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Sen. Kennedy: 'I feel change is in the air'
The Democratic Party's best known political family endorsed Barack Obama, with Sen. Kennedy calling him a man of "rare grit and grace."
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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, former President Bill Clinton.
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.
Kennedy's endorsement was delivered 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, starting in Arizona, New Mexico and California. Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of President John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1963, will also make campaign appearances, officials said.
LITERARY ENDORSEMENT
The woman who famously labeled Bill Clinton the "first black president" is backing Barack Obama to be the second.
Nobel-Prize winning author Toni Morrison said her endorsement has little to do with Obama's race but rather with his personal gifts.
"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 in a letter released by Obama's campaign. "That something is a creative imagination which coupled with brilliance equals wisdom."
CLINTON SHIFTS HER FOCUS
Hillary Rodham Clinton relegated her chief Democratic rival to the rhetorical sidelines Monday and focused her criticism on President Bush, saying he had lost touch with the concerns of an anxious public.
IN IT UNTIL THE FINISH
John Edwards, who has yet to win any of the Democratic nominating contests, will stay in the race until the party convention, campaign advisers said Monday. Edwards was traveling Monday and today through Tennessee, Missouri, Oklahoma and Minnesota, which hold nominating contests next week.
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