BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (AFP) — Senator Barack Obama's quest for the US presidency gained a major boost Sunday as leading Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy planned to formally endorse him, sources close to the campaign said.
The influential Kennedy family's most prominent politician joined his niece Caroline Kennedy who also endorsed Obama, saying he reminded her of her father, the late president John F. Kennedy.
The unexpected support from the dean of the party's liberal wing came as a slap in the face to national front-runner Hillary Clinton amid reports that Kennedy turned down an appeal for backing from former president and longtime ally Bill Clinton.
Kennedy, a Massachusetts senator, was to make his announcement at a rally at Washington's American University on Monday, accompanied by his niece Caroline, a source close to the campaign told AFP.
The news came a day after the 46-year-old Illinois senator defeated rival Clinton in the South Carolina state primary.
The Washington news website Politico.com said the Clintons "launched a last-ditch effort over the last few days to stop Kennedy's move, orchestrating a flood of phone calls to Kennedy from sources ranging from union chiefs to his Massachusetts constituents."
"During his two terms in the White House, president Clinton made repeated overtures to the Kennedy family," Politico wrote. "So the senator?s rejection of his wife is at least as embarrassing as her 28-point loss in the South Carolina primary on Saturday."
Obama said he would reserve comment until Kennedy, the brother of John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy, made an official announcement.
"Ted Kennedy has not officially endorsed my candidacy," Obama said in response to repeated prodding from reporters aboard a plane to Birmingham, Alabama.
"I?ve had ongoing conversations with Ted since I got into this race and at the point where he is clear about what he?s doing and wants to make it public I will let Ted make it public."
The Massachusetts senator's decision could shake up his home state, which according the most recent poll by Survey USA was leaning 59 percent toward Clinton, 22 percent for Obama on January 22-23.
A Statehouse poll on January 9-12 found Clinton ahead with 37 percent of the state's support, compared to 25 percent for Obama.
Separately, Caroline issued her own endorsement of Obama, comparing him to her father who was president from 1961 to his assassination in 1963.
"Sometimes it takes a while to recognize that someone has a special ability to get us to believe in ourselves ... and imagine that together we can do great things," she wrote in The New York Times on Sunday.
"Senator Obama is inspiring my children, my parents' grandchildren, with that sense of possibility," she said in the article titled "A President Like my Father."
Obama acknowledged Caroline Kennedy's support by calling it "an extraordinary honor ... For somebody I think who has been such an important part of our national imagination and generally shies away from day-to-day politics to step out like that is something I?m very grateful for."
High-profile endorsements carry particular weight at this stage, as White House hopefuls press on with their campaigns ahead of Super Tuesday, February 5, when 22 states weigh in on the primary selection process.
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