A very powerful endorsement for the Democratic Presidential race came from Senator Edward Kennedy today, for Senator Barack Obama.
This is an endorsement that stopped me in my tracks and made me think long and hard about Senator Obama and Senator Edward Kennedy as well as JFK and RFK.
Robert Kennedy, Jr. endorsed Senator Clinton back in November, 2007. An interesting contrast to today's endorsement by his uncle.
Senator Hillary Clinton must be feeling bruised this morning, along with her husband, former President Bill Clinton. There is a cynical side to me that believes if Ted Kennedy's endorsement was for Senator Clinton we would not be getting 'Ted Kennedy Matters' editorials, but instead comparisons of Chappaquiddick with Vince Foster, Whitewater and Monica Lewinsky. We would also be relieving time-frames of JFK-Marilyn Monroe liaisons.
The Kennedy endorsement matters to me. The location, American University matters to me. JFK made one of his Presidency's most important speeches and policy changes there in 1963. What Ted Kennedy says about Senator Obama needs to be listened to and discussed.
“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,” Kennedy said.
“It is time again for a new generation of leadership,” Kennedy continued. “It is time now for Barack Obama.”
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," Kennedy said.
"There was another time, when another young candidate was running for president and challenging America to cross a new frontier. He faced criticism from the preceding Democratic president, who was widely respected in the party," Kennedy said, referring to Harry S. Truman.
"And John Kennedy replied, 'The world is changing. The old ways will not do. ... It is time for a new generation of leadership.
Like Senator Obama's wonderful speeches, Senator Kennedy's endorsement today was full of inspiring rhetoric, but light on specifics. I'm not buying the sincerity of the endorsement. My heart-strings were moved, but my mind has not been changed.
Toni Morrison actually had something more interesting to say:
"In addition to keen intelligence, integrity and a rare authenticity, 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. "That something is a creative imagination which coupled with brilliance equals wisdom. It is too bad if we associate it only with gray hair and old age. Or if we call searing vision naivete. Or if we believe cunning is insight. Or if we settle for finessing cures tailored for each ravaged tree in the forest while ignoring the poisonous landscape that feeds and surrounds it.
"Wisdom is a gift; you can't train for it, inherit it, learn it in a class, or earn it in the workplace — that access can foster the acquisition of knowledge, but not wisdom," Morrison wrote."