WASHINGTON - Senator Barack Obama will collect the endorsement of Senator Edward M. Kennedy today, winning the support of a powerful icon of the liberal Democratic establishment as Obama challenges Senator Hillary Clinton before the crucial Super Tuesday showdown on Feb. 5.
Kennedy confidants said Massachusetts' senior senator will appear this morning with Obama and Kennedy's niece, Caroline Kennedy, at a rally at American University in Washington to announce his support. Their joint appearance will suggest Obama's claim to the mantle of generations of Kennedys, including Caroline's father, the late President Kennedy.
Kennedy said the senator from Illinois can "transcend race" and unite the country, a Kennedy associate told the Globe. Kennedy was also impressed by Obama's deep involvement last year in the bipartisan effort to craft legislation on immigration reform, a politically touchy subject the other presidential candidates avoided, the associate said.
The coveted endorsement is a huge blow to Clinton, who is both a senatorial colleague and a friend of the Kennedy family. In a campaign where Clinton has trumpeted her experience over Obama's call for hope and change, the endorsement by one of the most experienced and respected Democrats in the Senate is a particularly dramatic coup for Obama.
"The America of Jack and Bobby Kennedy touched all of us. Through all of these decades, the one who kept that flame alive was Ted Kennedy," said Representative William D. Delahunt, a Quincy Democrat who is also supporting Oba ma. "So having him pass on the torch [to Obama] is of incredible significance. It's historic."
Obama's landslide win in South Carolina on Saturday gives Obama and Clinton two wins each, and puts the two senators in a fierce battle for delegates on Feb. 5, when 22 states will hold Democratic primaries and caucuses.
While polls show Clinton ahead in some large states, including her home state of New York and delegate-rich California, the Kennedy endorsement gives Obama a stamp of approval among key constituencies in the Democratic party that could make Super Tuesday more competitive.
Kennedy plans to campaign actively for Obama and will focus on Hispanics and labor union members, who are important voting blocks in several Feb. 5 states, including California, New York, New Jersey, Arizona, and New Mexico.
Obama came to Kennedy more than a year ago and sought his advice on whether to run; the veteran senator agreed he should, a source close to the Massachusetts senator said. Impressed with Obama's "promise," Kennedy lobbied Senate leadership to get Obama on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee, and pulled Obama into the contentious immigration debate.
Seeing Obama in Iowa, Kennedy concluded that Obama is a "transformational" figure with a rare ability to "inspire and unify" people of all races and walks of life, the source said.
After discussing the matter with his children, nieces, and nephews, Kennedy and his niece decided in the past few weeks to endorse Obama. The senator told Obama of his decision Thursday. Despite a full-court press by the Clinton campaign - including calls from the candidate, donors, elected officials, and Massachusetts constituents - Kennedy stuck with his choice, and believes Obama is right for this time in history, the source said.
The Massachusetts senator was key in helping his colleague, Senator John F. Kerry, score a comeback win in Iowa in 2004, sending Kerry on a path to the nomination. Kennedy campaigned on his own and released several senior members of his staff to work for Kerry.
While political endorsements generally have a limited impact on voting, Kennedy's backing takes on a potent symbolic quality that reaches far beyond his individual support. With a long personal and family history defined by civil rights and a litany of traditional Democratic issues, Kennedy carries the weight of an entire liberal institution.
Obama has attracted a great deal of support from young voters, many of whom say they see Obama as the modern incarnation of men the young voters were not alive to know, President Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy, the former attorney general and 1968 presidential candidate.
"I have never had a president who inspired me the way people tell me that my father inspired them," Caroline Kennedy wrote in an op-ed column in the
The Clinton campaign did not respond to Kennedy's announcement, but put out a statement from Kathleen Kennedy Townsend noting that she and siblings Kerry and Bobby Kennedy are all supporting the New York senator.
Senator Kennedy's endorsement comes at a time when both the Clinton and Obama campaigns have accused each other of marring the Democratic primary. Leading Democrats have criticized Bill Clinton for his comments against Obama, and last week Kennedy telephoned the former president and vehemently urged him to tone down his rhetoric.
When it became clear Obama would win Saturday's South Carolina primary, Bill Clinton pointed out that an African-American leader, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, had won the state twice - a comment some critics saw as an effort to suggest that Obama's appeal was limited to black voters, and thus to discount the significance of the victory for the Feb. 5 races.
The Kennedy camp described the endorsement as for Obama and not against Clinton, but it is nonetheless a damaging rejection of a candidate who has had both a professional and social relationship with Kennedy.
Bill and Hillary Clinton vacationed at Martha's Vineyard in the 1990s, and went sailing with Kennedy on his family's schooner. The Clintons also socialized with Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, President Kennedy's widow.
Edward Kennedy had also helped guide Clinton in her early time in the Senate, giving advice on handling unusual scrutiny and pressure presented by being an outsider senator from New York - as Kennedy's brother, Robert F. Kennedy, had been - and a relative of a former president.
But the Massachusetts lawmaker has grown increasingly close to Obama, working with him on legislation involving immigration and teachers. Obama's antiwar stance also mirrors that of Kennedy, who was also an early, vocal opponent of the Iraq war. Obama has called Kennedy frequently over the past year for advice, the Kennedy confidant said.
Many had expected Senator Kennedy to stay out of the campaign, sparing himself from the excruciating choice between his colleagues. In conversations with Globe reporters over the past year, Kennedy has been meticulously careful to avoid praising one senator without adding a kind comment about the others running.
Nor does Kennedy need to endorse a contender to nurture political alliances. As chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee, a powerful panel through which about half the federal budget passes, Kennedy can provide crucial legislative help to the next president, Democrat or Republican.
