Sebold: 2008 is not like 1980
By Matt Friedman, PolitickerNJ.com Reporter
Edward M. Kennedy after defeating Jimmy Carter in the New York and Connecticut Democratic presidential primaries in March 1980: Getty Images Photo
DENVER -- Essex County Freeholder Pat Sebold supported Ted Kennedy for the Democratic nomination against Jimmy Carter in 1980 because she didn’t think Carter could beat Ronald Reagan.
She was right.
28 years later, Sebold supported Hillary Clinton. But she doesn’t have the same fears about Barack Obama as she did about Jimmy Carter.
“It’s a new era. One doesn’t have to do with the other. Times change,” she said. “Barack Obama is not going to lose.”
To this day, Sebold believes that Kennedy would have won that election had he won the nomination. The current tension that remains between some elements of the former Hillary Clinton supporters and the original Obama backers, political observers say, is nothing compared to 1980.
But Sebold was briefly transported back to that era when Kennedy took the podium on Monday night.
“Kennedy’s speech really was very heart-wrenching to me. Having been there in 1980 and then hearing him speak the other night, the juxtaposition of the two speeches, and hearing him speak here in 2008 when he’s sick just broke my heart,” she said.
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