Jack & Jill Politics

Through two years of wearying campaigning, defeats and victories, the cool, disciplined Sen. Barack Obama rarely was overcome by emotion. Once was on the eve of the election, when his grandmother died.

The other time, a close aide recalled, was when Sen. Ted Kennedy endorsed him.

Kennedy's endorsement may have won Obama the nomination. His legacy, health care legislation, has already shaped Obama's presidency, and Obama will deliver a eulogy at Kennedy's funeral Saturday. But it wasn't until the last minute, in late January 2008, that Kennedy decided to take sides at all - throwing himself into a hard-fought primary between two of his friends, Obama and then-Sen. Hillary Clinton.

When he did, it was without reservation. He addressed critics, declaring Obama ready to lead. And he invoked his family's legacy:

"The torch will be passed again to a new generation of Americans. The hope rises again. And the dream lives on," he said, as the future president sat on a tall stool on stage behind him at American University in Washington
on Jan. 28, 2008.

"He was a monumental figure in the history of the campaign," David Axelrod, Obama's senior adviser, told POLITICO, saying that the weekend of Kennedy's endorsement "transformed the campaign."

"It was like being shot from a cannon," Axelrod said.

The day of the endorsement was, Obama told a Kennedy adviser at the time, the greatest day of his life, according to Dan Balz and Haynes Johnson's account of the campaign.

Kennedy, whose age never diminished his outsized political standing or his eye for up-and-coming talent, saw Obama dominate the 2004 Democratic National Convention in his hometown, Boston, and he may have seen a little of himself in the young celebrity senator.

"When [Obama] came to the Senate as a new young senator, he was in a certain way a little like Teddy was when he first came to the Senate. That is, that everybody already knew about him or thought they knew about him," longtime Kennedy adviser Bob Shrum told POLITICO. "So I don't think Kennedy was surprised at his eloquence, his intelligence, his grasp of issues. But it was kind of a habit with Teddy [to mentor promising young senators]. He spent time with him and got to know him well."