Democratic dynasties clash as Obama claims JFK's mantle

0 Comments | AFP, January, 2008

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Two branches of US political royalty clashed Monday as liberal lion Edward Kennedy snubbed the Clintons and backed Barack Obama as the inspirational heir to his slain brother, John F. Kennedy.

In a stinging rebuff to Obama's White House rival Hillary Clinton, the Massachusetts senator said it was time for new leadership, with new ideas, to "turn the page on the old politics of misrepresentation and distortion."

"And in Barack Obama, I see not just the audacity, but the possibility of hope for the America that is yet to be," the 75-year-old patriarch of the tragedy-scarred clan told a raucous rally at Washington's American University.

"I know that he's ready to be president on day one. And when he raises his hand on Inauguration Day, at...