January 27, 2008
Op-Ed Contributor
A President Like My Father
By CAROLINE KENNEDY
OVER the years, I’ve been deeply moved by the people who’ve told me they wished they could feel inspired and hopeful about America the way people did when my father was president. This sense is even more profound today. That is why I am supporting a presidential candidate in the Democratic primaries, Barack Obama.
My reasons are patriotic, political and personal, and the three are intertwined. All my life, people have told me that my father changed their lives, that they got involved in public service or politics because he asked them to. And the generation he inspired has passed that spirit on to its children. I meet young people who were born long after John F. Kennedy was president, yet who ask me how to live out his ideals.
Sometimes it takes a while to recognize that someone has a special ability to get us to believe in ourselves, to tie that belief to our highest ideals and imagine that together we can do great things. In those rare moments, when such a person comes along, we need to put aside our plans and reach for what we know is possible.
We have that kind of opportunity with Senator Obama. It isn’t that the other candidates are not experienced or knowledgeable. But this year, that may not be enough. We need a change in the leadership of this country — just as we did in 1960.
Most of us would prefer to base our voting decision on policy differences. However, the candidates’ goals are similar. They have all laid out detailed plans on everything from strengthening our middle class to investing in early childhood education. So qualities of leadership, character and judgment play a larger role than usual.
Senator Obama has demonstrated these qualities throughout his more than two decades of public service, not just in the United States Senate but in Illinois, where he helped turn around struggling communities, taught constitutional law and was an elected state official for eight years. And Senator Obama is showing the same qualities today. He has built a movement that is changing the face of politics in this country, and he has demonstrated a special gift for inspiring young people — known for a willingness to volunteer, but an aversion to politics — to become engaged in the political process.
I have spent the past five years working in the New York City public schools and have three teenage children of my own. There is a generation coming of age that is hopeful, hard-working, innovative and imaginative. But too many of them are also hopeless, defeated and disengaged. As parents, we have a responsibility to help our children to believe in themselves and in their power to shape their future. Senator Obama is inspiring my children, my parents’ grandchildren, with that sense of possibility.
Senator Obama is running a dignified and honest campaign. He has spoken eloquently about the role of faith in his life, and opened a window into his character in two compelling books. And when it comes to judgment, Barack Obama made the right call on the most important issue of our time by opposing the war in Iraq from the beginning.
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.
Caroline Kennedy is the author of “A Patriot’s Handbook: Songs, Poems, Stories and Speeches Celebrating the Land We Love.”
Monday, January 28, 2008
Barack Obama Is No Jesse Jackson
Bill Clinton's latest "trick" has been to try and explain away Barack Obama. So Barack Obama won South Carolina, so what? Jesse Jackson also won South Carolina in 1984 and 1988.
And I had been suspecting the Clintons are trying to take us back to the 1990s, a little bit of time warp, a little bit of time travel. Wrong. They are trying to take us back to the 1980s. Or why mention Jesse?
If Bill Clinton had given a solid convention speech in 1988, I would have compared him to Barack Obama who gave a solid convention speech in 2004, but Bill did not deliver. He was an object of ridicule in the aftermath. The speech was so lousy it was widely predicted he would never run for national office.
Jesse Jackson is a great guy, a historic figure. He was prominent in the civil rights movement of the 1960s. And I am personally thankful for the two runs for president he made in the 1980s. If it were not for those two runs, Barack might not have been able to run today. I have that same sense of thankfulness for Dean 2004. Dean 2004 did the early, hard work. Obama 2008 built on it.
So no doubt Jesse is a great guy. But Jesse never ran for president. He just ran to make a statement. And he ran hard.
Barack is not running to make a statement. He is running to be president. He is not running to become the first black president. He is just running for president.
Jesse is black. Barack is biracial. That is an important distinction.
Barack became Senator. Jesse always thought he was too big to be merely a Senator. MLK never became Senator. He was above Senator. And so Jesse was not going to be Senator either.
Jesse fought the hard battles that Barack did not have to fight, but battles Barack benefited from.
Bill Clinton said fairytale. Hillary said slum. She went ahead and belittled MLK. And the Clintons are now paying the price. Black America is coming of age and a second place is no longer acceptable.
It is entirely possible Bill Clinton just does not get it. He does not get the gist of the Barack candidacy. He does not get the new kind of politics. He only knows slash and burn. Decades after world war two there were Japanese soldiers on remote Pacific islands still fighting the war: noone ever told them it was over.
Barack just took over from Bill Clinton the top spotlight in the Democratic Party. And that taking over will be official on February 5 when Barack will be anointed the nominee, the day when it becomes official.
Barack Obama Kennedy
After the endorsements by JFK daughter and brother, my guy might as well add an additional last name.
Take South Carolina Bill Clinton Out To California
Tell the women in California, Hillary is not the woman they think she is. She let her husband take over.
Give 10 States To Bill Clinton
Hillary should focus on the other 12. Give 10 to Bill. Oh, how I would love that.
Florida
Florida does not count. Why is Hillary going against party rules and campaigning in Florida?
A McCain-Romney Ticket
Looks like that is what we will have for fall. I like the idea of a Mormon on a national ticket. We will defeat him, but he will have broken a glass barrier in the process for the non-Christians.
Rudy Is Available
I think Rudy should be made Secretary of Homeland Security by President Obama.
In The News
Races Entering Complex Phase Over Delegates New York Times a potentially protracted scramble for delegates Congressional district by Congressional district ...... 52 percent of Democratic delegates will be chosen. ...... complex delegate-allocation rules .... Arizona, Kansas, Missouri and New Mexico. ....... The possibility of a long-term slog is real for Democrats, given that Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama appear evenly matched in resources and political talent. ...... If the polls were wrong in New Hampshire, where Obama seemed to be ahead only to lose narrowly to Clinton on the night, they were more wrong in South Carolina. ....... Bill Clinton tried to do just that on Saturday night, instantly reminding reporters that the last major African American candidate, Jesse Jackson, had also won South Carolina in 1984 and 1988. ....... In Iowa he demonstrated he could win white votes; in South Carolina he showed he could win African American ones ....... If Obama can rely on similarly solid African American support in Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee ....... delegate-rich California where she is thought to have an advantage, especially among Hispanic voters. ....... the intensity of voters' feelings ..... "voters kind of recoiled" from the Clintons' apparent racialising of the contest ........ feminists who wonder why a powerful woman such as Clinton cannot fight her own battles.
Kennedy Chooses Obama, Spurning Plea by Clintons Mr. Kennedy had become increasingly disenchanted with the tone of the Clinton campaign .... He and former President Bill Clinton had a heated telephone exchange earlier this month over what Mr. Kennedy considered misleading statements by Mr. Clinton about Mr. Obama, as well as his injection of race into the campaign. ....... Mr. Kennedy, a major figure in party politics for more than 40 years, intends to campaign aggressively for Mr. Obama, beginning with an appearance and rally with him in Washington on Monday. He will be introduced by Ms. Kennedy. ........ bolstering Mr. Obama’s credibility and helping him firm up support from unions and Hispanics, as well as the party base. ..... assertions that Mr. Clinton’s campaigning on behalf of his wife in South Carolina has in some ways hurt her candidacy. ...... he was intrigued by Mr. Obama’s seeming ability to inspire political interest in a new generation ...... when he learned that his niece’s endorsement would appear as an Op-Ed piece in The New York Times on Sunday, he decided to bolster that with his own public embrace of the campaign ...... two years ago, Ms. Townsend’s mother, Ethel Kennedy, referred to Mr. Obama in an interview as “our next president” and likened him to her late husband. ....... He’s not selling you. It’s just him.
Now Obama has momentum as race heads for long haul
Obama and Clinton go nationwide with less face time, more air time
Toni Morrison Endorses Obama
Clinton’s Camp Seeks Gentler Role for Ex-President
Polls Don't Mean S__t: February 5 Can Be Had
Polls put Barack and Hillary at 38 to 30 in South Carolina with Hillary gaining a few points on the final day. But the final tally was more like 55 to 27.
Polls put Hillary as leading all February 5 states except Illinois and Georgia. Polls don't mean s__t.
Let's Finish This Thing On February 5
I am not one for waiting. Don't take me to March. Finish this thing on February 5. Let's go win this thing. We have a world to change.
Landslide In South Carolina Means Victory On Fabulous 5
How To Win On February 5
February 5: Big Prizes
Obama 2008 is the largest grassroots movement this world ever saw. This is bigger than Gandhi's Salt March. This is bigger than MLK's march on DC. This is bigger than the million man march. This is bigger than Dean 2004.
Let's whip up our volunteer base like we have not in all of 2007 and so far in 2008. Let's whip up for money, let's whip up for time. Whip it up to knock on doors, whip it up to make phone calls, to hand out flyers.
If it is worth pounding the pavements for Barack all February, and all March, and all April, and all summer if need be, it is worth pounding the pavements for Barack for just one intense week and be done with it. If you are willing to do it for three months, and I know you are, why will you not be willing to do it for just one week and be done with it?
Be done with it.
This is the final countdown.
Pound. Pick up that phone. Make that phone call. Go knock on that door.
Give me the best cheetah sprint you can give. This week. This is the week.
The moment we have been waiting for is here. Seize it.
As for me, I am going to do the subway thing myself. I am going to connect one person at a time. In person. I bought a weekly pass yesterday for 24 bucks. I am going to do the photocopy thing soon. First I am going to print out the flyer at the local library. I know, I don't got no printer. I am a totally online person. Printers were before the internet. Then I am going to the local corner store where I buy an occasional Pepsi before going underground and off to the city. And I am going to make copies, five cents a piece. And I am going to talk to people. Every waking hour until February 5 belongs to Barack.
I am going to dress warm. I was at cold at the two outdoors events over the weekend. I am going to put on my woolen socks I bought in Kathmandu in 1996. And a woolen cap. And gloves.
And I am going to work the city.
Barack, you are a cheetah from the African savannah. Go, get 'em, tiger.
December 18: Crash The Party
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