WASHINGTON -- Candidates gave varying opinions late Monday night of President Bush's State of the Union speech, but the two who showed for the speech at the Capitol offered the most telling body language.

Democratic rivals Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama shared the same row in the House chamber and came within a foot of each other just before the president's speech Monday night.

But neither acknowledged the other as Clinton, clad in scarlet, walked toward Obama to greet Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, the liberal icon whose endorsement she had courted only to lose to Obama.

Kennedy shook her hand while Obama, wearing a dark suit and standing between the two, turned away. A doorkeeper caught between it all cringes in a photo that captures the moment.

The rivals then retreated to their seats, only the aisle and four senators between them.

It was the latest chapter in the increasingly operatic soap between the two leading candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Hours earlier, Obama received the endorsements of Sen. Kennedy as well as Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of President John F. Kennedy. They were joined by Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., the senator's son.

But Obama didn't just win the Kennedys' backing. Kathleen Sebelius, the Kansas governor touted as a symbol of bipartisanship and the Democrat who delivered the party's response to the president's address, has also endorsed Obama.

She didn't mention it during her response, but she did include a line that echoed President Kennedy's inaugural address in 1961. Kennedy said then, "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country."

Speaking from Topeka Monday night, Sebelius said: "We are tired of leaders who, rather than asking what we can do for our country, ask nothing of us at all."

While Clinton departed the House chamber quickly on Monday night, Obama stuck around to offer his opinion of the president's speech, telling FOX News that he gives credit to Bush for following through on his commitment to fighting AIDS and was pleased with his proposal to improve veterans with health care.

"Other than that, I think the economic plans were warmed over cut and paste from the past, and there's a big gap between what I am hearing from the American people as I travel around the country and what the president was delivering in this speech," he said, adding that he does support earmark reforms.

Separately, Obama issued a Web video responding to the speech. He introduced it by saying, "Next year, when it will be the job of someone new to report on the state of our union, the entire nation can have a president they believe in. And with your help in the coming days and weeks, that's the kind of president I will be."

Obama, who has inspired many supporters through what they call his passionate and positive outlook, even offered an inkling of bipartisanship at the speech. As he exited the chamber, Bush and he shook hands, something the president and Clinton avoided.

The only other senator still running, Republican John McCain of Arizona, skipped the address to campaign in Florida.

He issued a written statement saying he appreciated the president's hardline stance on earmarks in the speech.

"Earmarks and pork-barrel spending steal valuable taxpayer dollars from national priorities, skew the budget process, and have led to corruption among lawmakers," he said.

The president's "proposed executive order will ensure that in the future all earmarks must appear directly in the language of bills as passed, and may no longer be hidden away in conference reports," McCain added.

McCain's top opponent in Florida, Mitt Romney, said Bush, starting on his last year in the White House and free of future political ambitions, spoke directly from the heart.

"I think it showed a willingness to pursue an agenda that America has been longing for and cries for, and frankly there's been such partisan sniping and bickering in Washington, I think it underscores the fact that Washington is broken, and this president is saying, 'Let's please work together and try to deal with some of the challenges we face,'" Romney told FOX News.

Meanwhile, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee also applauded the president for his position on earmarks and his stimulus proposal. He said Bush spoke articulately on the need for a strong military and continuing efforts in Iraq.

But, Huckabee said, "We have much work to do ahead of us in the years to come: eliminating wasteful spending here at home, improving education and health care, totally restructuring our tax code and abolishing the IRS, enforcing free but fair trade, significantly boosting defense spending" as well as building a border security fence along the southern border and an immigration reform plan that does not offer amnesty for illegals.

"It is to the achievement of all these goals, and more, that I will dedicate my presidency," he said.

John Edwards, on the other hand, said the president and Congress' economic stimulus plan "leaves out tens of millions of Americans who need help the most."

The former North Carolina senator said the people he meets on the campaign trail do not have time to wait for a rebate check.

"These people are hurting now and need this help now. ... The State of the Union may be interesting political theater, but until we find bold solutions to the challenges facing the country, we will be stuck with the same old small, Washington answers. "