The political world was set on its ear last week by the report that Caroline Kennedy might be interested in Hillary Clinton’s Senate seat in New York.
Clearly the entire Kennedy family is putting a major push on to get New York Gov. David Paterson to appoint the daughter of the late President John F. Kennedy.
Bear in mind that Caroline has never done one thing politically in her life until endorsing Barack Obama earlier this year.
But, because of her last name and her family’s history, she can call Gov. Paterson just “for informational purposes about the Senate." I know major political figures in New York who cannot call the governor and get him on the phone, but Caroline Kennedy can get him to explain to her rudimentary facts about what the Senate does and how this selection works.
Caroline has three children who are almost grown up and, according to a source in yesterday’s New York Post, “She’s looking for a mission in life. Preferably in politics.”
So someone from a “royal” political family in the midst of a mid-life crisis can just choose whether or not she can be a U.S. senator. Only in America.
This is, of course, a total farce. Serious people who have worked in the political vineyards are aghast at this recent trend in American politics: the Bushes, the Clintons and the Kennedys all have dominated national politics because of the power of a name.
In politics today you have to buy name identification through huge and expensive amounts of TV and radio advertising. But if you already have a famous last name, then you have already leap-frogged ahead of regular, normal politicians. (Or you could be like Barack Obama: The national news media, book publishers, and the political establishment gives you national recognition even though you have done nothing to earn it.)
So Caroline Kennedy calls Gov. Paterson, this incredibly busy man faced with massive budget problems and an economic meltdown on Wall Street which is costing the state a huge loss of tax revenue, and she then asks him to brief her on what exactly is involved in the naming of Hillary’s replacement.
Incredible.
These people think these jobs are theirs by right. Not merit. Whatever happened to doing it the “old fashioned way” — earning it?
Let’s be clear about something: Hillary Clinton would not have been a senator nor a presidential candidate nor now the secretary of state-designate if she had not been married to a former president. Period. She has risen up the ladder of the law (Rose Law Firm) and politics because of one thing and one thing only: She was Bill Clinton’s wife.
And when she has been allowed to run something on her own, healthcare reform in 1993-1994 and her 2007-2008 presidential campaign, she proved to be a failed manager. Period. But, oddly, few in the media write that, do they?
Similarly, Caroline Kennedy has done nothing to warrant her consideration to be a US Senator. Nothing at all. And yet it seems as if she asks for it she will get it.
Hopefully Gov. Paterson, can somehow escape the pressure being applied on him by Teddy Kennedy and Robert. F. Kennedy Jr., both of whom are out actively campaigning for Caroline’s appointment.
If he succumbs to this pressure, we will see the so-called mainstream media slobber all over Caroline Kennedy and treat her as if she is the Second Coming. Her lack of experience and knowledge will be extolled as a virtue. And any mistakes she makes will be glossed over.
No wonder so many people can’t stand the newspapers or TV anymore. And no wonder many are going broke. Their bias has turned off so many readers and viewers.
America was created as a rejection of inherited power. Yet, somehow, we keep drifting back to it.
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