Candidates Among Ailing Kennedy's Well-wishers

The Democratic senator Edward Kennedy was in hospital in Boston yesterday after suffering what doctors described as a seizure on Saturday morning at the family compound at Hyannisport, Cape Cod. He was flown by helicopter from Cape Cod to Boston, amid fears he had suffered a stroke.

Friends later said that Kennedy had recovered well enough by Saturday night to watch a Boston Red Sox baseball game and have dinner brought in from a famous city restaurant.

Dr Larry Ronan, who is treating him, said he was not in any immediate danger: "Over the next couple of days, Senator Kennedy will undergo further evaluation to determine the cause of the seizure, and a course of treatment will be determined at that time," he said.

The hospital and family home was flooded with well-wishers from both the Democratic and Republican parties, including the presidential candidates Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain.

Kennedy is supporting Obama and has been out on the campaign trail on his behalf. Obama said: "We are going to be rooting for him. I insist on being optimistic about how it's going to turn out."

Kennedy, 76, underwent an operation last October, aimed at preventing a stroke by removing a blockage of an artery.

He is the youngest of a family of nine that included John and Robert, both assassinated, and is the most prominent remaining member of the Kennedy clan, as well as being one of the most liberal members of the Senate in a political career spanning five decades.