I am overjoyed from the news that Caroline Kennedy has dropped her bid for the New York Senate seat and it has little to do with Party or ideology. Frankly New Yorkers were given almost no idea of what Kennedy’s ideology is or what policies she would embrace. Sure we know she is a Democrat, know she was heavily for Barack Obama and we know she is a Kennedy, but what does that tell us about the substance of her thoughts or the beliefs she holds? Nothing!
If voting put you on the public record we wouldn’t have even known then as Kennedy has a spotty record of showing up to the polls. All we knew was Kennedy claimed to have spent a lifetime devoted to public service and our nation, not enough of one to vote but that was what she claimed. Caroline also has never held what most of us would call a “steady” job or at least one that carried with it a nine to five and forty hour a week requirement and we can only imagine how little she did working as an intern for her uncle.
As for Party it took Kennedy long enough to give the appearance that she would support a Democrat for New York mayor, her close association with Republican turned Independent turned a man seeking the Republican endorsement again, put her in a tuff spot. Party loyalty wasn’t much of an issue especially in a state like New York. We know our Governor is going to select a Democrat and so this was never a matter of opposition to Kennedy’s allegiance but to her qualifications.
Kennedy’s bid was a hodgepodge of bad interviews, bad choices and little forethought. She began her very public bid by creating the kind of “inevitable” feel that failed Hillary Clinton two years ago. With absolutely no knowledge of the state beyond the city that bears its name, she crammed all of her face time with Upstate in a few hour span the day after her announcement. Meeting with the leaders and not the people she made a half hearted attempt that did little to sway Upstaters. The few nods she gave to the rest of the state after that were even weaker and only highlighted the fact that she would be a poor servant to Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Utica, Rome, the Finger Lakes regions or that state that lives beyond the lavish grounds of her city home.
Last night Kennedy ended her bid as abominably as she began it, with the story breaking that she was out, close friends both confirming and denying, others saying she was back in and then final confirmation she was indeed out. The reason we are left with was that Kennedy has dropped her bid for “personal” reasons leaving many to speculate it has to do with her uncle Teddy’ recent bad spell at the inauguration. The problem? The entire reason Kennedy was originally touted was so that her families legacy could live on now that her uncle’s days are numbered. His decline by that reasoning would only add immediacy to her bid.
I have to believe the other rumored theory, that she was informed in one way or another, that she was not going to get the seat. In such a scenario the thought of her dying uncle was allowed to roam like an expanding scent filling the minds of reporters and observers. Shameful? Probably, but I wouldn’t expect anything less. Sure you can blame the reporters, but once that theory was out Kennedy’s people, if they did not want to allow it to expand, would have given an official word or called the stations to deny. Maybe they were that incompetant, that could have been the problem all along.
If neither of those scenario’s is true then we are left with only a few possibilities. There may well be a “personal reason” perhaps her health or the health of her friends or family. That would be understandable and commendable for her to spare New Yorkers a term that could have ended early anyway. I doubt it. Another? Princess Caroline wasn’t handed the job as she has been handed everything in her life, on a silver platter with boistrous thanks from those who provided her meals. Thanks that she would grace them or in this case all of us, for accepting. This one is more likely.
Whatever the reason, the nightmare thought of the Senator from New York being as vapid, inexperienced and worthless as Caroline Kennedy is now over. For those news anchors who must continue to compare her to Sarah Palin I say this, Palin is a sitting governor who was a mayor and has at the very least learned what it is like to campaign and have to court public approval, meet budgets and deadlines and show up for work more than a few times a week. Kennedy is a woman with no history of work and only her families name. There is no comparison beyond a few poor interviews.
Related Posts:
Tags: NY Politics
