As Ted Kennedy and other Democratic Party elder statesmen rush around the country trying to cajole the superdelegates into supporting Barack Obama, lost is why Senator Kennedy is so keen on Senator Obama.

Mr. Kennedy’s endorsement of Barack Obama has been successfully portrayed as an endorsement of “change.” Mr. Kennedy described his endorsement as turning “the page on the old politics of misrepresentation and distortion.” In reality, though, the endorsement was a lesson in the politics of misrepresentation and distortion.

Mr. Kennedy’s endorsement of Mr. Obama had nothing to do with “seeing the magic of JFK” in the junior senator from Illinois. In fact, it had little to do with Mr. Obama himself. Instead, he was just a useful tool to use against a Clinton. As New Englanders in the know can confirm, the endorsement was the revenge of the Kennedys on what they perceived to be the audacity of the Clintons. An ongoing battle between the Kennedy and Clinton families for control of the Democratic Party was the behind-the-scenes narrative.

The history of the Kennedy family’s rise starts with Ted Kennedy’s grandfather, John Francis “Honey Fitz” Fitzgerald and his control of the old-fashioned regional party machine. Fitzgerald’s base was in New England, particularly in Massachusetts. The next generation stretched to cover the entire Northeast. And after JFK captured the presidency, the family became a national machine.

Other Democrats rose to prominence, but never come close to the Kennedy’s dominance. The Kennedys never faced someone, or a couple, who could challenge them for long.

But then came the Clintons. During their time as the presidential couple, the Clintons decided not to return to Hope, Ark. Instead, Hillary announced that she would be running for New York Senator while Bill was still in office. And when Bill’s second term was up, he decided to lease office space in New York City.

Right in the Kennedys’ backyard, the Clintons were creating their own national political machine: Hillary was to become the next Clinton in the White House.

This was, the Kennedys noted, the second time the Clintons had challenged them. The first was in 2000, when Hillary Clinton pushed aside the then great Kennedy hope, Andrew Cuomo, to take Senator Moynihan’s vacant Senate seat for New York.

The Senate seat was to be the first step toward a national position for Attorney General Cuomo, then married to Robert F. Kennedy’s daughter, Kerry Kennedy. But thanks to the Clintons, the Kennedy’s plan to fast-track Mr. Cuomo into stardom collapsed. He and Kerry Kennedy divorced a few years later. And in the meantime, much to the distress of the Kennedys, the Clinton machine started to take root.

In 2004 the Kennedys pushed back. John Kerry, a loyal Kennedy minion his entire career, was the Democratic presidential nominee. The Party’s convention was held in Kennedy-land — Boston, Mass. Ted Kennedy was in his element. The family’s new plan was to retain party hegemony via a Kerry presidency or two. It would be followed by a future Kennedy presidential run. Possibly Joseph Patrick Kennedy II — call 1-800 Joe 4-Oil — could be the next Camelot.

As we know, it didn’t quite work out as planned. The Clintons were back and once again forced the Kennedys back into the shadows. The Kennedys understand that if Hillary wins the presidency, they will be replaced as the establishment family in politics.

But hope reemerged for the Kennedys in the form of Senator Obama. After the Clinton machine was beaten in Iowa, they saw a potential new member of their clan. They would endorse him. He would owe them. And he would keep the presidency warm for a future Kennedy. The Clinton machine, meantime, would crash and burn.

As the stakes grow higher and higher and as we get closer to election day, the subtle — and perhaps not so subtle — attempts by the Kennedys to derail Hillary’s campaign will increase.

John Kerry already is dutifully playing his part: He has been claiming that Barack Obama has more legislative experience than Hillary. If Mr. Obama fails to win the next set of primaries, the Kennedys may turn to other means to halt the Clinton machine.

The title of Barack Obama’s autobiography, “The Audacity of Hope,” is also the title of the political obituary Ted Kennedy would love to pen about the Clintons: “The Audacity of Hope: Arkansas.”

Mr. Freedman was the foreign policy analyst, and a speechwriter, for Mayor Giuliani’s presidential campaign.