My daughter tells me I need to include more items in this blog of popular interest for the casual reader, such as one about Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg's campaign to be appointed to the U.S. Senate. Well, I don't suppose this grown-up princess is any worse than the other touted contenders, although there is something creepy about a president's daughter and a governor's son (Andrew Cuomo) being seen as the main candidates to inherit the seat of a president's wife (Clinton). It also sounds like she's the leading contender, with the stars and Harry Reid lining up for her. While I am reluctant to follow better known pundits who are already in full flow, this time their flights of fancy are so ludicrously gushing that they need shooting down or drying up.
Take Michael Daly in this morning's Daily News. He's a buddy of Caroline, he lets us know, and her apartment "feels like a home." What's more, there are books on the shelves, which "prove she has a keen understanding of the law, a love of poetry and a vibrant patriotism. Her work for the city Education Department proves she grasps the importance of schooling." She also smiles like JFK, and had a pleasant chat once in an Irish pub.
Or take the Capital Region's own Alan Chartock, writing in The Legislative Gazette and his TU blog . It's so "obvious" to him that Caroline is the one that it's "a no-brainer." She has "an international reputation," for Pete's sake. "She is a mom, a loving wife, a rock of Gibraltar in the Kennedy family," and "she is an expert on things educational."
Back to the hard-headed Daly, who "can assure you she is hardworking, disciplined and smart, yet grounded in common sense." What a marvel! Can it be true that such a woman walks (or maybe rides in limousines) among us, at least when we're in Manhattan, and that she might deign to represent us in the Senate? As Chartock says, "Even the upstate downstate conundrum would be solved because Caroline Kennedy transcends the issues." Verily, it is the politics of transformational transcendence from the Bush dynasty back to Camelot.
Still, daughter, the polls say people like Caroline, and your mother asked me what's my problem with her candidacy. "Put not your trust in princes," said the psalmist, but he probably meant any senator type.
Your daughter suggested it - she did not demand compliance.
I'm not thrilled about her lack of experience in public office.
Posted by: Molly | December 17, 2008 at 10:18 AM