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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
...over a woman who has proven liberal credentials? Senate seats are won based on name recognition all the time. Carolyn Kennedy would be an awesome addition to the Senate - even if her name were Smith. The fact that she doesn't have a lot of elections under her belt shouldn't be a disqualifier - didn't we just elect a President based on the fact that he was a relative politic outsider? And you can't rationally argue that Kennedy is too much of an outsider to politics and too much of an insider because of her family. Well, actually, you can. You just did.
Oh, yeah -- it was that early anti-Obama ad run by the McCain campaign: "He's the biggest celebrity in the world!" You could take the final sentence in this item ("In other words, how about somebody, anybody, who has something to offer besides celebrity and good intentions...") and quite easily transpose it into that pathetic McCain ad.
Get a clue, Mark -- people are (and always will be) inspired by candidates for a variety of reasons, not all of which will be purely logical or intellectual. And I don't recall lots of bleating about Caroline Kennedy's qualifications to act as co-chair of Obama's Vice Presidential Search Committee.
I guess this is Princess Caroline's reward for the machinations of her and most of her relatives against Hillary during the primaries. Go for it, girl! You're entitled, being a Kennedy and all!
The rest of us love Caroline Kennedy, non-New Yorkers, former New Yorkers, once-upon-a-time New Yorkers, never New Yorkers and all the rest.
Her lack of former politics is a great plus. We want somebody without taint. Let's see how she speaks. She is smart. If she can talk, everybody will see that they really wanted Caroline rather than Sarah Palin.
I sincerely want a princess. Compare her to the leathery video game villains such as Beauregard Corker, the people we alraedy have in the US Senate. And, know what?... Caroline Kennedy already knows most of the planet-level movers and shakers on a first-name basis.
Caroline for Senate!
If experience isn't important, and a famous name and the ability to raise tons of money are the only things that matter, then why not appoint Madonna to the Senate seat? She's lived in NY too. Besides, she's spoken out on issues far more than Caroline Kennedy has. Plus, like her or not, she did come up the hard way, while Caroline has had fame, money and advantages beyond 99.99% of average Americans for her entire life.
Seriously, this whole back stage lobbying thing sticks in my craw. The vast majority of wanna be Senators spend their lives slaving over legislation, raising money, listening to voters, crafting platforms, and campaigning. Even then, most never get elected to the Senate. Caroline makes a few phone calls to her powerful friends, and hey, she's moved to the front of the line.
We've suffered eight years of the worst presidency ever, after the SC appointed a dimwitted hack simply because his last name was "Bush". During the campaign, we were told over and over again that the country needed "fresh blood" and it would be terrible to vote for Hillary "just because her husband was President" and downright horrible to have "Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton". Now, we're supposed to support Caroline for the Senate, just because her father was President? Without even an election, like Hillary went though?
If Caroline wants a good job, give her an ambassadorship. If she's such a great campaigner (though she's never campaigned for office before) then let her get together the staff and run in 2010. That's the American way.
Making Caroline Kennedy a Senator would be the epitome of getting something by riding on the coattails of another. Isn't that one of the major complaints about Hillary -- she got where she was by being married to Bill. Sorry, it just doesn't work for me. It looks and seems too much like entitlement.
Why have you put it in late-night War Room, soon to be buried under a dozen inconsequential posts?
Also: Let us not have young smart-ass Salon writers snarking about Caroline and her family. Caroline Kennedy embodies the true spirit of America. Do not dismiss American soul and spirit just because you are trying so hard to be hip that you have no soul or spirit.
If she runs for and wins the seat, more power to her. That's why I respect Hillary: people said she was just riding her husband's coattails, but we New Yorkers know just how hard she worked to win her first Senate campaign. But an appointment based purely on a celebrity name ... that just smacks too much of back room dealing. Especially after what's happened in Illinois, Gov. Patterson really needs to make an appointment on the merits, and that doesn't point to someone as inexperienced as Caroline Kennedy.
MONARCHIES ARE OFFENSIVE AND ANTI-AMERICAN
I have an idea. Why don’t we find out if any of Hillary Clinton’s college roommates are living in New York? Then, Gov. Paterson can appoint her until Chelsea Clinton turns 30.
Why not? This is the Clinton seat, not the public’s seat.
(Absurd? Well, this has been done before. See who replaced JFK in 1961)
Or, perhaps, we can find out if Patrick Moynihan has any children living in New York and appoint him or her.
Or how about investigating to find out whether Jimmy Carter has any children or grandchildren living in New York?
Political dynasties are immoral and anti-American. Here, in Illinois, even before Blago decided to sell a Senate seat, selfish politicians have repeatedly won primaries, withdrawn their names from the ballot in August, and then had their lackeys nominate their sons in their place.
In other words, they FIXED an election. This happened with Congressman William Lipinski, Cook County president John Stroger (the largest county in the USA), and State Senate president Emil Jones, among others.
And now here comes the ultimate spoiled child. She wants to be a U.S. senator so she picks up the governor and asks him to appoint her to the job. If she wanted to be a senator, why didn’t she do what the rest of us have to do – prove herself over several years in the City Council, State Assembly, something, anything?
Or she could have organized a campaign in an effort to persuade millions of New Yorkers that they should vote for her based on her life experiences. But no, this spoiled brat is ENTITLED to a Senate seat because she is, well, her last name is Kennedy and that’s that.
It says something really bad about the American psyche and civic life if this outrage is permitted.
Politicians like Lipinski, Stroger, and Kennedy have contempt for the American public. They believe in fixing elections. And make no mistake that this appointment is about fixing the Senate election of 2010, 2012, 2018, etc.
The fundraisers have already been contacted by the Kennedy clan. Anyone who challenges the princess in a Democratic primary will have no funding, no support in the Democratic party, and will be ostracized and have his or her career destroyed by the Kennedy machine. And the GOP is dead in New York.
Anyone who isn’t outraged by the fixing of an election and unelected monarchies is not a real American.
Shalom,
ZWrite
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