Flanked by some of Barack Obama's Southern California congressional endorsers including my own congressman Adam Schiff and Xavier Becerra, Teddy Kennedy stood on a small stage in front of a surprisingly modest crowd of a few hundred at a community college in East Los Angeles and spoke passionately on behalf of Barack Obama. Many people in the largely latino crowd held a blue "Latinos For Obama" sign in one hand and a red "Si Se Puede" sign in the other. It's no accident that the Obama campaign has sent Teddy Kennedy to campaign in New Mexico and California, they clearly see him as key to eating into the huge support Hillary Clinton enjoys among the hispanic community. Chuck Todd put his appeal among the community this way: "Many California latinos hang two pictures in their home, one of the Pope and one of JFK." That may be true but if the size of the crowd today was any indication, I'm not sure he's going to be all that helpful. It's also telling that Obama himself has left California to surrogates. According to Todd, the campaign thinks they're going to get maybe 45% here on Tuesday; maybe they can overperform but Obama's going to other states before February 5th is a sign that they're willing to sacrifice a possible win in California for wins in other states that day.
Kennedy's rallying cry on behalf of Obama centered around nothing terribly tangible but focused on what Kennedy called "the kind of spirit and kind of enthusiasm Obama brings to the campaign; a transformational attitude." As evidence for the need for that right now, Kennedy cited the gridlock we see in the senate right now, both on the stimulus package and the wiretapping legislation. Washington is "paralyzed" he said and Obama is the answer. "We need a leader who is going to be able to lead, break down the barriers and get things done." What Kennedy failed to make the case for, however, is why Obama is uniquely equipped to be that leader and Hillary Clinton is not. Nowhere in his speech was an acknowledgement of what's really keeping Washington deadlocked: the obstructionist minority and an unyielding president. Of course this idea that in 2009, with the congressional majorities the Democratic president will enjoy, president Obama would by definition get more done than president Clinton is central to Obama's "I'm a uniter she's a divider" message but I'm still waiting for a case to be made for that that isn't faith-based. Kennedy didn't provide it today. He certainly spoke about this belief he has passionately and for those that trust Kennedy implicitly, that may be enough.
Kennedy also spoke briefly about immigration and how he as the grandson of immigrants and Obama as the son of one, have a kinship with immigrants in this country. He said Obama understands the key values of immigrants: hard work, family unity, faith and the desire to give back to their country. Here is where I think Kennedy really tapped into something. The call to action that is central to Obama's campaign ("change in America never came from the top down, it came from the bottom up...") is in stark contrast to Hillary Clinton's model of the president as hard worker in chief and the extent to which Kennedy can appeal to the desire of immigrants to give back to America and draw a parrallel between that ethic and Obama's call to action for people to have a stake in their country could be very effective.
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