Obama Encourages Graduates to Aspire to Public Service
MIDDLETOWN, Conn. _ Barack Obama deepened his connection to the Kennedy legacy Sunday as he stepped in for Sen. Edward Kennedy to deliver a commencement address at Wesleyan University.
Before an audience that included Kennedy’s wife and stepdaughter, a graduating senior at Wesleyan, Obama paid tribute to the Kennedy family and sounded a call to public service in the spirit of Camelot.
“At a time of war, we need you to work for peace,” Obama declared. “At a time of inequality, we need you to work for opportunity. At a time of so much cynicism and so much doubt, we need you to make us believe again. That’s your task, Class of 2008.”
The speech, given on a picture-perfect day with bright sunshine and a clear blue sky, enveloped Obama in Kennedy imagery at a moment of dramatic transitions for both the Kennedy family and the Illinois senator’s presidential campaign.
Kennedy, who anointed Obama a worthy heir to his brothers John and Robert early in the presidential campaign, is newly diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor that inevitably raises the question of political succession.
With Kennedy unable to appear, he chose Obama as his substitute just as Obama appears on the verge of clinching the Democratic presidential nomination. So at a turning point in the campaign, the candidate’s bond with the Kennedys was again on the nation’s television screens.
The event coincided with rival Hillary Clinton’s efforts to move beyond an awkward remark Friday that linked her determination to press her long-shot presidential campaign to the assassination of Robert Kennedy.
Clinton said she was attempting to show that staying in the race as late as June was not unusual when she cited Robert Kennedy’s assassination in June 1968, a tragedy that transformed the presidential campaign that year.
The reference was especially sensitive because of current security concerns for Obama. It provoked an uproar, and she apologized within hours.
Obama’s barrier-breaking candidacy and youthful, charismatic persona has frequently stirred parallels to the Kennedys. His promotion of national service has provided a thematic link as well, and at Wesleyan he promised to make it “a cause of my presidency.”
Obama wove into his summons to serve such other familiar subjects of his campaign as hope, faith and a sense of common purpose.
“Our individual salvation depends on collective salvation,” Obama said. “It’s only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential and discover the role you’ll play in writing the next great chapter in America’s story.”
Obama offered fulsome praise for Edward Kennedy.
“It is rare in this country of ours that a person exists who has touched the lives of nearly every single American without many us even realizing it,” he said, adding, “And I have a feeling that Ted Kennedy is not done just yet.”
In January, after Obama’s early successes in Iowa and South Carolina and just as the presidential campaign was pivoting to a national contest in the run-up to the February “Super Tuesday” primaries, Sen. Kennedy endorsed Obama. The 76-year-old guardian of the Kennedy family political legacy appeared for the Obama endorsement with his niece, Caroline Kennedy, President John Kennedy’s only surviving child. Their coordinated support and the resulting video images helped confer some of the family’s mystique on Obama.
Obama’s address also made admiring references to other members of the Kennedy family, including mention of a famous Robert Kennedy quote on the power of hope.
“All it takes is one act of service _ one blow against injustice _ to send forth that tiny ripple of hope that Robert Kennedy spoke of,” Obama said.
The Clinton campaign worked over the weekend to neutralize the controversy over her remark on Robert Kennedy’s assassination, with the candidate publishing an article on the opinion page of the New York Daily News to “set the record straight.”
“I was making the simple point that given our history,” she wrote, “the length of this year’s primary contest is nothing unusual.”
Asked during an interview Friday with the editorial board of the Argus Leader in Sioux Falls, S.D., about calls for her to quit her campaign, Clinton responded, “My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right? We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. You know I just, I don’t understand it.”
Clinton apologized for the remarks a few hours later, but the Obama released a statement saying the comment was “unfortunate and has no place in this campaign.”
Clinton campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe on Sunday accused the Obama campaign of “inflaming” the press over the Clinton remarks.
“It’s unfortunate _ a hyped-up press over Memorial Day weekend, the Obama campaign inflaming it, tried to take these words out of context,” he told “Fox News Sunday.”
But David Axelrod, Obama’s top strategist, didn’t accept that responsibility. On ABC’s “This Week,” he said the campaign is “beyond that issue now.”
“We’re not trying to stir the issue up,” he said.
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(Chicago Tribune correspondent Christi Parsons contributed from Washington.)
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(c) 2008, Chicago Tribune.
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