinton brought this on herself with “an attitude of arrogant inevitability.” Calling it “the worst night of Hillary Clinton’s life,” Rush added with apparent glee that “this is a devastating and humiliating loss for Hillary.” 

(PHOTO CAPTION: The look on Chelsea Clinton’s face pretty much says it all. After her mother’s devastating defeat in Iowa last night, Hillary brings out the big names to help her campaign in New Hampshire today. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at left. AP Photo.) 

HUCK’S LUCK?

Not only did Obama prove the pollsters and pundits wrong with a 38%-to-29% win over Hillary Clinton, but former Arkanasas Governor Mike Huckabee made jaws drop on the Republican side, shutting out the predicted victor Mitt Romney with a nearly identical margin of victory.

Perhaps even sweeter still, Huckabee was outspent by his opponent 15 to one, and yet somehow managed to whup up on the former Massachusetts Governor at the polls. Is it just beginner’s luck for Huck? Or does this upset point to a much bigger trend? Huckabee thinks it does.

“Americans are sick of political dumpster diving,” he told Larry King, attributing the surprise victory to his strategy of staying above the mudslinging. “If you gain the whole world and lose your own soul, how does that benefit you?” Huckabee asked philosophically. “How does that qualify you to be president?

“Americans are clearly saying, `we want to give new people, a new generation, a chance to lead this country.‘ Here’s what we had that was better than money: we had people who gave their heart and soul. It’s a new day in American politics.”

You can say that again, Huck. 

SO MUCH FOR CONVENTIONAL WISDOM

The 2008 Iowa Caucus will be remembered as a night of outrageous upsets for the favored frontrunners and unexpected underdog victories. It also signaled the end of at least two campaigns, with Senators Joe Biden and Chris Dodd dropping out of the race.

What will happen next is anybody’s guess. The dynamics in New Hampshire are far different politically, as is the voting process itself. Unlike the Iowa Caucus, where votes were counted by real human beings with hands (for the Democrats) and paper ballots (for the Republicans), New Hampshire’s will be tallied mostly by electronic voting machines.

Three of Robert Kennedy’s children traveled to New Hampshire today to help their candidate turn things around. Bobby Kennedy Jr., Kerry Kennedy and Kathleen Kennedy Townsend made several campaign stops in the Granite state, stumping for Hillary in Nashua, Salem, Manchester and Milford. Rest assured that Clinton will be pulling out all the stops to ensure a solid victory over the next four days – and the Kennedy star power certainly won’t hurt a bit.

As all the candidates man their cannons and prepare for the “second Battle of Concord,” it is perhaps well to remember that 1775 battle was the first serious engagement of the Revolution. If what happened in Iowa last night is any indication of the future, the Second American Revolution (a peaceful one this time, we hope) is already well underway.

 

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Will RFK Jr. Reclaim His Father’s Senate Seat?

BORN TO RUN?

The New York Post reports that Bobby Kennedy Jr. is seriously considering his first-ever run for public office — and that he’s got his eye trained on the Senate seat formerly held by his father.

Of course, there is that little matter of if and when the current occupant decides to vacate, either by election to the presidency or by choice at the end of her term.

According to the Post, it’s not a question of if but when. The article says “Kennedy is convinced that if Clinton doesn’t win the presidency, she’ll quit the Senate when her term expires and join the private sector.”

The Page Six blurb also asserts that RFK Jr. is now an environmental advisor to Russian president Vladimir Putin.

While this report remains unconfirmed, it is true that Kennedy visited Moscow late last year at the invitation of the Russian government to consult on the nation’s environmental cleanup efforts.

PASS THE SALT

Now, before you get too excited about the notion of RFK Jr. reclaiming the Senate seat held by his late father from 1964-68, stop to consider the source of this information.

The gossip column is apparently taking New York restauranteur Nello Balan’s word as gospel, an error few responsible journalists would make. 

Balan – who claims to be a direct descendant of Vlad the Impaler – is known around town as a rather notorious publicity hound and a bonafide eccentric by any standard. The quick-tempered owner of Madison Avenue’s celebrity magnet Nello’s is frequently featured on Page Six, usually in reference to his latest scuffle with local club bouncers or for threatening legal action against a certain leggy supermodel who broke his prized umbrella. So you might want to ask the waiter for a few extra grains of salt on this one.

The New York Post, while always an entertaining read, can hardly be considered the most reliable of sources. Among the rag’s more recent whoppers was the report that Ted Sorensen “wrote” the famous 1961 “Ask Not” inaugural address for President John F. Kennedy. (Had anyone at the Post bothered to contact Mr. Sorensen, he would have set the authorship question straight in short order.)

The Post, in their mad rush to publish this latest “scoop,” apparently did not manage to reach Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for comment, either. He’s generally not difficult to get ahold of, although at present he’s enjoying the ski slopes of Aspen with his family and has certainly earned the right to a bit of peace and quiet over the holidays.

But perhaps the most tickling irony of all is the way Rupert Murdoch’s Post breathlessly reported this story as if they had an exclusive on the Second Coming. It’s hardly breaking news. Anyone who has been following this blog or heard one of Kennedy’s speeches over the past year already knows that Bobby is making no secret of the fact that he is “interested” in Hillary’s Senate seat. And for reasons that are likely deeply personal as well as political. 

So until we get this news straight from the horse’s mouth, we shall remain hopeful but skeptical. For now, best to chalk this one up to another enticing rumor from the mill.

 

 

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