Kerry's Obama endorsement coverage

Kerry did not refer by name to Hillary Clinton or John Edwards, his 2004 running mate, saying only that the other candidates in the race were “terrific public servants.” But he took several implicit jabs at the case Clinton and her husband have been making against Obama. He declared that Obama was “right about the war in Iraq,” seeming to counter Bill Clinton’s recent charge that Obama’s opposition to the war was shaky because he had said at the 2004 convention that he wasn’t sure how he would have voted on the war had he been in the Senate at the time. (Obama has said he was only trying to be gracious toward Kerry, who had voted for the war.)

More explicitly, Kerry disputed Hillary Clinton’s warning against Obama’s “false hopes.” “The only charge that rings false is the one that tells you not to hope for a better America,” he said. “Don’t let anyone tell you to accept the downsizing of the American dream.”

For all of Kerry’s attempts to speak the language of youthful insurrection — “Barack Obama isn’t gonna just break the mold, together we are going to shatter it into a million pieces” — he also verged into his characteristic stentorian tone at points, and at a length of 17 minutes, the speech dragged at moments.

But if anything, Kerry’s Brahmin formality only served as a foil for the fire that followed, as Obama went into his stump speech. Afterward, several in the crowd said that Kerry’s words, combined with Obama’s own, had helped them overcome some of their doubts about whether Obama was ready for the job. Beki Crowell, 41, a restaurant owner in Charleston of a biracial background, said that her support was reinforced by the sight of such a diverse crowd turning out for the event.

“I’ve been on the fence between Hillary and Obama, but I just went over to him” she said. “I had this idea that he had to be more experienced, but what hit me is if you can bring people together like this, and inspire people, then you can make change from a fresh perspective. You just don’t see this in South Carolina.”