Kennedy clan backs Obama, says U.S. needs his leadership

WASHINGTON — The patriarch of the Kennedy clan passed a political torch to Barack Obama on Monday in a tumultuous college rally that glanced backward before reaching for the future.

"I know what America can achieve. I've seen it. I've lived it," said Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass. "And with Barack Obama, we can do it again."

Accompanied by his niece, Caroline Kennedy, daughter of slain President John F. Kennedy, and his son, Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., the white-haired senator gave a thunderous endorsement to the Illinois senator in a packed sports arena at American University.

"It is time again for a new generation of leadership," shouted Kennedy, who turns 76 next month and has served in the Senate since Obama was 1 year old.

As a weeklong push began toward the 24 state primaries and caucuses on

Feb. 5, the senator promised to lend "my voice, my energy and my commitment" to Obama's campaign.

Kennedy compared the spirit inspired by Obama's campaigns to the idealism ignited by his brothers in the 1960s.

"I sense the same kind of yearning today, the same kind of hunger to move on and move America forward," Kennedy said. "In Barack Obama, I see not just the audacity but the possibility of hope for the America that is yet to be."

"Ted-dee!" "Ted-dee!" "Ted-dee," the students chanted before switching to "Oh-bam-ah!" "Oh-bam-ah!" "Oh-bam-ah!"

The candidate said he accepted the endorsement with humility.

"I know the cherished place the Kennedy family holds in the hearts of the American people," he told the students.

"I was too young to remember John Kennedy, and I was a child when Robert Kennedy ran for president," Obama said. "But in the stories that I heard growing up, I saw how my grandmother and mother spoke about them, and about that period in our nation's life as a time of great hope and achievement."

The Kennedy endorsement was a blow to Obama's rivals for the Democratic nomination — Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards. The Kennedy name is revered among many of the party's liberal constituencies, including labor unions, African-Americans, Latinos, abortion-rights advocates and gay and lesbian activists.