the problem is, we don't know her. and she's not being very forthcoming in telling us who she is. "If" she gets the appointment, she'll do a full disclosure... of course, by then it's too late.

unlike those who seem blinded by the kennedy name, i really don't have an opinion on the woman. but i shrink from handing her an appt. that in all likelihood will wind up being a minimum eight year gig representing the people of new york.

her lack of any sort of discernible track record, combined with her seeming reluctance to be transparent about her financial dealings, her positions, and any sort of explanation whatsoever of why she's right for the job and what, specifically, she'd do if she got it, are worrisome.

combine THAT with what appears to be a concerted effort to strong-arm paterson into giving it to her -- and no, i don't think she should get it.

GIVE ME A FREAKIN BREAK:

Reagan and Schwarzenegger were about celebrity when they first ran for public office. Caroline Kennedy is about something very different - about the wounded soul of America, inspired by Barack Obama's victory, to come back into public service. It's about the cosmos healing and redeeming itself.

The key phrase here is "ran for public office." CK is not running for public office -- she's doing the exact opposite of that. She's operating behind closed doors, avoiding the public and any sort of scrutiny that goes along with a normal bid for public office, giving evasive answers, refusing to release her finances, etc. etc.-- and certainly doing nothing whatsoever to impress those of us in the upstate area already feeling as if Albany doesn't give a fat fuck what's going on here.

She MAY make a good senator; she might be the second coming of mother fucking theresa for all I know. But just your say so doesn't do a whole lot to convince me. In fact, the utterly fact-free testimony of clowns like you has been a remarkably

consistent trope on any thread that involves CK and her Senate "bid." She's bright; intelligent; kind; and so on and so on. So what? What on earth has she done in the real world to deserve a Senate seat serving the people of New York, besides write a few books and get born a Kennedy?

I agree with Joan: if she's so fired up to serve, she can run for a house seat, keep working the phones on others' behalf, hone her game, and enter the fray two years from now.

So what the fuck is he doing there? Get him on the next plane home, or better yet, send him someplace where we won't have to hear about this idiot anymore.

And "Joe the Dumber" -- good one.

would have been a great choice, if s/he were still alive.

then again, given the wishy-washiness of obama's support for gay rights, i doubt edwards would have been too enthusiastic.

I'm starting to talk myself into the Cardinals. Why? I dunno. Just a feeling. Warner-to-Fitzgerald is starting to take on Montana-to-Rice type dominance, and even if the rest of the team around them is no great shakes, that's starting to feel like enough to perhaps swoop in and grab a Super Bowl this year. I also keep flashing back to the biggest (offensive) play in the Pittsburgh-Baltimore game. "Ben" gets flushed out of the pocket, does one of his patented "throwing across his body off the wrong foot" passes, miraculously connects with Santonio Holmes, who admittedly did a great job staying with the ball. The announcers fall all over themselves praising "Ben," but really -- couldn't that play have just as easily resulted in a costly interception? One of these days "Ben"'s going to get burned, badly, tossing those flat little ducks into coverage.

Meanwhile, the best team in the NFL might not even be playing in the postseason. Bill Belicheck has got to be sitting at home biting into a terrible towel right now. The AFC championship game was an error-prone slugfest of the kind the Patriots were built to win, and they blew out the Cards just a month or so ago. Opportunity missed.

Now I want to hear from all those people who claimed that she should get the seat because she's such a great person. "Look, she wrote a few books! She's a Kennedy!" That was ridiculous reasoning to begin with, as apparently more and more New Yorkers saw.

This is nothing against CK personally. She may in fact be a great person. She may have made a good senator. But now is no time for dilettantism in politics, especially New York politics. I think she got a taste of what was to come and decided to bow out, as gracefully as possible.

I feel like I'm living in bizarro-America. Or perhaps it's just the America I remember from before we stepped through the looking glass of the 2000 elections and 9/11.

I hope all the trolls and doubters who felt that Obama was a secret (or not-so-secret) neocon, Manchurian-candidate-type empty suit, are paying attention here. Many more changes to come...

And no, I don't expect that everything will change, or even nearly as much as I'd like and the country needs. But this is a great big, fat, fresh start, in an area that had almost begun to feel like a fait accompli.