Corriere della Sera, Italy

‘It’s War’ Between the Clintons and the Kennedys

Hillary is furious with the famous Democratic family for lining up with Obama

By Ennio Caretto

Translated by Michael Devine

January 28, 2008

Italy - Corriere della Sera - Original Article (Italian)

WASHINGTON – Like a lioness in a cage, Hillary Clinton stomps around her hotel room furiously between speeches in the Midwest, while in Washington Ted and Caroline Kennedy, the brother and the daughter of President John F. Kennedy, assassinated in Dallas in 1963, were crowning Barack Obama as heir to that President’s legacy during an appearance with the candidate at American University. 

DOUBLE BETRAYAL – For the former First Lady, the support of her principal rival by the most powerful political family in the US was a double betrayal, both political and personal.  Hillary and Ted, many Senators report, are friends and have worked together on important reforms, from sanitation to education.  And Hillary had implored Ted, a liberal icon with a large following, to either support her, not Obama, or not get involved at all.  Her husband, President Bill Clinton, had repeatedly intervened in person with the patriarch of the Kennedy family.  But his insistences have achieved the opposite effect: according to the New York Times, at the beginning of the month Ted and Bill fought ferociously over the telephone.  Now, Ted and Caroline Kennedy will accompany Obama on the electoral campaign, taking votes away from Hillary. 

WAR BETWEEN THE TWO DEMOCRATIC DYANSTIES – It’s war between the two Democratic dynasties, met with jubilation by the Bush Republican dynasty, which up until now had held itself far away from the campaign but now or later will move into the fray.  The bad guy in this mystery seems to be Bill Clinton.  In order to stop the accession of the black Senator, the former President, who while in the White House had fought vigorously for blacks, threw himself against Obama to such a point that he was accused of racism.  The New York Times reports that Ted Kennedy called Clinton many times, but it was useless.  In the end, seeing that Hillary was not disavowing her husband, the old Democratic lion called a family reunion, at which his son Patrick, a Representative, and Caroline, the female icon of ‘Kennedyism,’ announced their support for Obama.  Ted was already favoring supporting the black candidate, who from his first days in the Senate had asked for Kennedy’s ‘protection,’ and when his son and his niece told him that Obama reminded them of JFK and his idealism Ted let go of any hesitation.  Caroline completed the first step with an editorial in the New York Times in which she compared Obama to her father, and Ted followed up with a telephone call informing Hillary and Bill of his decision. 

FRACTURE IN THE CLAN – By marching out, Ted and Caroline Kennedy have caused a fracture within their clan and between the former First Lady and the former President.  Three children of Ethel and Robert Kennedy, the brother of Ted and John F. Kennedy who was assassinated in Los Angeles in 1968, had in fact taken the side of Hillary; Ethel, the matriarch, rebutted them, calling Obama “our next President.”  This was enough for the former First Lady, who in an open clash with her husband held it against him for damaging her and demanded that he moderate his tone.  Now America wonders who will emerge from the war between the Kennedys and the Clintons and whether this war will help the Republicans. 

ORIGINAL ITALIAN TEXT HERE