Inside Politics Daily

JFK's Daughter Endorses Obama

Posted:
01/27/08

UPDATE: Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) has also just endorsed Obama. For you commenters who don't think Caroline could possibly know her father, his brother certainly did.


President John F. Kennedy's only surviving child, Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, has endorsed Barack Obama in an opinion piece in Sunday's New York Times entitled "A President Like My Father".

The author, attorney, President of the Kennedy Library Foundation and founder of the Profiles in Courage Award, Kennedy has this to say in endorsement of Obama:


Over the years, I've been deeply moved by the people who've told me they wished they could feel inspired and hopeful about America the way people did when my father was president. This sense is even more profound today. That is why I am supporting a presidential candidate in the Democratic primaries, Barack Obama.


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.


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.


While not claiming to know what's in Caroline's mind, I can only suspect that she may also see a little bit of what her brother, JFK, Jr. might have brought to the table. If he had not died himself so tragically in 1999, we very well could have seen another Kennedy in the political arena now. If he had lived he would be 48 now, a year older than Barack Obama.


This endorsement may not carry much political weight or any extended influence. She's not a Superdelegate and other than her public works that also include being Director of both the Commission on Presidential Debates and of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, she's not well-known outside of a core, established Democratic set. She's not a political mover or shaker.


But on a personal note, it means a lot to me. I was with a small group of Obama supporters last night in southern NJ watching the SC primary returns. Those of a certain age were moved to tears hearing the annoucement of this endorsement.


While the Republicans fall all over themselves for Reagan mantle, it's to be expected that Democrats would do the same thing on the legacy of JFK. There have already been numerous comparisons of Obama to JFK and RFK. Another recent president, Bill Clinton, rode that wave himself.


We all look back to what we think is a more wonderful and complete past time in our lives. We'll try to compare today's leaders with the idyllic view of those we loved and respected before. Caroline Kennedy gets to do that with complete authority:


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.

Denise Williams

An unabashed news and political junkie, Denise has been blogging politics with a liberal bent since 2004... more

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