Jan 22 2009
Caroline Kennedy Went Out the Way She Came In – No Class
At the end of the tumultuous and highly disputed 1960 presidential election, a young and triumphant John F. Kennedy made this remark about his opponent, Richard M. Nixon: “He went out the way he came in – no class.”
The same could be said about Kennedy’s daughter and her dynastic bid for the U.S. Senate.
Nicholas Confessore and Danny Hakim of The New York Times report that Princess Caroline Kennedy of Camelot announced earlier today that she was withdrawing her bid to replace Sen. Hillary Clinton, who recently assumed her post in the Obama administration as the new secretary of state.
“Ms. Kennedy on Wednesday called Gov. David A. Paterson, who will choose a successor to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, to inform him that she was no longer interested,” Confessore and Hakim write.
A person close to Kennedy said the health problems of her uncle, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, “contributed to her decision” to pull her hat out of the ring. Sen. Kennedy has brain cancer and just spent a brief period of time in the hospital after suffering a seizure at President Obama’s Inaugural luncheon Tuesday.
This person also said “Ms. Kennedy believed that the job was hers if she would accept it.” “But,” report Confessore and Hakim, “aides to Mr. Paterson would not comment on whether that was true.”
In any event, the governor and his people appear to have been shocked by this news. But here is some news that shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone: Princess Caroline refuses to be interviewed regarding this matter.
By all accounts, Kennedy’s campaign was a screwball comedy to the very end. According to a news story just released by Time.com, “The first reports that Caroline Kennedy had withdrawn her name came early Wednesday evening, and they touched off a frenzied effort by her camp to deny it. Her terse statement, issued shortly after midnight, cited unspecified ‘personal reasons’ for her decision to notify New York Governor David Paterson that she no longer wanted to be considered for the post.”
I’m not exactly sure why Kennedy decided to fold up her tent and move on, but I don’t believe for a second that Uncle Teddy’s health had anything to do with it.
The Time.com story offers a likelier explanation:
“Both the New York Post and New York Daily News have quoted sources saying that Caroline Kennedy withdrew her name after learning that Paterson — who has the sole authority to name the replacement for Clinton — had decided against picking her.”
So there you have it. But wait! That’s not all. Princess Caroline may have gone down, but it looks like she managed to take someone else with her.
According to this same story, members of her uncle’s inner circle are “furious” that the senator’s brain cancer is being put forward by Caroline’s people as a reason for her decision to withdraw.
“’He is crazy about her. He encouraged her’ in her bid for the Senate seat, one close associate says of Ted Kennedy’s relationship with his niece. ‘But using him as an excuse, as though things were on the downward spiral, is not going to be O.K. with him … This will get in the way of health reform’ — by suggesting that a key legislator involved in putting the bill together may be incapacitated.”
While I’m glad Princess Caroline and her cronies finally quit badgering Gov. Paterson for a job she wasn’t qualified for, her lame departure and the potentially harmful “explanation” for it only serves to conjure up an image of a pampered, self-centered person. That being the case, maybe she would have been a natural fit for the Senate after all.
In any event, she went out the way she came in – no class.
I’m not saying she’s a bad person or anything but I have a funny feeling that if she were a Bush, you wouldn’t be so charitable. I could be wrong, but call it a hunch.
I think it will be better for the democrats this way. Too much controversy is never a good thing.
If she had any common sense and forethought, and knowing that she wanted the Senate seat in NY, she should have made a decision to support Mrs Clinton from the beginning. At least then, she would have had some support from Hillary.
she basically showed everyone tat she is not a politician.
Perhaps Oldfart would be so kind as to inform us as to what part of this sordid story shows any class on the part of the latest Kennedy to grace the newspapers with their upper class sense of entitlement. Other than said upper class snobbery, of course.
This particular Kennedy had nothing to show that proved she had any particular qualifications for office other than her name. Her interviews weren’t much better than Palin’s for showing that she had any grasp of the important issues she would be faced with, although she DID lack the particularly good gotcha’s Palin provided.
The only good sense she really showed was in withdrawing, and her manner of doing that wasn’t exactly a class act, either.
“Neither you, R, nor Animal have shown half as much class in your sordid entitled lives………”
I have an entitled life??? LOL My mom would laugh at this one. When I was growing up, we were so poor, i had to have a free lunch program at school! That’s “entitled” for ya!
Ok, so the word sordid was a little rhetorical, so sue me.
But the main gist remains, regardless of your little impromptu resume on her behalf, Oldfart, there are plenty of other politicians in New York with better resumes that “entitle” them to a higher place in line for that job.
Just because she has the Kennedy name does NOT “entitle” her to that job, which is the CORRECT use of that word. Americans are much less inclined to accept family as a qualification for public office - even if you ARE a Kennedy, or Clinton, or any one of a dozen upper class families with multiple members in politics, either current or past does NOT qualify you to hold office - your education, your past job history is what we should be looking at.
Family connection may get you into a network of upper class folks that tend to be part of the crowd that runs things, but holding public office is a horse of a different color. Once you’ve been there and gotten the experience, THEN you can be considered for the top jobs.
The liberal defenses of Kennedy are so transparently hypocritical. If her name were Bush, they would be screaming “ENTITLEMENT!!!” to the rooftops (or worse). They (rightly) spent months talking about how unqualified Sarah Palin was for the VP job, but the idea of someone who has never held office before and didn’t even vote for Democratic candidates in many past elections doesn’t seem to bother them. After all, IT’S JFK’S DAUGHTER!!!
Constitutionally speaking, there is no reason why Caroline shouldn’t be a senator, but Geraldine Ferraro is right: we need someone in there who has experience and can hit the ground running.
“If you were so poor you given free lunches then you were entitled to free lunches!”
Yeah, just like you’re entitled to all those old people privileges like Medicaid and senior discounts. lol Look, I don’t have anything personal against Kennedy but even you have to admit her reason for quitting could end up hurting her uncle’s efforts to pass meaningful healthcare reform and she or someone in her campaign should have thought of that. I’ll give Caroline the benefit of the doubt and believe it’s a genuine reason but Senate Republicans might use it to discredit Teddy by making his health a faux issue.
“Senate Republicans might use it to discredit Teddy by making his health a faux issue.”
Oops, meant to say TRY to discredit him. I’m sure and hope they wouldn’t succeed.
Oh, give it a rest, Oldfart, I’ve never said I hated those liberals (with the exception of Bill C.) but then again, they’ve never been my favorites. But what I DO hate is people, liberals or conservatives, that expect family connections to automatically get them somewhere.
And if you’ve been reading TTC, I have NOT been defending the Bush legacy at all. See you there.