Former Kennedy staffer campaigns for Barack Obama

Hayley Tsukayama News Editor

More than 100 members of the Poughkeepsie community gathered at the Vassars Alumnae House on Nov. 26 to hear Theodore Sorensen, former Special Counsel and Adviser to President John F. Kennedy, campaign for Senator Barack Obama’s bid for the presidency.

A highly regarded member of the Democratic Party, Sorensen, now 78, served as a main speechwriter and special counsel on domestic and foreign policy during the Kennedy presidency. He has not officially endorsed a candidate since Gary Hart’s 1984 campaign.

Sorensen began by explaining why he does not support Senator Hillary Clinton of New York for President. “To be blunt about it,” he said, “I think Hillary Clinton is not liked.” Clinton is a divisive figure, he argued, and many moderate and Republican voters would never consider voting for her.

Addressing the criticism that Obama is too inexperienced to be president, Sorensen compared the Illinois senator to the late President John F. Kennedy. Kennedy, like Obama, was a first-term senator when elected president in 1961. Sorensen said both Obama and Kennedy exhibited the same qualities of good judgment, strategy and communication skills.

Many political analysts have noted similarities between the two men, citing their youth and charisma and their ability to mobilize voters. Sorensen also added that those who believe Obama to be unelectable because of his ethnicity need only look at the similar arguments made about Kennedy’s Catholicism. “[Obama] is the ablest, the most likely to win,” he said. “I’m tired of Democrats losing.”

The seasoned speech-writer also threw a few barbs at the Bush administration. “I don’t see very well,” he said, “but don’t worry—I have more vision than the President of the United States.” He continued to deride the current president, saying that President Bush set “the worst possible precedent of a pre-emptive attack on another country,” has reversed all the work done on the issue of nuclear non-proliferation and has antagonized Muslim communities worldwide.

Sorensen said he believes “Barack Obama is the surest way to change the conventional of thinking in Washington.” After he concluded his speech, Sorensen consented to a brief question and answer session. Poughkeepsie Resident Frances Hassan Mohamed Saad asked what Obama planned to do about discrimination against Muslims within the United States. “I’m a Muslim in this community,” she said, “How does [Obama] stand on the Muslims in the United States? We face discrimination every day.” Sorensen responded by saying that “Barack is not opposed to Muslims in the United States or to anyone else.”

Frederica “Fritzie” Goodman, a local leader in the Democratic community of Poughkeepsie, reserved the Alumnae House space as a private citizen. Vassar College, by policy, cannot host a fundraiser for any candidate as a not-for-profit institution.