Why Did Caroline Kennedy Drop Out?
Of course, no one but Caroline Kennedy knows the real reasons she withdrew from consideration as Senator from New York.
But there are two likely explanations:
1. She realized that Governor David Patterson had decided not to appoint her so she took her name out of the ring to avoid embarrassment.
2. She discovered that the political arena involves a sacrifice of personal privacy that made her uncomfortable and she got out before it was too late.
Until we hear more from Kennedy, we are left guessing, but I am inclined to believe that she discovered that she is more like Jackie than like Jack. Her mother kept the media at arm's length. Her father loved the rough and tumble of political life; he enjoyed sparring with reporters. He also lived before the era of total scrutiny and was able to keep his private life shielded from public view.
That era is long gone and no politician can keep the intimate details of their private life out of the tabloids. Drugs, sexual indiscretions, squabbles with one's partner, temper tantrums, the stuff that once used to be secret is no longer secret.
My hunch is that six weeks of intense media scrutiny was more than Caroline could stomach. Worse, this is a woman who has lived a quiet life in which she was treated as royalty by the public and the media. People lined up to see her and to touch her. Coverage was always deferential.
Now, as an aspirant for a political job, she was treated like any other grubby job-seeker. Reporters took off the kid gloves, asked her tough questions about her qualifications and her personal fortune, and bridled when she ducked their questions. Columnists speculated that she had no qualifications and that the few she offered were inflated. Caroline Kennedy learned that she had descended into the mosh pit of politics, where no one is treated deferentially, and where her name and her heritage were no longer protection from criticism and attack.
My guess is that after six weeks in the spotlight, she longed to regain her private life. Who could blame her?
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You know, as she said personal reasons, and she is no longer an aspirant for office, shouldn't we leave her alone?
I pretty much agree with Ms. Ravitch. I was really appalled at how much Kennedy was attacked for being a Kennedy. It is true she is a private person, and she might have realized how awful politics really is for a candidate or Senator. She WAS from NY state after all, but Paterson wanted (who knows?) an upstater.
Yeah, I do think that if her brother had been alive & running for the same seat, he would have been respected more, even from his work at his magazine, George. We'll never know, unfortunately.
I certainly respect & like Caroline. It's probably a very good thing that her children have been shielded from the media!
Being played by one politician (if "being played" is what happened here) is a setback, but one setback doesn't prove a general inability to "handle the politics of politics" (if that means a general inability to win). All the same, Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg well and truly lost this one. Democracy is now safe from the grave threat that she allegedly posed.
However, your junior Senator won't be Carolyn Maloney, but an NRA-supporting upstate Blue Dog the reliability of whose Senate vote is questionable and whose abandoned House seat will be vulnerable in 2010. If that's a victory, it's a victory that lies somewhere between costly and unfortunate. Let's hope that this particular cure doesn't prove worse than the disease.
She is so much like her mother-- and while her brother may have physically resembled Jackie- he may have been the one who had his father's political moxie-- Sad....
I think that Caroline Kennedy dropped out for Gov Patterson's sake, not hers. There were a lot of people who wanted Caroline, myseld included, and if Gov Patterosn did not pick her he would have looked bad. So, Caroline took her name out of contention to solve Gov Patterson's problem. YUP! I don't think that Gov Patterson will be re-elected after nominating someone so not NY.
I think the answer is really a lot simpler. Patterson didn't choose her, and they decided she should "quit" rather than suffer through the aftermath of rejection.
Kennedy's PR machine should be ashamed of themselves, from start to finish.
Yes! The sent mixed messages and are now engaged in petty sniping. They're making her look very bad.
Kennedy's bungled withdrawal was after the inaugural.
Paterson made his pick beforehand.
Sheesh.
we don't want to hit the kennedy moratorium limits....
Caroline Kennedy had a lot going for her, but she was not personally experienced with the rough and tumble world of politics. She followed Hillary Clinton's example of going on a "listening" tour, but it appears that because her decision to run was rather hasty, she plunged in without much of a plan. This was evident in her avoidance of questioning. Do we know anything more about how she stands on the issues than when she started this bid for the senate?
I was dismayed when so many people jumped on the Caroline Kennedy bandwagon without considering her lack of experience in politics. Maybe she use the next two years to build her own campaign for senator to win the hearts and minds of the New Yorkers and get elected by them on her merits. As of now, she is untested and unknown to a great extent.
Hillary Clinton had not run for an office in her own name before running for senator, but she had years of experience as a campaigner, both on the winning and losing side, and she was well-versed on the issues. She had scrutinized on a wide variety of issues including her hair dos, financial investments, and as a murder suspect. She must have learned a few things along the way because she was able to connect with New Yorkers. There's no question that the Clinton name helped her, but she had the experience that helped her avoid missteps.
One difference - she "listened" only to the big shots in the places in the western parts of the state. I don't remember her holding any town halls with regular people - you know, those who don't have zillions of dollars and/or hold political office.
What a shame. She would have been a great senator, much better than Hillary. Imagine having a senator who isn't already sold and controlled by special interest groups.
Even if, for the sake of argument, I agree with you, what would you offer as her qualification in public service and in the political arena ? And since you so much make a position Caroline Kennedy is better than Hillary, then you must offer compelling reasons to validate those comparisons, and parities between her and the former First Lady, Senator and now Secretary of State.
According to the Governor's Office, she has problems with taxes on her personal fortune, nannies and her marriage. Truthfully, I don't want to know about her these sordid issues. At least she had the withdrawn her bid before the spaghetti hit the fan.
I believe that whatever the reason she pulled her name none can be good reasons. And the worst reason is that she didn't know how much privacy she would be losing. That's about as lame a reason I can think of.
I wish she stayed in because I would rather have seen her not picked than to pull out for a lame reason.
Now it just appears weak or not thought out completely. NY politics are really rough and she didn't quite seem to fit in on that scale. Connecticut or Massachusetts maybe, but NY? Even Hillary had it rough at the start and she hardly showed any weakness. Tough shoes to fill.
I think she knew what she was getting into, her whole family has been in politics since 1950.
I think she got played by Govenor Paterson and his crew.
If that were the case, would you want a senator who couldn't handle the politics of politics?
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