RFK, Jr. Pushes American Renewal

DENVER—Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. '76 spoke about enhancing America's international stature at an event held by the Maryland Democratic Delegation Tuesday night.

The Winthrop House alumnus and son of former Attorney General Robert Kennedy was the keynote speaker at the event, which took place at a downtown Denver restaurant after the conclusion of the day's official Democratic Convention program.

"When I was a little boy, I went to Eastern Europe with my father, and we were met everywhere by hundreds of thousands of people," Kennedy said. "And that wasn't just reserved for Democrats. When [President Dwight] Eisenhower went to Iran, Muslims went out in millions to see him."

"People around the world have always desired American leadership," Kennedy continued, "and they named their streets after our leaders: Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and so many others."

Kennedy endorsed Hillary Clinton for President in November 2007 and was later joined by his sister, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend '73. Those endorsements caused a split in the Kennedy family when Mass. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy '54-'56 and Caroline Kennedy '80, daughter of President John F. Kennedy '40, both endorsed Barack Obama in early 2008.

Regardless, the renowned environmentalist energetically supported Obama during his talk and repeatedly attacked the current Administration.

"When I was a little kid, we and the Soviets had nukes aimed at each other," Kennedy said. "But we didn't torture people, we didn't suspend habeas corpus, and we didn't bug 300,000 people."

Kennedy ended his speech by asking the attendees to support Obama “to show the world that we went down the wrong path with Bush."

Harvard students in attendance seemed to be pleased with Kennedy's speech.

"He brought up some very salient points regarding the failures of the current administration," said Jonathan Padilla '11, the former secretary of the Harvard Dems, of RFK Jr. "However, you have to emphasize that we are still a great nation. We just need to move away from an ideology that has taken our country away from what it means to be an American."

—Staff writer Prateek Kumar can be reached at kumar@fas.harvard.edu.