Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy offered a ringing endorsement of Barack Obama on Monday, declaring that he would call on "the better angels of our nature" as President of the United States.

Video | Results | Candidates | Newsletter

We want a president who can "lift our spirits," Kennedy told a raucus crowd at American University. Obama can "make America good again, from sea to shining sea," he added. "I feel change in the air. What about you?"

Recalling the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Kennedy said Obama represents what King called "the fierce urgency of now."

"From the beginning, he opposed the war in Iraq. And let no one deny that truth," he said, an obvious reference to former President Bill Clinton's statement that Obama's early anti-war stance was a "fairy tale."

Backing Brings Aboard Crucial Network

Kennedy's endorsement was highly sought after by all the Democratic candidates. Besides his status as a liberal icon and member of the Kennedy dynasty, Kennedy boasts a broad national fundraising and political network as well.

"With Barack Obama, we will turn the page on the old politics of misrepresentation and distortion," he said. "With Barack Obama we will close the book on the old politics of race against race, gender against gender, ethnic group against ethnic group, and straight against gay," Kennedy said.

"There was another time, when another young candidate was running for president and challenging America to cross a new frontier. He faced criticism from the preceding Democratic president, who was widely respected in the party," Kennedy said, referring to Harry S. Truman.

"And John Kennedy replied, 'The world is changing. The old ways will not do. ... It is time for a new generation of leadership.

"So it is with Barack Obama," he added.

Rep. Patrick Kennedy, of Rhode Island, also announced his Obama endorsement on Monday.

Caroline Kennedy, who likened Obama to her late father, President John F. Kennedy, and who endorsed the Illinois senator on Sunday in a New York Times essay, also appeared with Obama.

"I have never had a president who inspired me the way people tell me that my father inspired them," she said. "But for the first time, I believe I have found a man who could be that president -- and not just for me, but for a new generation of Americans."

Another Kennedy family member took a different course. The Clinton campaign on Sunday issued a statement of support from Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, a former lieutenant governor in Maryland and a daughter of Robert F. Kennedy.

Two years ago, her mother, Ethel Kennedy, referred to Obama in an interview as “our next president.”

Clinton Runs Down Bush

Hillary Clinton relegated Obama to the rhetorical sidelines Monday and focused her criticism on President George W. Bush, saying he had lost touch with the concerns of an anxious public.

In a speech to more than 1,000 people jammed in a gymnasium, Clinton did not refer to the fight with Barack Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination. Her audience, which included an equal number listening in an adjoining room, roared with approval when the former first lady took note of the Republican president's dwindling time in office.

"Tonight is a red-letter night in American history," she said. "It is the last time George Bush will give the State of the Union. Next year it will be a Democratic president giving it."

Bush is isolated at the White House, Clinton said, inviting the president to join her in meeting the kind of people she has come across during her campaign. "Sit at tables at diners and hear what's on America's mind," she suggested.

The competition between Clinton and Obama has grown increasingly testy heading into next week's enormous round of primaries. But at least on this day, Clinton took on Bush, using the State of the Union address to highlight her differences with the commander in chief.

Toni Morrison Backs Obama

Toni Morrison, who once famously called former President Bill Clinton the "first black president," endorsed Obama on Monday.

"In addition to keen intelligence, integrity and a rare authenticity, you exhibit something that has nothing to do with age, experience, race or gender and something I don't see in other candidates," Morrison wrote in a letter to the candidate. "That something is a creative imagination which coupled with brilliance equals wisdom. It is too bad if we associate it only with gray hair and old age. Or if we call searing vision naivete. Or if we believe cunning is insight. Or if we settle for finessing cures tailored for each ravaged tree in the forest while ignoring the poisonous landscape that feeds and surrounds it.

"Wisdom is a gift; you can't train for it, inherit it, learn it in a class, or earn it in the workplace - that access can foster the acquisition of knowledge, but not wisdom," Morrison wrote.