Barack Obama, Camelot's New Knight

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Photos: Sen. Kennedy Endorses Obama

In a speech Monday, Jan. 28 at American University in Washington, D.C., Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) endorsed Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) for president. Kennedy endorsed Obama in spite of his longtime close ties to former president Bill Clinton and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

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The lady has access to millions of dollars and works with New York public schools, and she gets up there and says her three kids convinced her Obama is the heir of her father's political legacy and some political half-wit is going to say, gee, she's wrong on the merits?

Sure, Ted Kennedy spoke, the senator and brother of the hallowed president; and so did Rep. Patrick Kennedy, Caroline's cousin. But they are both politicians and therefore far more likely to dispense personal favors as political capital. (Not that there's anything wrong with that.) Obama was "humbled," he said, then proceeded to deliver a rousing (Kennedyesque?) speech to the faithful.

"The Kennedy family, more than any other, has always stood for what's best about the Democratic Party, and about America," he said. "That each of us can make a difference and all of us ought to try."

Hope! Inspiration! Longing!

Yes!

Bay of Pigs! Marilyn! No need to mention these sorts of things today.

It was a big-canvas day in the new America. This was designed, the pundits say, to get votes from blue-collar Democrats, from Hispanics in big-ticket states where Hillary Clinton leads and Obama trails.

Nothing wrong with that. This is politics.

We are never more than the myths we tell ourselves we are. Yesterday, the ideals of one of the nation's most beloved presidents were handed down for a new generation. It should make for a good story.