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Ted Kennedy visits Valley for Obama |
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Saturday, 01 March 2008 |
By JIM BARON
Republican Mike Huckabee strapping on a bass guitar to enliven a campaign rally is one thing, but Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy leading a senior-center sing-along of “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling” and “You Are My Sunshine” kicks the phenomenon up to a whole other level.
While lavishing the patented family charm on the lunchtime crowd at the Woonsocket Senior Center on Friday — with son Patrick, the 1st District Congressman, in tow, as well as Nuala Pell, wife of former Sen. Claiborne Pell — the elder statesman of the Kennedy clan also got in a few words on behalf of Sen. Barack Obama, the Democrat who Kennedy is endorsing for president.
Urging the seniors to come out and vote on Election Day, the senior Kennedy said, “The real question is who will give us the best opportunity to get things done? That’s really the principal difference: who can get the job done? That’s what I am interested in, what Patrick, Nuala and all of us are interested in, and we believe that Barack Obama has the opportunity to get things done.”
In an interview before the Woonsocket event, Kennedy said, “In these next four days, Rhode Island will be making a judgment and decision that will really be watched by the rest of the country and the rest of the world.
“How Rhode Island goes on March 4 can really make the judgment in terms of selecting the Democratic nominee and may very well make the decision in selecting who the next president of the United States is.”
Noting that Obama has won 11 straight primaries and caucuses, spread out across the country from the state of Washington to Maine, Wisconsin to South Carolina, a good showing in Rhode Island, widely considered to be Clinton country, on Primary Day would be a “powerful reaffirmation” of what happened in the other states.
“What I see in Rhode Island,” Kennedy said, “is the kind of opportunity for new leadership that I think the country needs in order to deal with the central challenges that working families and middle-income families are facing in health care and education and jobs, and also in terms of energy policy and global warming and particularly in bringing an end to the war that we never should have fought in the first place.
“Barack Obama will have the ability to deal with the war issue and I think this is a matter of enormous importance,” he said of his Senate colleague. “We could have rebuilt every public school in the country for two years of the cost of the Iraq war. Think of the difference that would have made in Rhode Island.”
Kennedy likened this moment in history to the 1930s when Social Security was established, or in the 1960s, when the Medicare and Medicaid programs were created and “we knocked down walls of discrimination.
“That’s exactly what Barack Obama is going to do: lift this country up and change the atmosphere to be able to deal with those kinds of issues and questions. That’s the point. He has that inspirational leadership to be able to do this. That’s why we are here. That’s why we are excited. That’s why we’re such supporters.”
The Kennedy father and son, along with Caroline Kennedy, daughter of President John Kennedy, made news recently when they invoked the family legacy in explaining their support for Obama, who is scheduled to visit Rhode Island College this afternoon.
“I think what Barack Obama understands, and what President Kennedy and Robert Kennedy understood, is the importance of challenging Americans. Americans always do best when they are challenged. Barack Obama is going to challenge us to deal with the central issues we are facing here at home and overseas.
“Americans want to be part of the solution,” Kennedy asserted,.“That is part of his message, to help you be part of the solution, a bottom-up solution.”
The Bay State’s senior senator says Americans are now ready to do that.
“We have had an administration that has used the politics of fear, the politics of division, the politics of special interest, and look where it has gotten us,” he said. “We are reverting to a very important time in American political history with Barack Obama and it is going to be the politics of challenge and change.”
Kennedy said he recently attended a conference “where America’s greatest historians were assembled to select the greatest presidents of the United States. The criteria they chose, he said, included, does the individual have a vision about where this country ought to be? Does he have a sound judgment? Is the person able to inspire people to support that vision? Has the person been able to get good people to work in the course of their undertaking?
“I said the answer to each of those is: that’s Barack Obama.”
Asked about a new TV ad from the Clinton campaign showing a phone ringing at the White House at 3 a.m. and suggesting that “something is happening in the world.” Would Sen. Kennedy be comfortable with President Obama answering that phone?
“Absolutely,” he answered. “He made the right call” on the Iraq war. “We had eight members of the U.S. Senate who were against the war when he spoke out against it. That phone rang and he answered it effectively and said America is not in imminent danger from Iraq.
“He demonstrated on the issue of war and peace, of central importance, that he has the judgment.” |
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 06 March 2008 )
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 | | | | I love the fact that the bridge is now open again and it didn't
take as long as I thought! Good work! R. Veveiros - Pawtucket | There are no good breakfast places now that Tigger's burned down.
The sidewalks are rolled up before 7pm and there is a lack of a friendly atmosphere.
I just returned from England and the people there bent over backwards to help us
out and were treated us like visiting dignitaries. There is nothing to do
at night except drink alcohol and heaven forbid if you drive afterward. I don't
really know what can be done but it's an unfriendly place. Gary Baxter - Pawtucket
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