OBAMARAMA

Ted Kennedy’s. And it’s going to Sen. Obama:

Senator Edward M. Kennedy will endorse Barack Obama for president tomorrow, breaking his year-long neutrality to send a powerful signal of where the legendary Massachusetts Democrat sees the party going — and who he thinks is best to lead it.

Kennedy confidantes told the Globe today that the Bay State’s senior senator will appear with Obama and Kennedy’s niece, Caroline Kennedy, at a morning rally at American University in Washington tomorrow to announce his support.

That will be a potentially significant boost for Obama as he heads into a series of critical primaries on Super Tuesday, Feb. 5.

Kennedy believes Obama can “transcend race” and bring unity to 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 New York Senator Hillary 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.

Great timing. Bring on Super Duper Tuesday.

UPDATE: Commenter Deb points out that the Ted Kennedy endorsement comes on the heels of the Caroline Kennedy endorsement, articulated beautifully in a NYT op-ed today:

I want a president who understands that his responsibility is to articulate a vision and encourage others to achieve it; who holds himself, and those around him, to the highest ethical standards; who appeals to the hopes of those who still believe in the American Dream, and those around the world who still believe in the American ideal; and who can lift our spirits, and make us believe again that our country needs every one of us to get involved.

I have never had a president who inspired me the way people tell me that my father inspired them. But for the first time, I believe I have found the man who could be that president — not just for me, but for a new generation of Americans.

Polls closed at 7pm, and at 7:01 every network called the South Carolina primary for Sen. Obama. With 51% reporting, he has twice as many votes as Sen. Clinton, and 7 pledged delegates to her 1.

More impressive is the exit poll information, which shows him winning handily in nearly every demographic: Men, Women, African Americans, every age cohort between 18 and 64, White voters age 18-29, and churchgoers.

What’s more, of voters who said that former President Bill Clinton’s campaigning played an important role in their decision, most by far voted for Sen. Obama. Looks like sending a former head of state into the muck of disingenuous politicking has its price.

Anyone think we’ll be seeing less of the Pit Bill in the weeks ahead? Judging from these polls, I’m inclined to hope not.

UPDATE: The video:

Nuclear!

We’ve refrained from saying much about Sen. Clinton on this site. In theory at least, it doesn’t make much sense to go after other Democrats, when the ultimate goal is taking back the White House from wrong-headed Republicanism. Additionally, negative remarks about other Democrats don’t jibe especially well with the overall theme of the Obama movement, which is rooted in optimism and unity.

But if we’ve learned anything from the last two presidential races, it’s that you let pointed attacks go unanswered at your own peril, no matter from what quarter they come. Some things demand redress, and the Clinton campaign’s recent behavior falls into that category.

Make no mistake, Sen. Clinton has pulled out the long knives, and she is coming for Sen. Obama. Behind in South Carolina, she sees him coming into Feb. 5, with its 22 primaries, riding a surge of momentum and holding a lead in the delegate count, and her desperation is palpable.

It’s the only explanation: her desperation pushed her into awkwardly attacking Sen. Obama’s reasonable statements about Ronald Reagan’s transformational presidency (not good transformational, mind you). It compelled her husband to exchange his robes of established statesmanship for the tawdry garb of political debasement, with all the distortions and trickery that go with it. Her desperation even drove her to invoke the debunked and toothless Rezko smear during Monday’s debate.

I don’t think it will work. Sen. Obama was not always concise in his rejection of her smears last night, but he had plenty of powerful moments that put her desperation squarely in the spotlight. Here’s a personal favorite:

If Sen. Obama’s campaign is about anything, it’s about having faith in people’s desire to move past the politics of desperation. In South Carolina, where The State just endorsed Obama for President, it’s looking like that faith is well-placed. Fighting the good fight up to and through February 5th is the only way to prove it for sure.

FLASHBACK: One year ago, Sen. Obama honored Dr. Martin Luther King with an eye to the future and these words:

“Whatever challenges we face are nothing like the challenges our parents and grandparents faced,” Obama said. “The torch has been passed to this generation, but we haven’t always taken it up. We haven’t pushed the boundaries of what is possible. We have much more work to do.”

On the eve of Nevada caucuses, Sen. Obama seems to be taking everything in stride, even needling his fellow Democratic contenders for their Michael Scott-esque answers to the debate question “What is your biggest weakness“:

“I thought that they meant ‘what’s your biggest weakness?!’ So I said ‘well you know I don’t handle paper that well, you know, my desk is a mess, I need somebody to help me file and stuff all the time.’”

“So the other two they say well my biggest weakness is ‘I’m just too passionate about helping poor people.’ ‘I am just too impatient to bring about change in America.’”

Obama joked, “If I had gone last I would have known what the game was. I could have said ‘well you know I like to help old ladies across the street. Sometimes they don’t want to be helped. It’s terrible.’”

When he was leaving the event, a man called out to Sen. Obama that he would make a better president than George W. Bush, to which he replied: “So would you!”

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), and Rep. George Miller (D-CA) have all endorsed Sen. Obama in recent days. Sen. Leahy, the influential and experienced chair of the Judiciary Committee, explained his support this way:

“I believe many around the world have lost respect for America,” Leahy said. “We can restore that respect, but we need a president who can reintroduce America to the world.”

Drawing a not-so-subtle parallel to contestants in the 1960 Democratic primary, Leahy said that, as a college student, he supported John F. Kennedy over Lyndon Johnson.

“Nobody doubted the great experience of Lyndon Johnson,” he said. “But I never questioned my commitment.”

Also noteworthy are two unique endorsements — one from Craigslist founder Craig Newmark, the other from Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon (he wrote The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay). In describing his support, Chabon had this to say (it’s a bit long, but very much worth reading):

“You know what I needed to do before I could decide to support Barack Obama for president? I had to give myself permission to feel hope. That’s almost kind of sad, isn’t it? I had to tell myself that it is OK. That it would be all right if I allowed myself to acknowledge the possibility that we can aspire as a nation. That we can aspire to be more than merely secure or predominant. That we could apsire to build and to heal not just to patch and prop up. We can aspire to come together not just come to terms.” …

“I had to allow myself to do something that felt really weird, something I had never done before in my entire life — to believe in a candidate for the president of the United States.”

The crowd starting yelling “We believe!”

“I do, I do believe. I do believe in Barack Obama. But I don’t believe in him blindly or unquestioningly. He’s no demogogue or figurehead. He’s a man, not a symbol. But he does stand for something, something I can believe in. The way I believe in the comfort I take in my family and the pleasure of good company, and the blessings of peace and liberty and in anything that requires me to put my trust in the best part of myself and of other people.”

Who’s next? Jump on in, the water’s fine!

UPDATE: Nevada’s biggest newspaper, the Las Vegas Review-Journal, endorsed Sen. Obama yesterday.

Great work, couldn’t have responded better:

“I think over the last couple days you’ve seen a tone on the Democratic side in the campaign that I think is unfortunate,” he stated. “I may disagree with Senator Clinton or Senator Edwards on how to get there, but we share the same goals. We’re all Democrats.” He praised Edwards and Clinton as “patriots” who have the best interest of the country at heart, but urged all campaigns to “focus on the work that needs to get done” during this important time in our history. “I don’t want the campaign at this stage to degenerate into so much tit for tat back and forth that we lose sight of why we are all doing this,” he said.

UPDATE: The video:

Should Hillary Clinton win in South Carolina and subsequently steamroll her way to the nomination, the historians and pundits will point to the racial conflagration of the last few days as the Machiavellian key to her success.

Essentially, a series of remarks from the Clinton campaign has been construed by some black leaders as being anywhere from politically tone deaf to out-and-out racist. These remarks include:

• Bill Clinton suggesting that the idea that Sen. Obama has consistently opposed the Iraq war is a “fairy tale“
• An unnamed Clinton advisor saying that Obama voters are just looking for a “hip, black friend“
• Sen. Clinton’s suggestion that despite Martin Luther King Jr.’s contributions, ultimate credit for the Civil Rights movement lies with President Johnson
• Clinton surrogate Andrew Cuomo’s comment that Obama can’t “shuck and jive” his way to the White House

In my view, while a couple of these remarks use loaded language and certainly raise questions about the message the speakers were trying to send, none rises to the level of actual racism. What bothers me is less the content of the remarks than how the Clinton campaign is deflecting the subsequent criticism it has received from the black community.

On Meet the Press this morning, Sen. Clinton claimed that her words have been distorted and pointed a finger directly at the Obama campaign, saying that “I think it clearly came from Senator Obama’s campaign.” She provided no evidence to back this up, however — and in fact, the most public criticism of her remarks came from African American SC Rep. Jim Clyburn, who told the New York Times he was disappointed by them. Yet Clyburn is no Obama surrogate (though he has suggested that the Clinton’s remarks may push him in that direction).

What could be damaging to the Obama campaign is the implication that he is playing what pundits everywhere joyously call “the race card.” This is a charge to which Sen. Obama, being black, is uniquely susceptible, and one that could hurt him by creating the impression that he is trying to use race and inflame racial sensitivities to his political advantage.

He’s done no such thing; in fact, it’s my opinion that Sen. Obama’s unwillingness to take this low road — despite ample opportunities to do so — is directly responsible for making him such a viable candidate in the minds of Americans of every race. Yet Sen. Clinton’s attempt to drag him into the racial imbroglio her campaign created could potentially convince people otherwise.

In the real world, Sen. Obama’s only true comment on the controversy came today, after being personally accused by Sen. Clinton of distorting her words. And what outlandish thing did he say to stoke the flames of racial discontent? He called Sen. Clinton’s MLK comment “unfortunate” and her accusation of Obama’s culpability “ludicrous.”

Indeed, it is. But the irony is that, should the mud she’s throwing stick, the Obama juggernaut could be sunk by a controversy in which it literally played no role. Ah, Rovian politics, how I’ve missed you.

Following the endorsement in SC by Sen. Kerry, Sen. Obama picked up key endorsements from AZ Governor Janet Napolitano and SD Senator Tim Johnson.  And now, CNN reports he’s getting the nod from conservative Nebraska Democratic Senator Ben Nelson.

Additionally, the New York Times is reporting that former Nebraska Senator Bob Kerrey, who has endorsed Sen. Clinton and even had to apologize to Sen. Obama for remarks about his ancestry and heritage, had this to say over a private lunch:

“If you’re talking about having somebody in your living room every day for four years — on the television — people are going to have to like listening to them. In that category, I like Obama better.”

Whether these affirmations of support from prominent Dems will make any difference remains to be seen — but if voters are hesitant to pull the lever for Sen. Obama because he lacks Washington experience, the seal of approval from these old Washington hands should help assuage those concerns.

Outstanding, if true…

(CNN) – Former 2004 presidential hopeful Sen. John Kerry will endorse Sen. Barack Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination, two sources told CNN Thursday.

The announcement will come at 2 p.m. in Charleston, S.C., the sources said.

“(Kerry) remains one of the most popular figures in the Democratic Party and (has) an e-mail list with millions of addresses,” an Obama source said.

Kerry ran in 2004 on the Democratic ticket with former Sen. John Edwards, who is running this year for party’s presidential nomination.

A tough break, given the heightened expectations and polls. Coming out of NH, where he missed first place by only a few thousand votes, Sen. Obama has put the best possible face on this development and heads into NV and SC poised to regain the frontrunner mantle.

In NV, he has the endorsement of the Culinary Workers’ Union, which has a membership of over 60,000 and is very active in the state. In SC, the talking heads wonder if Obama’s success in whiter states will convince African American voters of Obama’s viability, since black voters constitute half of the state’s democratic voters. We’ve talked here about the foolishness of discussing black voters as a monolithic block, but for those for whom this logic is persuasive, hopefully the momentum will be enough to carry him through.

I have to admit, I started counting chickens yesterday — actually told a friend I could see Sen. Obama winning every state but NY. Ah, well. At least now it’s a race.

As goes Maine, so goes the nation…

Portland Press Herald: Obama should get his party’s nomination

… His abilities to compromise, inspire and speak to a broad spectrum of the electorate earns him our endorsement for the Democratic nomination in 2008. …

Obama’s ability to inspire was on display in Maine on Sept. 25, when he packed the Portland Expo, thrilling the crowd of young and old supporters with a call to work together for the common good. Politics, he said, was a mission, not a business. …

But Obama has demonstrated a predisposition for sitting down with people of diverse views and reaching a consensus. That makes him the most likely candidate to breakdown the current stalemates in Washington.

The unthinkable happened:

In his victory speech, Sen. Obama acknowledged exactly how unlikely most of the chattering class considered this possibility to be. Winning Iowa is a triumph of new vision over entrenched establishment thinking — and it’s just the beginning. Funny thing about dominoes.