Oh-eight (D): RFK’s kids step it up
Posted: Tuesday, January 29, 2008 9:20 AM by Domenico Montanaro
Filed Under:
Democrats
CLINTON: Clinton was in Massachusetts and Connecticut yesterday. “Clinton used her platforms -- gymnasiums in Springfield and Hartford packed with energized voters -- to criticize President Bush in advance of last night's State of the Union address. She barely alluded to her heated struggle with Barack Obama, who trounced her on Saturday in South Carolina's primary, and in Springfield she ignored the endorsement Senator Edward M. Kennedy was bestowing upon the Illinois senator about the same hour in Washington.”
The day after Ted Kennedy backed Obama, three of RFK's children: Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, RFK Jr. and Kerry Kennedy pen a supportive op-ed for Clinton in today's Los Angeles Times.
The New York Times’ David Brooks writes, "Last week there was the widespread revulsion at the Clintons’ toxic attempts to ghettoize Barack Obama. In private and occasionally in public, leading Democrats lost patience with the hyperpartisan style of politics -- the distortion of facts, the demonizing of foes, the secret admiration for brass-knuckle brawling and the ever-present assumption that it’s necessary to pollute the public sphere to win. All the suppressed suspicions of Clintonian narcissism came back to the fore. Are these people really serving the larger cause of the Democratic Party, or are they using the party as a vehicle for themselves?"
“The Rev. Al Sharpton Monday joined the chorus of Democrats telling Bill Clinton to zip it. ‘As one of the most outspoken people in America, I think there's a time to shut up. That time has come,’ Sharpton said,” per the New York Daily News. “Whether he thinks it's the press distorting him or not, his making these statements is polarizing the country."
EDWARDS: The campaign appears to have decided to become a movement candidate who worries as much about the platform fights at the convention (or more importantly, becomes the kingmaker between Clinton and Obama). “‘We’re still hoping that John is the nominee,’ said David Bonior, the national campaign manager. ‘But with a chunk of delegates, you can leverage what you’ve been fighting for and standing for. You can raise these issues to where they should be on the Democratic agenda. We’re running for those two reasons: to get the nomination and to have his voice heard on his issues.’”
More: "Edwards is keeping up a relentless schedule, this week in Georgia, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota and Tennessee, all states that will vote on Feb. 5, and he is running television advertisements in 10 states.”
“Money is still not a problem, his aides insisted. Though Mr. Edwards has raised significantly less than Mrs. Clinton or Mr. Obama has raised, his campaign has been on a budget of $1.2 million a month and has enough to go through the primaries. He has raised more than $3 million this month, in part because of liberal bloggers, who recently organized a one-day fund-raiser that brought in more than $300,000."
OBAMA: Per the campaign, Obama will deliver a speech in El Dorado, Kansas (the former hometown of his grandparents) before heading to Kansas City, MO for a rally.
“A federal judge here revoked bond on Monday and ordered Antoin Rezko, once a major fund-raiser for Senator Barack Obama, held in jail after prosecutors accused him of lying to the court about his finances,” the New York Times writes. “Mr. Rezko, who had been free on bond after being indicted in 2006 on charges of business fraud and influence peddling, was arrested early Monday at his home in Wilmette, a North Shore suburb… The disclosures about Mr. Rezko could fuel efforts by Mr. Obama’s opponents in the presidential race to make Mr. Obama’s relationship with him an issue.”
The Boston Globe on yesterday’s Ted Kennedy endorsement: “In casting Barack Obama as a contemporary John F. Kennedy, a parade of Kennedys and Obama himself yesterday evoked Franklin D. Roosevelt, Martin Luther King Jr., and even Edward M. Kennedy's famous 1980 convention speech in paying tribute to their party's age-old commitment to the future.”
More: “For a candidate running on a promise to change Washington, aligning with a 45-year veteran of Capitol Hill might seem contradictory, analysts and elected officials said. But they said the Kennedy stamp of approval helps Obama with what has been his biggest vulnerability: a worry among Democrats that he can't win.”
Per the AP, “Democratic U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva of Arizona is endorsing Barack Obama after earlier backing John Edwards in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. Grijalva cited Obama's electability and his intention to "fundamentally change the rules of the game" in Washington, according to a statement obtained by The Associated Press in advance of a planned Tuesday conference call with reporters.”
The New York Daily News writing about last night’s State of the Union: “Barack Obama entered the House chamber Monday night like he was there to deliver a State of the Union address, not listen to one. A crush of well-wishers, from teenage pages to grizzled lawmakers, caused a logjam as he walked in, leaving Hillary Clinton to wait outside for a political eternity. Clinton edged her way in at 8:45 p.m., trailing the glitter twins of Obama and new backer Sen. Ted Kennedy.”
