Kennedy Endorsement of Obama Was Special

As US Sen. Edward Kennedy struggles to hang on in his battle with cancer, I've thought back on one of his better days last year. For me, it became perhaps the most memorable moment of Ted Kennedy's career.

It was the moment when Teddy chose to endorse Barack Obama early in Obama's 2008 presidential primary campaign against Hillary Clinton. Obama had just won the South Carolina primary decisively on Jan. 26th, but he was still relatively unknown nationally and faced a steep, uphill fight against Clinton on Super Tuesday. At that moment, he needed all the help he could get - and the Kennedys, Ted and his niece, Caroline, stepped forward.

Ted Kennedy's endorsement "piggy-backed" his niece Caroline's dramatic endorsement of Obama in an op-ed piece in the Jan. 27, 2008 edition of the New York Times. Caroline wrote that Obama could inspire people the way her father had back in the 1960s.

The next day, Jan. 28th, Caroline and Ted Kennedy appeared with Obama at American University in Washington DC, and, Ted didn't just go through the motions in his remarks. He gave a fiery speech that passionately rebutted each of the misleading claims Clinton had been making about Obama. Clinton had been getting away with distortions hurled at Obama, but, on this day, Kennedy took her on and knocked down her false claims. In doing so, Kennedy threw his experience, clout and family name behind Obama with full force at a moment when Obama truly needed it.

Kennedy said Obama was "ready to be President on Day One" -- dismissing Clinton's charge that Obama was inexperienced. Kennedy said "from the beginning, he (Obama) opposed the war in Iraq. And let no one deny that truth..." (Clinton had suggested Obama's opposition was less pure)

Kennedy told the crowd that Obama represented "a new era" and a rejection of "old politics."

I recall, vividly, watching Kennedy's remarks. As an Obama supporter, I was so thrilled. I knew how desparately Obama needed a boost right then and this was like a dream come true. At that time, Clinton had more endorsements in the US House and Senate than Obama, and, more strikingly, she had FAR greater name recognition in the large states at stake in Super Tuesday. Indeed, one could sense that if Obama lost badly to Clinton on Super Tuesday, his candidacy would likely spiral downward. The Kennedys' move stood WAY out in the period before Super Tuesday and attracted a wave of positive media coverage over a number of days.

Hillary and Bill Clinton were jarred by Kennedy's move. Others were surprised, particularly because Kennedy had acted swiftly without signalling his intentions. The Clintons felt they had done much to help Teddy in the past. At the same time, Kennedy reportedly was genuinely upset by Clinton campaign tactics, including using the race card in South Carolina. To me, the fact that Kennedy made the choice in spite of his longstanding relationship with the Clintons made it all sweeter.

Do you remember how vulnerable Obama was at that moment? I doubt it because I've discussed this with many people who had forgotten the dynamics before Super Tuesday. Obama was a newcomer. He was viewed as young, inexperienced and untested. And, let's not forget: He was the nation's first, serious black candidate with a chance to win the presidency - a very different candidate than Jesse Jackson was in 1984 or 1988.

Obama had to thread the needle on Super Tuesday - i.e. win just enough states to minimize the impact of Hillary winning most of the largest states. Yet, without Ted Kennedy's endorsement and a few other key breaks, Obama might have never pulled it off.

Obama ended up winning 13 states on Super Tuesday while Clinton won eight. Yet, to this day, I don't think enough emphasis has been placed on the unlikelihood of how he did this. Many of his 13 states held caucuses - for which the Obama team had outorganized the Clinton campaign. Somehow, some way, the media - which was obsessed, as always, with the delegate totals, zero-ed in on Obama's tiny delegate lead over Clinton after Super Tuesday - even though she had won California, New Jersey, New York and Massachusetts. Even in these big states he lost, Obama won many delegates in districts his campaign had targeted, thus lessening the damage.

Then, later, even after Hillary won primaries in Ohio, Texas and Pennsylvania, Obama hung on by solidifying support among "super-delegates" and holding on to delegates he'd won in caucuses.

In the end, Obama barely beat Clinton. He won because of his margin among delegates and because he gradually convinced US senators and House members, who are super delegates, to support him rather than Clinton.

Would Obama have pulled it off without that critical endorsement of Ted Kennedy back in late January? Probably.....but, I'd still argue that Teddy's endorsement was a pivotal moment in what was the most exciting presidential primary campaign of my life other than perhaps the 1968 Democratic race.

Endorsements usually do not carry the same weight they used to in all kinds of political campaigns; however, I will never forget the way Ted Kennedy came through in the clutch for Barack Obama by passionately endorsing him in early 2008.