Kennedys Claim Their Own

In the wake of Senator Obama's landslide primary victory in South Carolina, the Kennedys have made a big to-do of formally endorsing him for president. First it was JFK's daughter Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg over the weekend. Today it's Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and his son, Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI). Considering the questionable state of sobriety at a given moment for those last two, I'm not so sure that they won't regret it in the morning, but I am sure that Obama will make the most of their seal of approval.

Says Allahpundit:

Having him and Caroline endorse as a pair will go a long way towards sidetracking the post-Carolina “black candidate” narrative Team Hillary’s trying to jump-start, so either Obama’s the luckiest pol alive or this is a master stroke of media management by him and his campaign

A dead-on assessment, but what I find interesting is the convergence of the Kennedy family and Obama's existence. Don't forget; the Kennedy Foundation is directly responsible for Obama being here. (Of course, the foundation is responsible for me being here also but I'm not exactly "on-message." Story of my life.)

Do you wonder what's going on behind the scenes at Team Clinton? These lines from the Politico article might give some indication:

Rejecting a personal entreaty from President Bill Clinton, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy plans to endorse Barack Obama for president in a joint appearance on Monday, Democratic sources said. [SNIP]

“This is the biggest Democratic endorsement Obama could possibly get short of Bill Clinton,” said a high-level Democrat.

:::snort:::

UPDATE: Obama has an uphill battle in the big states with the exception of Georgia and, of course, Illinois.

That the Kennedys, Senator John Kerry--you remember him, don't you?--and several other Democrat senators are going out of their way to give Obama a push in the face of these numbers says more than their estimation of him as "the face of hope"--it says that there's some bad blood between Senator Clinton and some of her colleagues. Juicy.

[Re-edited]

(Thanks to Gabriel Malor at Ace of Spades HQ)