Submitted by Melody Miller, Feb 13, 2008 17:55

First off, there are three or four Kennedy family members strongly supporting Hillary Clinton. Senator Kennedy mentored her in the U.S. Senate when she was newly elected. They have a good relationship. President Clinton chose Jean Kennedy Smith to be the Ambassador to Ireland and the family has not forgotten that. She and Sen. Kennedy worked hard to help him successfully end the civil strife that had gone on so long there, and now is essentially over. Other members of the family are supporting Sen. Obama, because they find him to be an inspirational leader. The Kennedy family is not some monolithic machine. They go their own way and lead their own lives. They've had warm relations with the Clinton's and both families have socialized together, and have been supportive and helpful to one another on various issues and causes. Also, John Kerry is no lapdog for the Kennedy family, but a man of Silver Star courage who makes his own decisions, often different than Sen. Kennedy, and was not a stalking horse for any of them. Sen. Obama is supported by Sen. Kennedy and other members of the Kennedy family because they see in him a chance to bring the country together in a meaningful way to achieve the real repairs and progress so necessary after the terrible damage done by the Bush/Cheney administration. Sen. Kennedy is also known as Mr. Civil Rights on Capitol Hill, having helped steer every major piece of civil rights legislation into law in the last forty years, and in Sen. Obama he sees a chance to further the unfinished business of America, which is to end racism. And finally, Kennedy family members know that fulfilling public service is possible at different levels of government, in the private sector, (like Joe 4 Oil), and in the Peace Corps where members of the younger generation have recently served.

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