At a Dunkin’ Donuts in Washington, DC, this morning, Barack Obama picked up some donuts and hot chocolate to take to frigid sign-waving volunteers encouraging citizens to vote at a nearby metro stop.

As he waited for his order, Obama, alongside DC mayor Adrian Fenty, mingled with patrons. After he finished up discussing health care with one voter, I asked him how he was feeling considering he’s expected to win all three of today’s contests in the “Potomac Primary.”

Here’s his response:

done

On the campus of Washington, DC’s, American University, Senator Barack Obama was joined on stage with a trio of Kennedy’s: Congressman Patrick Kennedy, Caroline Kennedy, and Senator Ted Kennedy.

Caroline Kennedy spoke for only a few minutes, and explained that Obama “is already inspiring all Americans, young and old, to believe in ourselves, tying that belief to our highest ideals - ideals of hope, justice, opportunity and peace – and urging us to imagine that together we can do great things.” She then introduced her uncle, Senator Ted Kennedy.

The elder Kennedy, who spoke a bit longer than his niece, harkened back to the days when his brother was running for president. “There was another time, when another young candidate was running for President and challenging America to cross a New Frontier. He faced public criticism from the preceding Democratic President, who was widely respected in the party. Harry Truman said we needed ’someone with greater experience’—and added: ‘May I urge you to be patient.’ 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 has lit a spark of hope amid the fierce urgency of now.”

In return, Obama paid the Kennedy family homage at the top of his own speech, and acknowledged that he, born in 1961, was too young to remember the days of Camelot. “Today isn’t just about politics for me. It’s personal. I was too young to remember John Kennedy and I was just a child when Robert Kennedy ran for President. But in the stories I heard growing up, I saw how my grandparents and mother spoke about them, and about that period in our nation’s life – as a time of great hope and achievement. And I think my own sense of what’s possible in this country comes in part from what they said America was like in the days of John and Robert Kennedy.’

It’s this torch, the Kennedy “dream” that Obama hopes to carry on in his own candidacy - “That is the dream we hold in our hearts. That is the kind of leadership we need in this country. And that is the kind of leadership I intend to offer as President. So make no mistake: the choice in this election is not between regions or religions or genders. It’s not about rich versus poor; young versus old; and it is not about black versus white. It’s about the past versus the future.”

Read Caroline and Ted Kennedy’s remarks below the jump.

(more…)