For Obama, a Most Congenial Spot

FOR OBAMA, A MOST CONGENIAL SPOT
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Howard Kurtz]
[Commentary] Why did Sen Ted Kennedy's (D-MA) endorsement of Sen Barack Obama (D-IL) get so much media attention? "The endorsement included two things that media people like: Barack Obama, and the memory and glamour of the JFK years," says Slate writer John Dickerson, whose mother, Nancy Dickerson, covered and socialized with the late president. "Kennedy loved the press, loved the back and forth. He made it a Hollywood show, and you wanted to be part of the show. You were on the team if you were with Kennedy." Roger Simon, a Politico columnist, says Ted Kennedy is a strong campaigner but that the family "mystique" drove the story. "It was a Camelot moment," he says. "It was a huge, emotive outburst for the candidate who's won a lot of hearts in the press corps already. The fact is, we don't know how important it is." If Kennedy had backed Clinton instead, it's hard to imagine he would have drawn the same blowout coverage as did his appearance with Obama at American University, which was so packed that some journalists couldn't get in. Indeed, Clinton's endorsement by Robert Kennedy Jr. and Kathleen Kennedy Townsend was relegated to a mere footnote. The story got huge play because it fit into a larger narrative involving Obama as an avatar of the politics of inspiration, as contrasted with what is depicted as the old-style Clinton "machine."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/03/AR200802...
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