Barack Obama has begun screening television advertisements around the US today featuring the daughter of the late President John F Kennedy, Caroline, endorsing him. In them she likens Obama to JFK. What an image for Obama to be able to trumpet. He's taking her with him today to
campaign in Colorado.
The power of the Kennedys is still strong here, but a fact being missed amid all the hoopla is that not all the Kennedys are behind Obama.
Some other members of the famous family came out in support of Hillary Clinton yesterday for the Democrat nomination. It might not be the actual daugher of JFK, but Clinton will still be glad she's got a Kennedy.
Last night I was surprised to discover how interested US journalists are in the international group of journalists I'm travelling with. We went to an LA Press Club welcome reception where a large local group turned out to meet us, and two TV networks arrived with cameras to film and interview us.
Among my group for the next week are journalists from a wide range of countries - Argentina, Burkina Faso, Egypt, Korea, Mexico, Pakistan, Thailand and Zimbabwe, to name just a few. The US media were very conscious of the image President George W Bush has projected internationally, and it became clear as people talked that that image is not good in many of the countries represented at the reception.
But, like Americans so far, nobody could agree on who would take over the White House and change that. John McCain's win in Florida makes him the front-runner among Republicans. One US journalist I talked to last night felt that McCain posed more of a threat to the Democrats' chances of taking the White House than any other candidate.
For now, though, Clinton and Obama are worried only about each other.
I'm heading out to meet a UCLA political science professor now, and later I'll be at the Republican debate at the Ronald Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California. Let's see how it compares to our head-to-head political debates in New Zealand!
