Ted is a revered icon up here, but he relatively unrepresentive of the bulk of his constituents these days. That is good and bad.
If he listens to anyone, it is certainly not the typical Massacusetts voter. He is a champion of the underdog and that is the focus of his agenda.

IMO, which may be completey wrong, his endorsemnt of Obama, will have liitle or possibly the opposte effect in our state.

Where as just a few weeks ago I was nuetral, I find this alignment against Hillary is pushing me strongly in her camp.

What we all want is a politician who listens to and represent us. We just elected Deval Patrick sort of an Obama-lite as Governor. So for he seems to repesenting only the special interests. He has this I know better then you attitude.

at least they both have something in common ;-)

For those of us old enough to remember Caroline as a child romping with her father on the sands of Hyannis, or the carpet of The Oval Office, she will rekindle memories of a once hopeful America.

For those who diminish the effect of Senator Ted's endorsement, watch the reception he receives when he appears before those Hispanic and union workers Fred mentions above.

The Lion and The Little Girl unleashed.

My two cents, endorsemnets from Kennedy and Kerry will have little effect in the hispanic and non-black communities across the country. I think they will have little or the reverse effect up here in Massachusetts.

but Central Mass ain't California whose population is 36% Hispanic.

Do the Hispanic and African-American communities have a tight relationship in Caifornia?

.

That was my perception.

IM0 this was a bad move on Kennedy's part. He and Kerry both should have kept their noses out of the fray. In MA recent poll showed Hillary in the lead by a big margin and these two clowns, who supposedly represent our state first, go out and endorse another candiate. This is just the type of thing that pisses voters off.

The United Farm Workers union endorses her. One expert says Obama remains a relatively unknown entity

By James Rainey, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
January 23, 2008

The New York senator won Saturday's Nevada caucuses, besting Obama by 2 to 1 among Latinos.

And a Field Poll released Tuesday showed her with an even bigger advantage -- 59% to 19% -- among Latinos likely to vote in the Feb. 5 California primary.

Clinton greeted an overflow crowd of more than 2,000 at the gymnasium of Hartnell College in this agricultural city, where she received the endorsement of the United Farm Workers of America.

Arturo Rodriguez, president of the union, told an audience that included a contingent of red-shirted farm workers from across California that the UFW's leadership had reached a "unanimous" decision to endorse Clinton.

"We know that Sen. Clinton . . . will ensure that Americans get health insurance throughout the United States," Rodriguez told the crowd. "She will ensure that the economic issues that face working families in America will be dealt with in her administration. She will repair the relationships with countries throughout the world."

When Clinton took the gymnasium stage, the crowd shouted greetings and chanted her name. During her speech and a brief question-and-answer session, Clinton hewed mainly to economic themes that have dominated the campaign in recent days.

The crowd greeted her most warmly when she talked about reforming education -- making preschool available to all children and scrapping President Bush's No Child Left Behind program to put more decision-making in the hands of teachers.

That launched the crowd into the traditional farm workers union chant, "Si, se puede!"

Field Poll Director Mark DiCamillo said Clinton has consistently been well received in the Latino community. "Obama has not been able to dent her advantage," he said.

Harry Pachon, president of the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute at USC, said Obama remains an unknown quantity to many Latinos.

A Spanish-language news report from the Nevada caucuses described some voters as unclear even as to the name of Clinton's prime challenger. "They were looking for an Omega, not an Obama," Pachon said. "So his name is just not recognized yet."

Just a few facts: In addition to those already mentioned, others today at the Stand for Change Rally with Sen. Kennedy and Sen. Obama included Eunice Kennedy Shriver who founded the Special Olympics and Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith.

He was a big Edwards guy too.

Just like anyone else elected to the White House in the past century besides the Clintons, as some here would have us believe.

....would work out great if only those pesky Republicans would play along...

Whatever hopes people might have had that Mr. Clinton would usher in a new era of national unity were quickly dashed. Within just a few months the country was wracked by the bitter partisanship Mr. Obama has decried. This bitter partisanship wasn’t the result of anything the Clintons did. Instead, from Day 1 they faced an all-out assault from conservatives determined to use any means at reaching for their smelling salts because Democratic candidates are saying slightly critical things about each other, it’s worth revisiting those years, simply to get a sense of what dirty politics really looks like.

Paul Krugman today

"The Right always knows who its enemies are" Lance Mannion

Are you refering to Obama as a uniter?

such as JFK, FDR, etc.

her to endorse as a candidate. There seems to be a lot of that going around this time.

Steve Clemons is a friend of mine. Steve Clemons is no Caroline Kennedy and any statement addressed to Caroline about "messing" with her father's memory is just plain offensive.

Steve is also so far off base on the Cuban Missle Crisis that he might as well be on the moon.

...so I guess you must think that Wes might as well be on the moon too.

Nice to know

"The Right always knows who its enemies are" Lance Mannion

"Listen folks -- I've been offline for a full day, and I see the passions running high here.

Calm down...push the reset button. I'm going to end the thread here in the hopes that people will return to civility and stop all attacks on anyone. This is a policy blog -- debating the issues is fine.

But stop the assaults on character and one's motivations.
Really appreciate it.
Many thanks,
Steve Clemons
Posted by: Steve Clemons at January 28, 2008 01:38 PM"

Looks like Clemons hit a nerve.

...had to turn her comments off.

Edwards' bodice rippers have nothing on Obama supporters.

"The Right always knows who its enemies are" Lance Mannion

does hit a nerve, it really does, especially because John Kennedy can't defend himself. Somehow, I don't think Hillary is going to win this thing with snarky comments by her surrogates about the Kennedys.

...JFK did a wonderful job handling the Cuban Missle Crisis.

Tell me more, Howard. What did Clemons say about JFK and the Cuban Missile Crisis? For that matter, I haven't heard Clark weigh in on that subject. What did he say?

Stan Davis
Lakewood, CO
Wes Clark -- Make America All It Can Be!

Gen Clark discussing Kruschev/JFK/Obama:

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com
/2007/12/06/a-jfk-comparison-for-obama-that-is-not-a-compliment/

Yup...I remember that.

Here's a complete link.

Stan Davis
Lakewood, CO
Wes Clark -- Make America All It Can Be!

endorsed Obama yet? Oh, I forgot. He's endorsed McCain. Didn't Joe have something to do with Obama?

Substance! What a concept!

according this, Obama certainly has a lot of weaknesses.

It takes an oldster to overcome the youngster's weaknesses.

Hmmm....

I have a tremendous amount of admiration for Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, fwiw.

what concerns me is that polls dating back to 2006 have consistently shown that 50 percent of likely voters state they will not vote for Senator Clinton, while only about 35 percent will.

This being the case, I do not see how she has any chance whatsoever of winning the general election, even against Republican wackos like McCain or Rudy.

If you know how she can win with at best 35-45 percent of voters voting for her, please tell me.

...to said polls?

Last time I looked her unfavorables (50%) were slightly lower than Obama's (51%)

"The Right always knows who its enemies are" Lance Mannion

is that neither of them has a chance of winning. Looks like we should all support John Edwards.

...usually aren't stagnant.

Hillary's have only gone down since she entered the race.

The problem she has is with Big Media. The Corporate Press are part of the DC insiders....they go to the same cocktail parties, their kids go to the same schools etc. It's an insular bubble that Digby calls the "Village"

Bill Clinton has always been an outsider to them...whether it was because he was just a "hick from Arkansas" or he refused to play their games....who knows.....but this disdain shows up in their writings all the time (see MoDo and Frank Rich)

Anyway....

If you track her unfavorables, you'll find that the more people who see her "unfiltered" by Tweety et al, the more they find that the picture they paint is a false one. They find that she is not at all the cold calculating person they have been peddling for so long. They find that they actually like her..... and as a result, her unfavorables have steadily come down as the campaign has progressed.

If she wins the Nom, she will have greater unfiltered access to voters and they will come down even more.

And don't forget, having unfavorables, doesn't mean that voter won't vote for them. If the guy on the other side's unfavorables are even higher, the voter will probably hold their nose and vote for the lesser of two evils.......just like I did with Kerry in 2004.

"The Right always knows who its enemies are" Lance Mannion

You know, mad, I do think there is an element of "how did this hick from Arkansas crash our party"? going on. There are people I believe, some among the 'establishment' Democrats, who will never forgive such a lowlife as Bill for getting to the White House. It's just not meant for people like that, you know? It makes me sick.

And, as far as the unfavorables go, you're right. If I recall correctly, when Hillary was campaigning for NY Senate election, the more people got a chance to actually see and meet her, the more they liked her. It's why she was able to do so well upstate where she wasn't expected to, because when people got a chance to meet her, they liked her a lot better than they expected to.

"The mark of leadership is not to standup when everybody is standing, but rather to actually stand up when no one else is standing" - Pulitzer Prize winning author Samantha Power, introducing Gen Clark

Digby pulls out the old quote by Broder every once in a while. Something like ....'he came into our place and trashed it'...or some such.

"The Right always knows who its enemies are" Lance Mannion

It is bad politics. A powerplay that threatens the democratic process.