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• Wednesday, December 3, 2008 10:18 AM

  The correct word?

  Nepotism, as defined by Merriam-Webster is “favoritism [as in appointment to a job] based on kinship.” It seems to mean favoritism BY the kin…but I may be wrong.

  Nepotism seems certainly to be at work in some examples given [Stevens in Alaska and Lipinsky in Illinois, for example]; but where heirs are elected to office, even if it’s because the electorate is lazy or un [mis]-informed, they may be benefiting from having the Legacy of a certain name, but not necessarily from favoritism by a relative.

  From another perspective, having a “brand” as a name can be detrimental to one's aspirations…whether one is conspicuously qualified or not. One of the first arguments I noticed against Hillary Clinton being president [seen again on this comment thread] was the supposed problem about having Bushes and Clintons in the WH for a possible 28 years, even though they would all [well, mostly all] have been duly elected by The [probably un-, possibly mis-informed] People. In this case it was her [husband’s] name that was deemed to DIS-qualify her from even being eligible for the position. As far as I know, one’s name is not a dis-qualification for the office.

  I do not share GG’s “encouragement” about the supposed “pure self-sufficiency and lack of family connection behind” Obama’s success. He was practically adopted, and anointed heir, [or was at least seen by The People to be so] by one of the best known names in American politics: Kennedy.

  Many people voted FOR nepotism-or rather "the return of Camelot".

  —harpie Read harpie's other letters
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