Intelligencer

Intelligencer

April 16, 2008

Kennedy Smith Endorses Obama

FORMER U.S. Ambassador to Ireland Jean Kennedy Smith, appointed by President Bill Clinton, has become the latest Kennedy family member to back Senator Barack Obama in the presidential race.

In an article on the Huffington Post, Kennedy Smith, somewhat surprisingly, cites her experience working on the Irish peace process, made possible by Clinton’s involvement, as her reason for backing Obama.

“My experience in Ireland made me realize that first and foremost we must choose a leader who appeals to what unites us, not what divides us,” Kennedy Smith wrote.

She also says she has “been troubled by the tactics and statements of some of Senator Clinton’s supporters in appealing to divisive interests.” Obama, she says, presents “a vision of an America not riven by partisan divisions.”

She also quotes John Hume, for long her favorite among the North’s leaders, and says what he taught her was “similar to what my brothers President Kennedy and Robert Kennedy taught me earlier —that we need leaders who speak to our sense of hope and to our aspirations to live our lives in service to a worthy cause.”

She adds, “I know that my experience, my conscience and my heart all point to Barack Obama, the messenger of hope…he offers the right moral vision for America.”

Kennedys for Clinton, Too

MEANWHILE, a niece and nephew of Kennedy Smith continue to campaign enthusiastically for Senator Hillary Clinton, making it clear that the family remains divided over who would make the next best president.

Kathleen Kennedy Townsend and Robert Kennedy Junior are in Pennsylvania, focusing on the Catholic vote, which is about 35% of the total there.

The New York Times reported on Tuesday, “In an open letter to Pennsylvania Catholics, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend and Robert F. Kennedy Junior, two children of Robert F. Kennedy, wrote, ‘Catholics have a partner in Hillary Clinton, one who will work to advance the common good of all Pennsylvanians and all Americans.’”

Strangely, the split among the Kennedy family places the younger generations supporting Clinton, against the older ones supporting Obama.

Interestingly, Robert Kennedy Junior has been talked about as a possible Senate replacement in New York for Clinton if she is elected president.

The well-known environmentalist has been active on a number of progressive causes, and reports say he has been interested in pursuing a political career for some time.

Catholic Vote Is Critical

THE same Times article that quoted the Kennedy siblings also commented on how critical the Catholic vote has become in presidential elections.

Until the Reagan era Democrats pretty much had a lock on it, but that changed when the former California governor took the White House.

Since then the Catholic vote has become the great swing vote in American politics. Whoever wins it can usually be assured of the White House.

It is more liberal that the Protestant vote, less liberal than the Jewish vote. In fact it pretty much approximates the center ground in American politics.

George Bush Senior held on to it, but Bill Clinton won it decisively when he became president. George W. Bush lost it narrowly to Al Gore in 2000 but won it easily against John Kerry, himself ironically a Catholic.

What those statistics tell you is that where the Catholic vote goes, so goes the country, with the exception of the Gore election, though he did win the popular vote.

Thus it is the focus of intense maneuvering this time around. So far, in the primaries Clinton has carried it by a whopping 63%. Her margin of victory or otherwise will be determined by Catholics in Pennsylvania on Tuesday.

Bush to Become Catholic?

SPEAKING of Catholicism — and why not in the week that’s in it, with the Pope visiting — The Washington Post recently ran a provocative article which speculated on whether Bush might convert to Catholicism, a la Tony Blair, after he leaves office.

The article reports, “Paul Weyrich, an architect of the religious right, detects in Bush shades of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who converted to Catholicism last year. ‘I think he is a secret believer,’ Weyrich says of Bush. Similarly, John DiIulio, Bush’s first director of faith-based initiatives, has called the president ‘a closet Catholic’.

The Post notes, “This Protestant president has surrounded himself with Roman Catholic intellectuals, speechwriters, professors, priests, bishops and politicians. These Catholics — and thus Catholic social teaching — have for the past eight years been shaping Bush’s speeches, policies and legacy to a degree perhaps unprecedented in U.S. history.”

The Post reports that people close to Bush say he “professed a not-so secret admiration” for the church and is personally attracted to the unity of its teaching.

“I think what fascinates him about Catholicism is its historical plausibility,” says a priest who has been talking to Bush about his faith. Interesting.

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