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Caroline Kennedy Visits Sun City Center

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PAUL CATALA The Sun

Published: November 5, 2008

Over the past year, Sun City Center has entertained several high-profile political figures including Sen. John McCain and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

Although the election is now over, the area can add another notable name to those who have campaigned in the area: Caroline Kennedy.
Sun City Center will most likely remain a beacon for politicians scrambling for Florida's important Electoral College votes and for the loyalty senior citizens here have to offer.

Kennedy said she visited Sun City Center to help reinforce and bolster resident voters' feelings and attitudes about Sen. Barack Obama and his campaign for the presidency.

In front of a packed meeting room at the Greater Sun City Center Area Chamber of Commerce, Kennedy called the 2008 presidential race "the election of a lifetime" in what would become a "transformational presidency."

For audience members such as Joseph and Sandy Zeligman of Sun City Center, the timing was right for Kennedy to get involved in the election. They said the 2008 election would have a big impact on the state of the country for generations.

"This election is the forecast of what's going to happen in the country in the future," Joseph Zeligman said.

At 50 years old and with two daughters, ages 18 and 20 and in college and voting for the fist time, she felt it is time to get behind a presidential candidate who's been able to bridge the generations.

"It's up to us to take the country back and build the kind of America that we want," said Kennedy, the only surviving child of former President John F. Kennedy.

Although she avoided delving too much into specific issues like the economy and health care, she mentioned Obama's plan for a $4,000 tuition credit covering two-thirds of tuition at an average public college or university and make community college tuition free for most students.

"Barak Obama has really laid out the kind of plan to take kindergartners from early childhood ... to college," she said.

Kennedy announced plans to endorse Obama last January and it's the first time she's ever officially backed a presidential candidate since endorsing her uncle, Ted Kennedy, in 1980.

Reporter Paul Catala may be reached at (813) 865-1554 or by e-mailing pcatala@mediageneral.com.

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