Ethel Kennedy stumps for Obama
Urges peers in N.H. to vote for him for president
SALEM, N.H. - For her first public stump on behalf of Senator Barack Obama, the 80-year-old widow of presidential candidate Robert Kennedy chose a nursing home in this battleground state to try to convince her peers that this Democratic candidate is a rare find.
"I hope you'll vote for this man, who only comes once or twice in 100 years," Ethel Kennedy told about 60 residents yesterday at Salemhaven Nursing Home. "We are lucky to have him."
And she assured her admirers that she has long appreciated their home state - reminding them the Kennedy clan routinely spends Christmas and Easter skiing at Waterville Valley.
"So we love New Hampshire, and we hope you love Obama," she said, urging them with just a few words to vote for him in the Nov. 4 presidential election.
Several members of the famous clan have backed Obama for the presidency, including Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts and Caroline Kennedy, President Kennedy's surviving child. Ethel Kennedy has long shown her fondness for Obama, publicly comparing him to her husband. In 2005, she invited Obama to speak at the event commemorating what would have been Robert Kennedy's 80th birthday.
Matt Kennedy, who turned 28 yesterday and has worked full time out of Obama's Manchester campaign headquarters since graduating from Harvard Business School, said he asked for his grandmother's support because he needed her.
At an event a few weeks ago, an Obama supporter made no bones of hoping to meet or hear from the better-known members of the famous Massachusetts clan.
After Matt Kennedy said he was a lesser-known member of the family, "He just kind of stared at me and said, 'I thought an important Kennedy was coming' and walked out the door. So I brought my grandma today," he said, laughing.
But Kennedy got serious, hyphenating his speech with quotations from his grandfather, as he spoke of the importance of electing Obama and Senator Joe Biden of Delaware over Arizona Senator John McCain and Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska, who are focusing renewed attention on the Northeast.
"This is the most important election of our lifetimes," said Matt Kennedy. "It is bigger than all of us. . . . That's why we owe it to ourselves and those that come after us to elect Senator Obama. It is time for a leader to look the last eight years square in the eye and say, 'Enough is enough.' "
Kennedy said the United States has struggled long enough with failing school systems, inadequate healthcare, dependence on foreign countries for energy, and the war in Iraq. He said he saw a video memorial for his grandfather from the 1968 election at the Democratic Convention in Denver several weeks ago and saw people working together then the same way Obama supporters are working together today.
"One thing that struck me in this video was how all the people and all of the supporters, whether they were black, white, young, old, rich, or poor - everybody was passionate about what they were doing," Kennedy said. "Everybody was working so hard to create change, and everybody was so inspired that they believed that they could make a difference."
His grandmother came forward because she saw the same thing with Obama supporters of today, he said.
"I think that's what my grandmother saw immediately in Senator Obama, his ability to inspire Americans from all sorts of different walks of life and his commitment to the less fortunate," Kennedy said.
Dorothy Pahigian, 82, was among the first to shake Ethel Kennedy's hand yesterday.
"You look a lot better in person," said Pahigian, evoking a laugh from Kennedy.
"Well, you're looking great too," said Ethel Kennedy before signing an autograph for the self-described liberal Democrat originally from Lawrence.
Another resident of the nonprofit nursing home, which was built in a community effort after members put up their homes for collateral, said she will vote for Obama.
"[She] swayed me," said Anna Hardy, 70. "All of the stuff they need in this country, we need it badly." 