Barack Obama will announce today that he has won the support of senator and Democratic powerbroker Edward Kennedy, which could pay lasting dividends in the candidate's battle against Hillary Clinton.
In addition to Kennedy's symbolic importance as part of a beloved American dynasty, the Massachusetts senator has the ability to help Obama erase his deficit with Latino voters. Polls show Clinton leading in California, which holds its primary next week, based largely on her popularity with Latinos. Kennedy holds enormous sway with the largest US minority group because of his career-long push for immigration reform.
Obama and Kennedy will make their first joint appearance today at American University in Washington, followed by a busy schedule of cross-country campaigning, according to the Washington Post. Although the Clinton camp tried to temper the moment with a statement of support from the daughter of the late senator Robert Kennedy, the power of the Kennedy name was evident right away as Republicans rushed to attack Obama.
The Republican national committee sent reporters a memo titled "The Liberal Endorsement", going after Obama's appeal to independent voters by linking the Illinois senator to Kennedy. Still, any drawbacks that Obama faces in aligning with Kennedy, a favourite target of conservatives, pale in comparison to the advantages of undercutting Clinton. The former first lady and her husband have cultivated close ties to Kennedy for years, giving his endorsement of Obama the appearance of a personal slight.
Only one Democratic endorsement is considered as potent as Kennedy's this year: that of former presidential nominee and Nobel peace prize-winner Al Gore. Whether Kennedy's alliance will persuade Gore to end his neutrality remains to be seen.
In an interview with ABC news timed to capitalise on his victory in South Carolina, Obama aimed to move beyond the racial debate that has dominated the Democratic contest.
"I think that the press has been very focused, almost manically, on the issue of race here in South Carolina," Obama said. "But as we move forward after this contest, I'm very confident that we're going to continue to build the kinds of coalitions that we've been seeing all across the country."
Both Clinton and Obama will appear today in the capital to watch George Bush deliver his final state of the union speech, but their senatorial colleague John McCain likely will remain on the campaign trail in Florida. McCain and Mitt Romney are in a dead heat in the southern state as tomorrow's Republican primary approaches.
That dynamic in Florida has led many to suspect that former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani could end his campaign if he finishes a distant third or even fourth, behind Mike Huckabee. But Giuliani tamped down speculation about his demise, arguing today that he will make a strong showing in Florida that will help reverse his slide in his home state of New York.
"I think that the situation in polls has all to do with, you know, who wins which primary," Giuliani told CBS news. "I win the primary in Florida, we'll be right back on top in a lot of these polls."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselection...248293,00.html
A Benitezesque quote from Guiliani there