DAVENPORT - Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., kicked off his first official day of stumping for presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton Thursday.

Mr. Kennedy shared his reasons for why he's supporting the New York junior senator and met with volunteers at the Davenport Field Office for Hillary Clinton for President, 1416 West 16th St.

He called the 2008 election the most critical presidential election of his lifetime and pointed to Sen. Clinton as the Democrat needed to turn it all around.

Mr. Kennedy said he was inspired to back Sen. Clinton because of her strong performance in New York, where she was first elected senator in 2000 and again in 2006 in a landslide victory against Republican candidate John Spencer.

"I would hope my experience combined with my personal relationship and knowledge of her record in New York state be one of the things that will help persuade people who may be on the fence that shes' a candidate worth voting for," he said.

Prior to officially endorsing her, Mr. Kennedy said he has helped out the campaign in about 20 states through a speaking tour he does. He said now was the time to formally endorse a candidate as the Iowa Caucuses are only five weeks away.

"The largest issues facing our country today are energy and the environment and Hillary's got the strongest plans for dealing with those things," said Mr. Kennedy, a 25-year environmental advocate himself.

Mr. Kennedy pointed to Sen. Clinton's goals of getting Americans off all oil - not just foreign oil - and rescuing them from "our carbon addiction."

From his Davenport stop, Mr. Kennedy headed to Dubuque to continue his series of appearances in eastern Iowa for Sen. Clinton. Although the environmental platform and advocacy sometimes seems contrary to the demands of blazing the campaign trail, Mr. Kennedy said this is not the case.

"You can go out and buy a Prius but its not going to change the world," he said. "What's going to change the world is if we have a law that you can't build a car or sell a car unless its gets 40 miles per gallon."

Mr. Kennedy said criticizing politicians touting environmental concerns like Al Gore on how they heat their homes, fly in private jets or what type of car they drive, is simply a distraction used by the industry.

"(Al Gore) may have burned a lot of fuel, but he changed a lot of minds and he's now changed the political system, the political framework and dialogue in our country," he said.

"At some point because of him all of us are going to be driving more efficient cars, because of the fuel he used to get from place to place, every American is going to be driving more fuel efficient cars and living more efficiently," he said. "So I'd say that it was that fuel that was probably the best spent fuel that we could possibly have."

Mr. Kennedy serves as chief prosecuting attorney for the Hudson Riverkeeper and president of Waterkeeper Alliance. He is also a clinical professor and supervising attorney at Pace University School of Law's Environmental Litigation Clinic and is co-host of Ring of Fire on Air America Radio. Earlier in his career he served as assistant district attorney in New York City.

www.robertfkennedyjr.com

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