Intelligencer

Intelligencer

June 6, 2008

Ted’s Good Deeds

THERE is a beautiful story told about Senator Edward Kennedy and former Washington Post columnist Mary McGrory, the maven of political writers for many years who died in 2004.

In her final days, the unmarried McGrory suffered a stroke and was confined to a hospital bed. Alone in the world, she greatly cherished visitors.

A constant one was Kennedy, who arrived with wife Vicki at all hours of the day and night.

During her last Christmas on earth, Kennedy showed up as usual and brought a piano playing friend along. They proceed to sing every Irish ballad they both knew.

It was the kind of gesture that Kennedy was known for and explains in part the great outpouring of affection for him now in Washington as he battles a brain tumor.

Veteran Washington Post columnist David Broder, in a remarkable piece entitled “No Other Like Him,” recently noted that he had not seen such sorrow in Washington when Kennedy’s condition was announced since the assassination of the senator’s brother in 1963.

It is typical of the man that such stories of good will are only now coming out as Kennedy battles cancer. So much of what he did was private and not for public consumption.

Here’s hoping his surgery was successful and the cancer can be treated.

Obama’s Irish Roots

NOW that Senator Barack Obama is the likely Democratic Party standard bearer, the question about outreach to the Irish American community remains a very open one.

To date there has been little or no effort to reach out by the campaign, but there were signs early this week that may be changing.

This column has learned that two senior Obama backers were in Ireland recently checking out his Irish roots.

Jim and Eileen Zogby traveled to Moneygall in Co. Offaly where they discovered “Obama burgers” on sale in a local restaurant. They also met with relatives of Falmouth Kearney, Obama’s great-great-great grandfather.

Zogby is head of one of the Democratic Party’s ethnic outreach groups as well as brother of John Zogby, who runs one of America’s best-known polling companies. No doubt the information on the roots will be finding its way to the Obama camp in short order.

Seeking Obama Backers

INFORMAL talks have been held with at least one leading Irish American figure in the Clinton camp on what the attitude of the Irish American community is to Obama.

The response is likely to be mixed. The Irish American Presidential Forum organizers have not found it easy to make headway with Obama despite the fact that it now looks certain that Senator John McCain will address the group in the near future. Perhaps that will now all change because Obama finally has all but secured the Democratic nomination.

The loss of Samantha Power, the Obama foreign policy advocate who was born in Ireland, was a big setback to the campaign in terms of its Irish outreach. It remains to be seen whether the campaign can put in place a structure to work with Irish American groups.

What is certain is that Obama needs to make great strides with the Irish Catholic vote if he is to have any chance of success in November in key states such as Pennsylvania and Ohio.

What’s in Hillary’s Future?

NOW that she is no longer the candidate, the speculation about Senator Hillary Clinton’s future is kicking up a notch.

Irish supporters are urging her to seek the vice presidency, given the fact that she lost eventually by less than 1% of the delegates counted.

It certainly seems she could force her way on to the ticket, but insiders caution that the bad blood between the two campaigns at this point is very real and such an attempt would not be taken well by the Obama folks.

However, private opinion polls apparently show that the Obama/Clinton ticket gets thumbs up from voters, with a 7% bounce for Obama when she is on the ticket.

That more than any personality issues may determine what happens to the VP slot on the Democratic side in the weeks ahead.

Economy Heading Down

THE photo on the front of the Sunday Independent in Ireland last Sunday was chilling, even though it was taken on a lovely summer’s day.

It showed a crowd of over 100 job applicants lining up for two vacancies in a delicatessen. The management of the deli had to come out on the street and interview people there rather than crowd up their premises.

That image, combined with news of a FAS (the Irish job training agency) study showing that 25 per cent of jobs in the construction business will disappear in the next year certainly indicates the boom is over.

That news has repercussions over here of course, with many Irish who were thinking about moving back now taking a second look, especially those in the construction industry.

It also means that more Irish will be coming over, as has already been shown with data from the local Irish immigration centers. Orla Kelleher at the Aisling Irish Center in New York has already stated that there has been a noticeable increase in numbers in the past few months.

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