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Monday, January 28, 2008

Kennedy Endorsement Speech: It's time for a new generation

Wow, Ted Kennedy just gave a great endorsement speech at an Obama rally at American University. The video and transcript are below. Money Quote:

"There was another time, when another young candidate was running for president and challenging America to cross a New Frontier." Kennedy says JFK also faced criticism from Democrats about his lack of experience.

"Harry Truman said we needed 'someone with greater experience' -- and added: 'May I urge you to be patient,'" Kennedy will say. "And John Kennedy replied: 'The world is changing. The old ways will not do... It is time for a new generation of leadership.' So it is with Barack Obama."

Update: Here's a video with the highlights of Kennedy's and Obama's speeches:



Update: Here's a video of the entire event:



Read More: Kennedy: It's time for a new generation

Go Here for a full transcript of Ted Kennedy's speech. Here are some highlights:

Every time I’ve been asked over the past year who I would support in the Democratic Primary, my answer has always been the same: I’ll support the candidate who inspires me, who inspires all of us, who can lift our vision and summon our hopes and renew our belief that our country’s best days are still to come.

[Barack Obama] will be a president who refuses to be trapped in the patterns of the past. He is a leader who sees the world clearly without being cynical. He is a fighter who cares passionately about the causes he believes in, without demonizing those who hold a different view.

He is tough-minded, but he also has an uncommon capacity to appeal to “the better angels of our nature.”

We know the true record of Barack Obama. There is the courage he showed when so many others were silent or simply went along. From the beginning, he opposed the war in Iraq.

And let no one deny that truth.

Now, with Barack Obama, there is a new national leader who has given America a different kind of campaign—a campaign not just about himself, but about all of us. A campaign about the country we will become, if we can rise above the old politics that parses us into separate groups and puts us at odds with one another.

They realized that when they asked what they could do for their country, they could change the world.

I sense the same kind of yearning today, the same kind of hunger to move on and move America forward. I see it not just in young people, but in all our people.

And in Barack Obama, I see not just the audacity, but the possibility of hope for the America that is yet to be.

What counts in our leadership is not the length of years in Washington, but the reach of our vision, the strength of our beliefs, and that rare quality of mind and spirit that can call forth the best in our country and our people.

With Barack Obama, we will turn the page on the old politics of misrepresentation and distortion.

With Barack Obama, we will close the book on the old politics of race against race, gender against gender, ethnic group against ethnic group, and straight against gay.

So let us reject the counsels of doubt and calculation.

Let us remember that when Franklin Roosevelt envisioned Social Security, he didn’t decide—no, it was too ambitious, too big a dream, too hard.

I am convinced we can reach our goals only if we are “not petty when our cause is so great”-- only if we find a way past the stale ideas and stalemate of our times – only if we replace the politics of fear with the politics of hope – and only if we have the courage to choose change.

Barack Obama is the one person running for President who can bring us that change.

Barack Obama is the one person running for President who can be that change.

I know that he’s ready to be President on day one. And when he raises his hand on Inauguration Day, at that very moment, we will lift the spirits of our nation and begin to restore America’s standing in the world.

There was another time, when another young candidate was running for President and challenging America to cross a New Frontier. He faced public criticism from the preceding Democratic President, who was widely respected in the party. Harry Truman said we needed “someone with greater experience”—and added: “May I urge you to be patient.” And John Kennedy replied: “The world is changing. The old ways will not do…It is time for a new generation of leadership.”

It is time again for a new generation of leadership.

It is time now for Barack Obama.

Posted by Metavirus at 1/28/2008 01:27:00 PM  

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