Obama is 'like JFK'
2008-01-29 09:11
Washington - Liberal lion Edward Kennedy positioned Barack Obama as the inspirational heir to his slain brother John F Kennedy as he endorsed his young Senate colleague on Monday to be the next US president.
Addressing a wildly enthusiastic rally of students at American University, the powerful Massachusetts senator drew an implicit line between Obama, 46, and the older guard of US politics embodied by White House hopeful Hillary Clinton.
"What counts in our leadership is not the length of years in Washington, but the reach of our vision, the strength of our beliefs, and that rare quality of mind and spirit that can call forth the best in our country and our people.
"With Barack Obama, we will turn the page on the old politics of misrepresentation and distortion," Kennedy said.
The 75-year-old patriarch of the tragedy-scarred clan said Obama reminded him of another time, in the 1960s, when he first entered the Senate at the age of 30.
"We had a new president who inspired the nation, especially the young, to seek a new frontier," Kennedy said.
"Those inspired young people marched, sat in at lunch counters, protested the war in Vietnam and served honourably in that war even when they opposed it.
"They realised that when they asked what they could do for their country, they could change the world. This is another such time."
The support from the dean of the Democratic Party's liberal wing came as a slap in the face to Clinton, amid reports that Kennedy had turned down an appeal for backing from her husband, the former president and his longtime ally, Bill Clinton.