Transcript: Edward Kennedy On Barack Obama
© National Journal Group Inc.
Monday, Feb. 4, 2008
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Q: Welcome to Senator Edward Kennedy, who is now out campaigning for Barack Obama. Welcome, Senator.
Kennedy: Good morning.Q: Senator, you are out in the West for Barack Obama. California is thought to be Hillary Clinton's state. What is the strongest case you can make for Obama in California?
Kennedy: Well, I think Barack Obama is doing well with the general population. I think with Latinos, additional work has to be done. He hasn't had the length of time to spend with that community. But when I talk to Latinos about the record Barack Obama has in working with local community organizers in Chicago, working with Latinos in Chicago -- primarily concerned about education, the preschool programs, good teachers, school dropouts -- when I talked to them about his program on health and on the economy, they are very interested.Q: The case certainly has been made by Senator Obama's supporters, and obliquely by the senator himself in a speech this week, that he is the most electable, in part because Hillary Clinton has been seen, certainly in polling, as polarizing. Do you think that she is polarizing?The most important point for them to know is that in Chicago and among the large Latino community in Illinois, Barack Obama got 75 percent of the vote. So for Latinos that get to know him and work with him, they trust him and they support him, and it's really a question about how much of that can the people that don't know him -- how much of that they are willing to embrace.
Kennedy: Well, I think she has been very involved in a number of issues and been willing to take a stance, and I think that that gains you some supporters and it gains you detractors. But I think what is the mark... real difference in this, is that both candidates have very similar positions with regard to the foreign policy and domestic policy, but one has the additional inspirational quality in order to get those kinds of positions both accepted and implemented in the Congress, and I think that is a very significant and important difference.Q: Speaking of his electability, our magazine, the National Journal, just ranked the voting records of the senators and Barack Obama came out as the most liberal of the 100 senators, even more liberal than yourself, Senator. Is this something that might hurt him in the general election?Barack Obama, when you have the chance to travel with him, whether it was out in the West or back in the East, you find young people who have basically been turned off politics -- they are glad to participate and volunteer in their community, but they basically have not been a part of politics -- are in now to politics because they want to be part of the solution. And this has been true all over the country, and it's north and south, and now it's not only the young but the old. And that is an inspirational part of politics which I think is taking place with his candidacy. I think it's unique; I think it's special; I think it's the kind of quality that we need at this time if we are really going to deal with these issues.
Kennedy: Well, I really don't think so. I think most people understand now that we have to transcend identity politics, don't we? We have to get beyond the sort of pigeonholing of individuals. That was sort of the old way; that was part of the old system of these past years. I think we are moving really beyond them. I mean, if you're for clean air and cleaning up the environment and investing to make sure your children are going to have clean air, clean water, is that conservative or is that liberal? Does investing in children's education so that they're going to be able to compete in a world economy -- is that liberal or conservative?Q: OK, well, thank you so much to Senator Edward Kennedy, out campaigning his heart out for Barack Obama this week. Thank you.I think most people today are moving beyond the strict labels. They want to know how the candidates stand -- that's what they want -- and whether they're going to be both right on the issues as well as fiscally responsible. I think Barack Obama, in watching him in the Senate, meets that standard.
Kennedy: Thanks very much, Linda. Good to talk to you.