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Suddenly, Kennedy Is Hip And Loving Life On The Trail

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By MARK LEIBOVICH, The New York Times

Published: February 2, 2008

SANTA FE, N.M. - "Are you glad to see me, Santa Fe?" Edward Kennedy roared.

"Yes!" Santa Fe roared back. There were whoops and "Viva Kennedy" chants from the overflow crowd at a community college. A man in the back held an "Obama 2008, Kennedy 2016" sign.

"Estoy muy contento estar aqui en Santa Fe con usted," Kennedy said in perfectly accented Spanish - that is, perfectly Boston-accented Spanish. ("I am very happy to be here in Sante Fe with you," he was trying to say, somewhat imperfectly.)

But Kennedy, D-Mass., is ever game for trying, and the crowd ate it up. The white-haired liberal legend with a bad back, halting speech and worn brown shoes has been called a "lion in winter" so many times, he has the political cliche version of frostbite.

Yet Kennedy, 75, is hot, hot, hot, stumping for Sen. Barack Obama, who was 15 months old when Kennedy began his Senate career in 1962.

He is drawing raucous crowds, invoking the Legacy, working the lunch crowd at the Flying Tortilla in Santa Fe and getting the kitchen staff together for a photo.

It's Tony Bennett, Revisited

Arriving at a rally in East Los Angeles on Friday, Kennedy was swarmed by a couple of dozen reporters and the like, a big, fuzzy boom mike hovering over his head, autograph hounds and cell phone-camera paparazzi at the perimeter.

"It's like when Tony Bennett suddenly became hip again after the kids discovered him," observed Bill Carrick, a Democratic strategist and former Kennedy aide who attended the rally. "It's the same thing with Kennedy. He's MTV now. And instead of jazz clubs, he's doing the Hollywood Bowl."

It all started Monday when Kennedy endorsed Obama - a decent and perhaps surprising political story, given Kennedy's ties to the Clintons. It also had symbolic consequence, elder statesman anoints up-and-comer.

Then Kennedy appeared with Obama on Monday at American University in Washington and drew screeches from the college students.

He has always had a knack for transcending generations, but this was different, bigger.

"There seems to be a special kind of feeling this time," Kennedy said.

He Sings; He Arm-Wrestles

The clamor continued around the senator as he took his act solo to New Mexico on Thursday and California on Friday, hitting largely Hispanic sites, seemingly having the time of his life.

He sang in Spanish ("Jalisco") on a Latino radio show in Los Angeles. He challenged Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California, his nephew-in-law, to arm-wrestle on the air for the presidency - the senator for Obama, the Governator for Sen. John McCain.

Between rallies, Kennedy indulged in a fancy dinner Thursday night in Beverly Hills with his wife, Victoria, an aide and two reporters.

The maitre d' came over and told a slightly off-color story about Ronald Reagan, who used to sit with Nancy in the very same booth.

Steve Martin and Diane Keaton were at the next table, and the senator lumbered over to pay respects.

On the way out, Martin stopped by and said, "This dinner is compliments of the Republican Party," whatever that meant, and Kennedy belly-laughed politely.

On the stump, Kennedy began his set with a surefire applause line: "One year from now, George W. Bush will be out of the White House."

He rarely mentioned Hillary Rodham Clinton by name, but veiled shots were unmistakable. He praised Obama's experience, resisting the big-money law firm jobs out of law school to work as a community organizer.

"Now that's the kind of experience I want," Kennedy said, a clear reference to Clinton's mantra about her "35-years of experience."

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