"A President Like My Father"

Subtitle: "Don't Worry Dad - This is Not About You! You Are Head and Shoulders Above Any of The Candidates."

Sunday morning in the New York Times, Caroline Kennedy formally endorsed Barack Obama with her article on the Opinion Page entitled "A President Like My Father." This was followed later in the day by Senator Ted Kennedy expressing his support for Obama as well. These acts were a hard blow to Hillary, who counts the Kennedy's as long time friends, but will they make a difference in the election?

I think that they could. Although, my personal opinion for Ted Kennedy is somewhat low, he is the second longest seated senator and he does have the distinction of being the youngest brother of John Kennedy. Many of the older democrats (and others) still consider JFK one of the greatest presidents that ever served. This could be a huge swing for older democrats who have considered Obama to have too little experience - Kennedy does have the experience card. Obama has had a great amount of support with younger voters and this possible gain of older voters could help him greatly in the coming weeks. Caroline's article in the Times also could bring in some undecided voters who, like many today, consider JFK a hero, especially among blacks and minorities. The Kennedy name holds a heavy hand with Hispanic voters too, since one of Robert Kennedy's closest friends was Cesar Chavez.

I do see some similarities between JFK and Obama, one of them being hope. I think that JFK gave a lot of people hope for better times and I know that Obama is doing that. I listened to his speech yesterday after the South Carolina primary and it gave me chills in some points. There is no doubt that he and Kennedy will be known for their motivation and ability to get people excited and caring about something. I see that as a real challenge today - to get people to care about something, anything. When people start caring about things (other than themselves), it really does have the potential to change things.

Why the sudden support from the Kennedy's? Is it because they truly stand behind Obama or is it because Ted Kennedy has become increasing disappointed in the "Hill-Billy" campaign and their dirty tactics? He has been very vocal about his disagreement with the way Bill has campaigned and his opinion has apparently fallen on deaf ears with Hillary's people. Hillary also seems to be loosing some of the female support due to Bill's presence. According to many, women were pleased to see such a strong female character, but Bill's attempts to "take over" the campaign have disappointed many.

We were talking about our "personal voting history" yesterday and we cannot remember a single time we voted for a major democratic candidate. We have voted for some independent candidates before, but not democratic and certainly not in the primaries. (We are young though - we have each only voted in two presidential primaries, three presidential elections.) Could we actually go to the dark side this year?!!?? We laughed, commenting that it will depend on who is running the polls when we go vote - in our small town, some of the ladies from our church tend to preside over elections and I would hate to go to church on Sunday where everyone knew that "the Winter's voted in the Democratic primary!" But change looks good to us. The status quo is not very promising for middle class families, just trying to provide for their families and be comfortable. The health care system is in crisis and the social security system that we have paid into for a combined 30+ years won't help us as it currently works. We are worried not only for our future, but that of our child's as well. There is still a long time to go until the Texas primaries and the tables could be completely different by then. I guess we will see.......