Caroline Kennedy on The Huffington Post

Maureen Dowd: Bill Clinton Lobbied Gov. Paterson To Keep Caroline Kennedy Out Of Senate

2009-11-25T00:19:19Z

Maureen Dowd's New York Times column this week details the fall of outgoing White House council Greg Craig, and drops an interesting tidbit concerning Caroline Kennedy's senate bid along the way. According to Dowd, a "vengeful" Bill Clinton was aggressively lobbying Paterson to keep Kennedy out of the Senate.

Dowd argues that Obama's handling of Craig's departure -- the "death by a thousand leaks" -- was reminiscent of Obama's "failure" to help Kennedy:

It recalled Obama's failure to lift a finger to help Caroline Kennedy -- after she had lifted him at a crucial moment -- when the loopy Gov. David Paterson was dragging her through mud and refusing to announce a decision on the appointment for the New York Senate seat. Paterson was being lobbied by a vengeful Bill Clinton. Bill was still upset at Caroline for bestowing the Camelot mantle, which he had tried to claim during his campaigns, on Obama. Yet no one from the Obama camp tried to counteract Bill and straighten out Paterson.

Reese Schonfeld: "Informed Sources": What Really Happened When Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin Got Into Upstate New York Politics

2009-11-08T19:50:04Z

As New York residents know, ever since Governor Spitzer got caught in the wrong hotel room, Albany has been in turmoil. The latest tempest involved the 23rd Congressional district where, to the astonishment of the political establishment, the Republican candidate was forced out of the race because of her positions on gay and abortion rights. Her departure left the field wide open for the Conservative Party nominee.

Who forced her out--Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh and the other far-right Conservatives, who argued that a woman who supported abortion rights and gay marriage should not run be on the Republican ticket. (The Democratic candidate won, but that's beside the point.) The question is why did the Republican Party drop its own nominees and abandon out the race?

The answer (according to "informed sources"): former NY Governor George Pataki brokered a deal in an attempt to sew up his nomination on the Conservative line if he runs for the Senate in 2012. After the deal was announced Pataki made a statement in support of the Conservative candidate and campaigned for him. Pataki had been backed by the New York Conservative Party when he ran for Governor, but he was perceived as relatively "moderate" during his three terms in office. According to my sources, Pataki's political ambitions are centered on a Senate run for the seat formerly held by Hillary Clinton and now, thanks to Spitzer's successor as Governor David Paterson, occupied by Kirsten Gillibrand, a former upstate Democratic Congresswoman.

How did she get the nod from Paterson? My sources suggest that former Republican Senator Al D'Amato, a close Pataki political ally, and now an equally close advisor to Democratic Governor Paterson, persuaded him to choose the little known Gillibrand over Caroline Kennedy (JFK's daughter). who had been expected to gain the appointment. Paterson's decision seemed abrupt and strange, and was certainly badly handled. The appointment brought upon him the wrath of many in the Democratic Party, and according to polls, has reduced his popularity with Democrats in the state to a mere 17%.

Who has it helped? Certainly George Pataki, Al D'Amato's close pal. Gillibrand, who has done a pretty good job as Senator, is a far less formidable opponent than Caroline Kennedy would've been if Pataki decides to run in 2012.

But still, why did Pataki broker the deal in the first place? The answer: he wants to ensure the support of the Limbaugh-Palin wing of the Republican Party; he doesn't want a challenge for the Senate spot on the Conservative Party line either. So according to my upstate New York "informed sources", the biggest winner in last Tuesday's New York election is George Pataki. Republicans may have lost a seat in the House of Representatives, but that's a small price to pay if they gain a Senate seat in 2012.

As for pro-tem Governor David Paterson, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is favored to win the Democratic nomination for Governor in 2010 and Patterson may be consigned to the dustbin of Albany history. It cannot come too soon.

Pennsylvania Avenue Princesses: Who Came Before Sasha And Malia? (PHOTOS)

2009-10-17T08:23:53Z

Sasha and Malia Obama aren't the first first daughters to pass their time in the public eye.

You remember Chelsea Clinton and Barbara and Jenna Bush. But what about Helen Taft or Lynda Bird Johnson? Peruse our photo album of America's Pennsylvania Avenue princesses, and tell us which family you'd like to be adopted into and whose you could do without.

Follow HuffPost Style on Twitter and become a fan of HuffPost Style on Facebook!

Ali A. Rizvi: The Real Reason Obama Deserves the Nobel Win

2009-10-09T12:50:56Z

In the next 200 years, wars will come and go, the economy will recover and crash and recover again, and the geopolitical landscape will morph repeatedly, as it always has. But people will still remember Barack Obama as a legendary historical figure worldwide, centuries from now, because of his single most revolutionary accomplishment: being elected.

Not only is Obama the first black president elected in a white majority country -- a massive accomplishment in itself -- he is also a black man who was elected with a last name that rhymes with Osama and the middle name Hussein. With less than two years as a junior US senator, Barack Obama went up against virtually impossible odds when he decided to run for president: he ran against the royal establishment of the Democratic party, the Clintons -- not just one, but two of them, one being a wildly popular ex-president. He earned the endorsements of both the brother and the daughter of President John F. Kennedy along the way. Then, after defeating the Clintons, he ran against an a celebrated American war hero, John McCain -- and won again.

Obama is the only son of a first-generation immigrant to be elected to the presidency in modern history. He is the product of an interracial marriage, which was illegal in many states until he was six years old. He is the first anti-war candidate to be elected at a time of war.

His election also reflected unprecedented changes in the socio-politics of the country. Richmond, Virginia was the most permanent capital of the Confederacy. Virginia hadn't voted for a Democrat since 1964, when Obama was three years old. Neither had Indiana. For the first time in 44 years, it was Obama -- a black northern liberal Democrat -- who turned both of those states blue, not Carter or Clinton. Although Obama is the first northern-state liberal to be elected to the presidency since Kennedy, he is, unlike Kennedy, an almost entirely self-made man who did not come from a wealthy, politically well-connected family.

The impact of Obama's election stretches far beyond even what Martin Luther King, Jr. called the "fierce urgency of now." It goes beyond race and beyond policy issues. It's about overcoming improbable odds and going against the grain, shattering that "real world" myth, and redefining -- or de-defining -- reality.

Even if he turns out to be an average president, Obama will be remembered worldwide hundreds of years from now as a man who changed the way the world looked and thought, simply by being elected against a set of seemingly insurmountable odds that had statistically and historically been stacked against him.

And even if the Nobel Peace Prize is premature -- which it probably is -- it is also very prescient.

Christian Nwachukwu, Jr.: The Colossus Comes on Stilts

2009-09-29T13:04:49Z

All along Sugar Hill Harlem, we think it began with Caroline. The slide, the trenchant derision, the Partied and, some hope, parting exile.

"He should have appointed Caroline Kennedy," my neighbor, Ms. Helen, told me on Saturday. By "he," Ms. Helen meant the embattled Governor of the State of New York, David Alexander Paterson; and by "appointed," she, of course, was referring to the United States Senate seat recently vacated by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and now held by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, the former congresswoman from New York's 20th District.

"I mean, Biden appointed who -- a guy who worked in his office?" Ms. Helen said. Delaware Governor Ruth Ann Minner appointed Senator Ted Kaufman, a former Chief of Staff for now Vice President Joseph Biden, to replace the vice president in the Senate.

"He's just there until Beau (Biden) gets back from Iraq," Ms. Helen said. "But Caroline had to go all around and campaign -- have lunch with (Reverend) Al Sharpton, talk to folks on farms -- and then they made fun of her: said she couldn't talk, that all she said was 'um, uh.' It wasn't fair. We could have had a senator with a direct line to the President and instead we got, I don't even know her name; Kirsten whoever."

"Gillibrand," I said.

"Her," Ms. Helen said. "Listen, the Kennedys have shown their loyalty to black folks; to poor folks. And now they want Caroline to raise money for New York City schools. Why should she? I mean, Gillibrand? And if you don't think that she's one of the ones saying to Obama, 'Tell Paterson not to run,' think again. Who else is 'down ballot' next year? David knows it. I know he's so mad that if he wasn't blind, he'd go blind now. Appoint the woman from nowhere and this is what he gets. And David's an old hand. I mean from way back." Governor Paterson, who was elected to the New York State Senate in 1985, once led his Party in that body.

"I'm still shocked he got the thing with Caroline so wrong," Ms. Helen said. "But, you know, Hillary never wanted Caroline to succeed her. I wonder if David was listening to her. I wouldn't be surprised. Obama won; he should've been listening to the new President, not the woman he beat. You think Hillary's in there now, fighting for David?" Ms. Helen laughed, harrumphed, then laughed again. "Keep 'a thinking," she said.

"Are you voting for him?" I said.

"Is he running?" Ms. Helen said.

On Sunday, Governor Paterson, in a performance derided by many in the press for not being a swan song, told Meet the Press moderator David Gregory that he has not received "an explicit indication authorized from the White House that I shouldn't run," and that, in any case, he was running for a full term in 2010.

"I think that the people of the state of New York are the ones who should choose their governor," Paterson said.

"You know," Ms. Helen said, "David's doing the best he can in a tough, tough situation. I don't know if I'm going to vote for him. But that could change."

"What do you think about the White House asking the governor not to seek a full term?" I asked.

"Now, Christian, you're not gonna get me to talk too tough about my man (President Obama)," she said. "I love him, even down to his walk. I don't have a problem with him saying it, but why do I need to know he said it? It should have never gotten out. But you know, this could all work out. I mean, let's talk about it, get it all out there. Where is David? 19, 20 percent? His own people aren't supporting him. We're not with him. Let David come get us. Then we'll see."

"David, come on home," Lloyd Williams, President and CEO of the Greater Harlem Chamber of Commerce said Sunday on Express Yourself with Imhotep Gary Byrd. Williams, appearing on a broadcast that also featured the deft and daring author Herb Boyd, urged caution in trying to call the governor's race more than a year in advance.

"I don't think (Rudolph) Giuliani will run," Williams said. "Giuliani is a boogeyman; and I'll point out how he, the so-called 'America's Mayor', performed when he ran for president. Now, Rick Lazio, he's the money man; he's Wall Street's guy. He's the one to watch. But I would say to the governor: 'Go to your base.'"

The governor's base -- working and middle class, civic-minded, black -- by all appearances from the show's call-ins, wants to be gotten.

"He's done a lot for people in my situation," a young man newly home from prison said. "And there's more to be done. I should be able to vote, and I can't do that right now."

"Paterson's been working for us for years," a young woman said. "And to go to the President for a minute, I think it could have been handled better, but I'm not mad at Obama. I'm not. He's doing a lot and they've got people convinced that if something's good for black people, it's bad for them. That's what's going on with health care. And I'm tired of people saying, 'White people put him in there.' No, we put him in there. Black people, Latinos, Asians, Native Americans and white people. Everybody put him there."

"If President Obama were not a person of color, he would be considered a miracle worker," Williams said. "The auto industry is turning around; Ford is doing especially well." Ford Motor Company's stock is up more than 46 percent on the year.

"The stock market is turning around. I think we're going to get a health care bill passed this year. Look where we were one year ago. And that you can organize rallies against health care where people bring loaded guns, and bring signs that say 'Kill Obama' and paint the President as Hitler--I mean, it's just incredible."

"I was looking for you," another neighbor said as he caught me heading toward the train. "You know they caught that rapist."

In Up the Hill Harlem, we awoke from an extended nightmare this past week when an accused serial rapist was removed from our streets.

"I know him," my neighbor said, and then he told me the church where two of the man's aunts worship.

"Twenty-one years old. His aunt turned him in," my neighbor said. "The last two women he raped were older, and one of them was the boy's aunt's friend. Now, that's just too much."

"Do you think his aunt knew before?" I said.

"I'm not gonna say that," he said. "I wouldn't think so. But when her friend was attacked, she made it her business to find out, if you know what I mean. But they tell me he tried to run away when they had him at the courthouse. Now, how crazy is that?"

"I wonder if his aunt got the reward," I said.

"How much was it?"

"I saw a flier that offered $12,000," I said. "Police officers were handing them out at the Subway."

"Well, I don't know about that," he said. "But that wasn't why she turned him in. But thank goodness she did. It's too much going on out here." And then he saw a young woman he had, apparently, also been looking for.

"Did you leave that door open?" he said. "I'm asking you if you left that door open. You got to make sure that lock catches. Don't you know they just caught a rapist?"

It was a beautiful Monday in New York City. Facing fine -- up to $1,000 -- and seizure -- possible jail time -- I did my civic duty and registered to serve as a juror in the hexagonal Supreme Court building at 60 Centre Street. There were policemen everywhere, including a cop "from Queens" who pointed me toward the courthouse. The Story Corps booth is there, in the center of Foley Square; and you could easily spend the better part of an afternoon congratulating couples, newly married and mugging for cameras. A woman bringing up the rear of a small Asian contingent flanking their bride, her bouquet firmly clasped in her unhusbanded hand, told me to make sure I voted "for Liu" after I congratulated them.

New York heads to the polls tomorrow for the Democratic Primary runoff elections. City Councilmen John Liu of Queens and David Yassky of Brooklyn are vying to succeed Bill Thompson as the city's comptroller. Liu garnered 38 percent of the primary election vote -- eight points better than Yassky, but still two points shy of the 40 point margin needed to escape a runoff. He would be the first Asian American elected to citywide office.

And City Councilman Bill de Blasio and Mark Green, who held the job for seven years, will battle to become the next Public Advocate.

"I think de Blasio and Liu victories would be good for Thompson," Williams said on Express Yourself. "They represent change and a new perspective."

"I'm hopeful," Ms. Helen said. "Liu will be the first Asian we've had, and that's good. Some of us are saying the next Supreme Court appointment Obama gets may go to an Asian. It's good. Don't get me wrong, I hope to see another black person on the Court. I would love to see a black woman.

"We need new blood, new ideas," she said. "People are saying if Liu and de Blasio win it'll be good for Thompson, but I think it'll be good for Obama, too. It all speaks to a new era, a new way of doing things. New people to help get the job done. Nobody, not even President Obama, is tall enough alone."

Vickie Karp: The Literary Kennedys

2009-08-27T00:07:33Z

Lots of poetry batting about in honor of Ted Kennedy, including some very moving lines within his famous speeches --Tennyson's "I am a part of all that I have met." And in spirit if not quotes, Hughes' "What happens to a dream deferred?"

"Poetry played a special role in my family life," Caroline Kennedy writes in the introduction to her second poetry anthology, A Family of Poems (Hyperion Books for Children, 2005). Her first poetry anthology, published in 2001, was a collection of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis' favorites.

"... My grandmother recited The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere to teach us about American history, and her belief that each of us can change the world," Caroline says in book two. "My mother began her lifelong relationship with literature by reading aloud with her grandfather, a turn-of-the-century gentleman-scholar with a handlebar mustache.... In our family, we were encouraged to write or choose a favorite poem for each holiday or birthday as a gift for my mother and grandparents instead of buying a card or present. My brother and I would copy over and illustrate our choices, and my mother pasted them in a special scrapbook.... My children have continued the tradition for me, including the complaining."

Sometimes poems can floor you with their artistry. Other times, important other times, the goal is to simply put into words what we can't or won't say on our own. A touching entry in A Family of Poems is one Jacqueline Bouvier wrote herself, perhaps when she was young, about adventure and the changing of the seasons.

Here are some excerpted stanzas from that poem by Jacqueline Bouvier, in memoriam for Edward Kennedy, with condolences to the next generation up at bat.

Thoughts

I love the Autumn,

And yet I cannot say

All the thoughts and things

That make me feel this way.

I love walking on the angry shore,

To watch the angry sea;

Where summer people were before,

But now there's only me.

I love wood fires at night

That have a ruddy glow.

I stare at the flames

And think of long ago.

...

Nostalgia - that's the Autumn,

Dreaming through September

Just a million lovely things

I always will remember.

Who Will Fill Ted's Shoes In Kennedy Family? (SLIDESHOW POLL)

2009-08-26T12:48:54Z

With the passing of Sen. Ted Kennedy, the famous family lost its most prominent and powerful member as well as the last surviving brother in an enduring political dynasty. With the patriarch gone, which Kennedy will step up to carry the family banner?

Get HuffPost Politics On Facebook and Twitter!

William Bradley: Camelot Ends, Again: The Passing of Senator Ted Kennedy

2009-08-26T10:50:56Z

Senator Ted Kennedy's dramatic speech to the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver on August 25, 2008. "The hope rises again, and the dream lives on."

Camelot has ended. Again.

The death late last night in Massachusetts of Ted Kennedy, one of the historic lions of the United States Senate, followed swiftly on the heels of his sister, the Special Olympics founder Eunice Kennedy Shriver, who passed away on August 11th. With the passing of these two very public personalities, only one of the siblings of JFK and RFK, the much more private former Ambassador to Ireland Jean Kennedy Smith, remains.

Camelot has ended again. Which means that it has ended before. And probably will again. For it is a legend, and legend seldom dies for long, if at all.

Camelot was the nickname for John F. Kennedy's thousand day administration of the early 1960s, chosen because of the young president's fondness for the hit Broadway musical about the legendary court of King Arthur.

But it was really about much more than a single presidential administration, or the immediate promise of another under a President Robert F. Kennedy, or the long lingering promise of yet another under a President Edward M. Kennedy, or even the transferred promise of another under a President Barack Obama.

Camelot's beginning, with President-elect John F. Kennedy's victory speech at the Hyannis Armory on November 9, 1960.

It's about a spirit, a spirit which to many seemed to have been captured like lightning in a bottle in the early 1960s, an exciting time of promise and peril, which accounts for that era's powerful hold on the American popular imagination.

Ted Kennedy himself captured the spirit of the thing in his great eulogy for Robert F. Kennedy at New York's St. Patrick's Cathedral on June 8th, 1968 when he quoted from his second slain brother's speech to the youth of South Africa on their Day of Affirmation a few years earlier.

"The answer is to rely on youth. Not a time of life but a state of mind, a temper of the will, a quality of imagination, a predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the love of ease."

Ted Kennedy's great eulogy of his brother Robert, at New York's St. Patrick's Cathedral on June 8, 1968.

Ted Kennedy was never to have been the leader of his family nor its standard-bearer in national politics. That was to have been eldest brother Joe Kennedy. But he died over the English Channel in World War II, killed in the explosion of an experimental weapons system, earning the Navy Cross and the thanks of a grateful nation. If not the thanks of his next youngest brother, John Kennedy, a more ironical type who wanted to be a writer instead of a politician but ended as the youngest man ever elected to the presidency. Robert Kennedy, of course, then took up the briefly fallen standard but after his assassination it came to the baby brother of the family.

Who did not fare so well challenging a sitting president of his own party but ended, following a Senate career beginning with his inauguration in 1962, as the third longest serving senator in American history. Rather than the lightning strikes which characterized his brothers' forays in national politics, Ted Kennedy became the master of the long slog, placing a deep imprint on the American fabric.

From his perch on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which he once chaired and where he served longer than anyone else in history, he shaped the judicial system. Through his chairmanship of Senate committees on labor, education, and health issues, and through sheer assertiveness, determination, and skill as a sort of senator at large, Kennedy played a critical role in developing education, housing, and health care opportunities, advancing the civil rights of women, minorities, gays, immigrants, and the disabled, and promoting human rights, arms control while opposing unwise intervention around the world.

And his early endorsement last year of a then trailing Barack Obama provided a forceful counterweight to former President Bill Clinton and helped the freshman senator win a rugged nomination fight against Hillary Clinton as he, niece Caroline Kennedy, and other members of the Kennedy family worked to attach the aura of the Kennedy legacy to Obama.

Senator Ted Kennedy's 1980 Democratic convention speech conceded nothing in defeat, delivering a powerful rebuke not to the president, Jimmy Carter, who had won the nomination but to the rising conservatism of a president to come, Ronald Reagan. "The dream shall never die."

It was then that it became apparent that Ted Kennedy was ailing. While his speeches were vigorous and well-received, Kennedy tired easily and found it difficult to move around much on the campaign trail. Never the healthiest of men in his later years -- he really didn't work out with nephew Arnold Schwarzenegger -- it seemed at first that the problem was related to earlier health problems. But in May of last year, the truth became apparent after Kennedy suffered a seizure, leading to a diagnosis of a cancerous brain tumor.

He made a brave and dramatic appearance at last year's Democratic National Convention in Colorado, a state he ran for his brother John in the 1960 presidential campaign.

As fate would have it, it was a year to the day before his death.

"This November," he declared, "the torch will be passed again to a new generation of Americans. So, with Barack Obama and for you and for me, our country will be committed to his cause. The work begins anew. The hope rises again. And the dream lives on."

He went on to vow to attend Obama's inauguration. Which he did, only to suffer another seizure at the Inaugural luncheon immediately after in Statuary Hall.

He returned to the Senate to break the Republican filibuster against Obama's economic recovery program, but mostly faded after that, his absence felt most critically in the health care debate, where a powerful Senate presence has been sorely lacking.

Imagine how the current health care debate would have been different, had Ted Kennedy, with his powerful advocacy for progressive principle coupled with the ability to find a way to work, when possible, with a few Republicans, been able to bring his force and focus to bear this year.

He was able to participate in the re-authorization of Americorps, in the form of the Edward Kennedy Serve America Act, and threw out the ceremonial first pitch to open the Boston Red Sox season in April.

But when sister Eunice, who suffered a series of strokes over the last several years that did not rob her of her essential verve, passed away two weeks ago, he was only able to attend a private family gathering, but not the public wake and funeral service.

Camelot has ended, again. But as Ted Kennedy himself pointed out, the legend is ever renewable. "The hope rises again, and the dream lives on."

For it is not about "a time of life but a state of mind, a temper of the will, a quality of imagination, a predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the love of ease."

Though a most imperfect man, Ted Kennedy made his choice over a life of ease, and America is much the better for it.

You can check things during the day on my site, New West Notes ... www.newwestnotes.com.

Ted Kennedy: Video Retrospective

2009-08-26T08:14:10Z

Check back here throughout the day for more video tributes to Ted Kennedy and historical footage of the senator. Please send us any memorable video you have of Kennedy, from today or from his long career.

John R. Bohrer: Paterson's Doldrums Conundrum

2009-08-24T12:27:55Z

For a moment there, Governor David Paterson parted the curtain and offered his theory on why state Democrats want him out: the color of his skin.

So that's one person's opinion. Fact is, nobody has a good explanation for Paterson's unpopularity. Ask around and people will struggle to tell you why he's barely treading lame-duck waters. Read Ben McGrath's recent New Yorker profile and you'll see that even Mayor Bloomberg is mystified by it.

Maybe it's that he came to power by an embarrassing sex scandal? Maybe it's because he aired his own illicit activities just as New Yorkers were learning who he is? (As state Senator Ben Parker once put it, a "coke snorting, staff-banging governor.") You could blame the fact that he stuck his neck out for Bloomberg's congestion pricing, pissing off suburban and outer borough drivers. Or you could blame the stigma his blindness carries.

But those early faults didn't take a toll. It's hard to recall Paterson ever being popular, but when he took office, 75 percent of New Yorkers told a Quinnipiac University poll they believed he would govern effectively. Sixty-seven percent thought he would restore trust in state government. His approval-disapproval rating was 46 to 3. (51 percent had no opinion.) A Sienna poll done during his early hiccups showed him with 58 percent approval. And his numbers stayed there for a good while. In late October 2008 (ten months ago!), a Sienna poll had his approval-disapproval at 62-19. By comparison, Andrew Cuomo was at 59-25.

What happened? Twin management crises. The state Senate played games with the budget, and Caroline Kennedy tried to force his hand on Hillary Clinton's Senate seat. Paterson failed both tests. People lost confidence in him. The press turned on him, and he hasn't caught a break since.

That's just one person's opinion. What's yours?

Lizzie Garrett: Flirting Remains Strong Kennedy Tradition

2009-08-20T18:54:46Z

Chris Kennedy, a son of Robert F. Kennedy, who is currently the President of Merchandise Mart Properties Inc. in Chicago, deflated the hopes of many this week when he announced that he would not seek the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Roland Burris.

The reason: his family.

"I realize that I would rather be a good husband and a good father than a good Washington politician," Kennedy said in a statement. Kennedy is keeping in good fourth generation Kennedy tradition by flirting with the idea of running for office and then citing personal or family issues as reasons for not pulling the trigger.

In this decade alone there have been a half-dozen of these events, starting in 2001 when Kennedy's younger brother, Max, was touted as a possible candidate for Massachusetts' 9th Congressional district. The following year Kennedy's eldest brother, the former Massachusetts congressman Joseph Kennedy II, considered running for governor of Massachusetts but opted out, citing family issues (his name is currently being floated to take over the Senate seat of his uncle, Edward M. Kennedy).

In 2007 it was reported that Ted Kennedy Jr. was eying a Connecticut Congressional seat, but he never ended up running. That same year, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made hints that he might run for the Senate from New York, the same seat his father once held, and the same seat his cousin Caroline recently sought. Kennedy's cousin Bobby Shriver is considering becoming a candidate in the 2010 California Attorney General election. And the list goes on.

In this decade it became clear that a famous last name is no longer a golden ticket. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Kennedy's older sister and eldest of the Kennedy clan's fourth generation, suffered a humiliating defeat for the Maryland Governorship when Marylanders elected their first Republican governor in 40 years. The very same year, Mark Kennedy Shriver was defeated in the Democratic primary for Maryland's 8th Congressional seat.

The fierce absoluteness of John, Bobby and Ted may never be lived up to by their kids, but the flirting remains, at least for now. And we should remember that although Chris Kennedy's coiffure impossibly reminds of his late father, his smile is all Skakel.

Liza Weisberg: HBO Documentary Shows Ted Kennedy's Controversial Career in Soft Focus

2009-07-11T12:43:00Z

While hideous scandals and devastating tragedies have attended the Kennedy's long and ongoing tenure in Washington, the nation's respect and admiration for the family has likewise proven unshakable. Just as Americans have shown an abiding willingness to forgive the Kennedy brothers' most shameful indiscretions, so too does Peter Kunhardt's film, Teddy: In His Own Words, pardon their public misdeeds. A tender, nostalgic profile of the Camelot clan through the eyes of its youngest member, the documentary plays eerily like a premature eulogy.

With a thick head of hair and a thick Boston accent to match his eight older siblings, Edward Moore Kennedy grew up with an acute awareness of the lofty expectations that would accompany his adulthood. Early in his political career, he came to embody the family's glamour, iconography and more importantly, commitment to public service.

For over four decades, he has been the most visible and influential leader among liberal democrats. In an electric, pulpit-banging speech at the DNC midterm convention in 1978, Senator Kennedy sounded a spirited call for health reform:

As long as I'm a vote and as long as I have a voice in the U.S. senate, it's going to be for the democratic platform plan that provides decent quality health care north and south, east and west, for all Americans as a matter of right and not of privilege.

A stalwart crusader for civil rights, higher minimum wage, lower unemployment rates and health care reform, Ted Kennedy's forty-six year service as nine-time Massachusetts Senator is faithfully chronicled with a privileged library of photographs and painstakingly edited video footage. Kunhardt's HBO documentary, which premiers Monday, July 13 at 9:00PM, is a stirring visual and emotional experience.

To be sure, the film devotes more camera time to breezy, sun-soaked shots of Ted sailing on the cape than to probing the mysterious Chappaquiddick incident. It is a generous tribute. Just after Ted gave Caroline Kennedy away at her wedding, Jackie Kennedy wrote the following in a letter to her brother-in-law:

On you, the carefree youngest brother, fell a burden a hero would beg to be spared. Everyone is going to make it because you are always there with your love.

One of the most touching moments in the film comes when Senator Kennedy looks toward the camera, glassy-eyed, having just read the letter aloud. Choked-up, he says, "That's about as nice as you can get." The film too, in its gentle portrait of the controversial politician, is "about as nice as you can get."

Chris Kelly: Meg Whitman Week -- Monday: Meg Actually Gives an Interview

2009-05-11T03:48:04Z

First I wondered why Meg Whitman announced that she was running for Governor of California two years before the election. Then I wondered why she wasn't giving any interviews. But now it all makes sense: She wants us to have plenty of time to not get to know her.

It's not just journalists she's ducking. She won't even talk to other Republicans. The other two GOP hopefuls, Tom Campbell and Steve Poizner, offered to debate next week's ballot propositions, but Whitman declined.

(Maybe a debate is asking too much. Maybe it's enough that she's voting this year. She doesn't always do that.)

But not giving interviews seems... weird.

As Poizner's campaign points out:

"Meg's refusal to debate Campbell and Poizner is part of a pattern. Meg Whitman is doing her best to avoid the press and questions from the public. She is only attending private events or ones which are carefully scripted and, if questions are even allowed, they are written and pre-screened in advance."

She's sort of the political equivalent of Angelyne, the weird old blonde lady who circles LA in the pink Corvette and no one knows why she's famous or what she wants. The difference between Meg Whitman and Angelyne is it's kind of fun when you see Angelyne.

Whitman gave two disastrous interviews back in February, to the LA Times and the San Francisco Chronicle, and then went so silent you didn't know if she was running for governor or having John Edwards' lovechild.

But now she's back in the ring. This time, though, they're bringing her up slow, and she's only fighting bums and tomato cans. On Wednesday, Fox's Neil "Smart Like Prosciutto" Cavuto. On Friday, talk radio's Hugh "Which One Are Hugh Again" Hewitt.

These are not tough interviews for a Republican.

Meg Whitman has spent her life in fairly high profile business positions. There's evidence that she's spoken to groups. So why is she only engaging in interviews that are the journalistic version of pity sex?

The answer, I think, has a lot to do with Caroline Kennedy and her botched New York Times interview, the one where she said "you know" too much, and the Times didn't clean it up.

The answer is that Meg Whitman can't stop saying "actually."

In her sit-down with Cavuto, Whitman told him things in California where "far worse, actually, even than nationally." She said there was "actually some small rationale" for closing tax shelters and that she could reach minority voters because, "I actually think through talking about jobs and the economy."

Which wasn't so bad. But on Hugh Hewitt she explained that her hometown was actually Cold Spring Harbor, her parents actually met as children in Boston, (Their families were friends actually) and her uncle was actually killed in the Philippines. She actually went to Princeton for women's sports. She sat beside a guy at Harvard Business who actually fought in the Vietnam War. Her husband was actually a friend of her older sister's, who was actually a PhD.

One of the first products she launched at Procter and Gamble was actually Ivory Shampoo. Then she got the chance to work for Bain & Co. and actually moved to L.A. for four years where she decided to actually join the Presbyterian Church.

Mitt Romney was actually her first boss at Bain.

Then she actually started Hyperion Press for Disney and reorganized FTD florists, which was very challenging, because member-owned associations actually exist for different reasons than for profit companies. She learned a lot because it was the first time she was actually a CEO. It also got her interested in the Internet because she actually experimented with FTD.com.

Then she went back east, and that's how she ended up actually at Stride Rite. Luckily, her husband was actually loving being back in Boston.

And all this business experience is applicable to governing because actually you have to focus and actually ask: "What is the most important thing?"

Does Meg Whitman actually have nails in her head?

Fowler says using the word "actually" all the time is "a phenomenon perhaps more suitable for the psychologist than for the philologist." He puts "actually" in the same category of useless words as "you know" and adds, trying to remain calm, that "any meaning they had ever had was soon rubbed off them, and they had become noises automatically produced."

I think "actually" is even more politically off-putting than "you know" because "you know" can sound vaguely apologetic but "actually" sounds like you're talking to either an imbecile who doesn't get distinctions at all, or a hayseed who might be amazed by practically anything.

It makes you dislike her, actually.

The interviews also reminded me of a certain out-of-her-depth Alaskan Governor. And how precarious it got whenever a question didn't directly prompt a sound bite from a list she'd studied. Here's my favorite exchange from the Hewitt interview and you can go listen to it yourself, if you think I'm making it up:

HH: Are you a newspaper reader?

MW: I am a newspaper reader, actually.

"Ted Kennedy: The Dream That Never Dies": Excerpt From New Book

2009-05-05T11:20:07Z

Senator Edward Kennedy's diagnosis of brain cancer, in May 2008, touched off an extraordinary medical battle--and a veiled rivalry over who might succeed him as symbolic head of America's fabled dynasty. Would it be R.F.K.'s oldest son, Joe? J.F.K.'s daughter, Caroline? Or the senator's second wife, Victoria? An excerpt from the new book Ted Kennedy: The Dream That Never Died reveals the family's shifting dynamics, the confrontation that led Caroline to drop her political bid, and the triumphant, grueling winter of the last Kennedy brother.

Caroline Kennedy Leaks May Be Probed By New York Ethics Panel

2009-04-23T21:49:02Z

ALBANY -- The state's top ethics panel is reviewing a request from three government watchdog groups to investigate the Paterson administration's leaks of confidential information provided by Caroline Kennedy when she was seeking appointment to the United States Senate.

The ethics panel, the Commission on Public Integrity, is reviewing the request and has not decided whether to undertake an inquiry, its spokesman said on Thursday.

Vatican Blocks Caroline Kennedy Appointment As US Ambassador: Report

2009-04-11T19:22:15Z

Vatican sources told Il Giornale that their support for abortion disqualified Ms Kennedy and other Roman Catholics President Barack Obama had been seeking to appoint.

Michael Wolff: Caroline Kennedy Can't Catch a Break

2009-04-10T10:57:16Z

I am glad that it turns out that Caroline Kennedy is still looking for a job. Her brief but painful pursuit of a Senate seat was a bracing sort of soap opera, oddly raising politics to a level of personal angst and a public quest for identity.

Now there's a mini-movement to make her the ambassador to the Vatican, which, given the Kennedys' place in the history of American Catholicism, is rather a nice touch. What's more, ambassadorial appointments need not, or at least in the past never have had to, pass the experience test. There are always a number of ambassadorial slots that are just plums. One of Caroline's aunts, Jean Smith, who had not previously held any sort of job, was a not unsuccessful ambassador to Ireland.

Also, Caroline deserves to get something. Among endorsements of Barack Obama, hers was not an insignificant one.

But here she is, once again, in the crossfire. Former Vatican ambassador and mayor of Boston Raymond Flynn, a politician and diplomat of no distinction, is vociferously opposing her selection, ostensibly on the grounds of her lack of right-to-life fealty.

Continue reading at newser.com

Keith Thomson: How Tim Geithner Can Guarantee a 43% Return on Your Money This Year

2009-04-07T12:50:19Z

The betting odds that Timothy Geithner will remain Treasury Secretary until Dec. 31 are currently about 3 to 7. For every $7 you wager, if he stays, you come away with $10. Alternately, if you bet correctly that he'll depart, your $3 bet more than triples.

So how do you bet?

During the general election, I learned that bookmakers are extraordinarily accurate in their predictions of political outcomes, more so than the best polls. As an experiment, I asked one of America's foremost handicappers to take time out from the grandstand and bet on political outcomes. Ray Paulick was once a protégé of oddsmaker "Jimmy The Greek" and is now editor of the thoroughbred industry insiders' Paulick Report. He always has been a political junkie.

He thought it would be easier handicapping political outcomes than horse races. "In a ten-horse field on the track, so many more things can go wrong and there are so many more variables," he said.

I bankrolled us with $1,000 in play money and picked some of the most popular predictions markets on sites Intrade and Betfair. Among measures taken for simplicity's sake, each bet was $100. Here are the results so far:

1. Obama to Win Presidency, 4-3 odds: Paulick, impressed early with grassroots campaign, wins $167

2. Obama to Win in Kentucky, 7.5-100 odds: Paulick, a Kentuckian, wins $107.50

3. Voter turnout prediction between 60-65% for 2008, 28-1 odds: Paulick loses $100 -- the correct answer was 56.8%. "I erred in misreading how blasé the right was about McCain," he says.

4. Hillary Clinton named Secretary of State, 66-1 odds: $100 loss; Paulick said, "Knowing that Obama was very big on Lincoln's team of rivals, it shouldn't have surprised me."

5. Caroline Kennedy to fill Hillary Clinton's Senate seat, 1-3 odds: $100 loss

6. Blagojevich still Gov. of Illinois on/after Dec 31, 2008, 7-1 odds: $800 win; "Justice doesn't move that fast."

7. Franken Wins MN, 6-100 (bet for: tbd)

8. Coleman Wins MN, 24-1 (bet against: tbd)

9. Steele to be Next Chairperson of the Republican National Committee, 3-2 odds: $250 win; Paulick: "The Republican Party is so transparent, it seemed likely they would overreact to their defeat by electing an African American and attempt to broaden their reach superficially rather than by actually changing their policies."

10. Andrew Cuomo does not fill Hillary Clinton's Senate seat, 5-6 odds: $120 win; "Cuomo would rather have Paterson's job."

11. Rahm Emanuel to depart as Chief of Staff on/before Dec 31, 2008, 16-1 odds: $100 loss.

12. Libby Pardon, 5-6 odds: $183.33 win: "People, unlike stocks and mutual funds, perform in accordance with past performance. Past performance -- what we look at in handicapping a horserace -- would lead one to conclude that the current administration would consider the pardon. But Bush already addressed the Libby issue with the commutation."

13. Leon Panetta to be confirmed by US Senate as Director of CIA, 2-100 odds: $102 win

14. Rick Wagoner Resigns by March, 2009, 99-1 odds: $100 loss

15. Tom DeLay Guilty of Laundering, 5-2 odds: (bet of not guilty, tbd)

16. I Love You Man Opening Weekend Domestic Box Office Receipts $17.5 million, 4-1 odds: Paulick took the under, missing by $310,270, losing $100

17. Obama Job Approval Rating on March 31, 2009 between 60-64.9%, 2-3 odds: $167 win

18. U.S. Average Gas Price $2.00-$2.25 on March 31, 2009, 1-1 odds: $200 win

Summary: If Paulick were a hedge fund, he would be up $1493.83, a rate of return of 149% over five months. At that clip, over an entire year, he would return 359%.

So what's his line on Geithner?

"I think there's only a twenty-five-percent chance that he's going to leave," Paulick said, "unless there's some kind of scandal. Certainly he's a guy that the critics don't like, and certainly he's had a rough start. But he's settling in."

So one way or the other, everyone now can like Geithner.

Susan Braudy: Mayor Michael Bloomberg: The Utopian King

2009-02-26T20:04:52Z

Six weeks ago, I wrote a column for the West Side Spirit, a Manhattan community newspaper, describing my years of sharing cabs--saving myself and strangers time, money, and even emotional distress.

Then about five weeks later, Mayor Michael Bloomberg proposed official rules for splitting rides. Coincidence?

In my view, our mayor's the best in history--despite the zeitgeist (a finger to the wind shows growing resentment toward Wall Street, rich entrepreneurs,and even idealistic heirs like Caroline Kennedy.)

Furthermore, I'm not grousing about Bloomberg's budget--we're lucky as hell the richest man in the city's leading us through our financial horrors.

I'm particularly curious about Michael Bloomberg's transformations--particularly the moment he decided to add public service to his philanthropy.

Last year, besides superior leadership, Michael Bloomberg gave more money to charity than anybody--$235 million. Recently, he announced a "private fund" giving $250 to families earning under $45,000 a year, if they bank $500 for one year.

Can you picture any other self-made billionaire trying everything to make public education work-- even cash rewards to kids for improved grades?

Okay, in 2001, I was unpersuaded by his calling cards: the eponymous media empire built from scratch and an endorsement from Rudy Giuliani who didn't want to meet with Harlem representatives.

But Mayor Bloomberg's good works confound--from gun control (his national mayors' group's stopping up holes that put guns in criminals' hands) to the Golden Apple Awards for restaurants that get perfect health inspections to banning cigarette smoking to proposing windmills on skyscrapers to fighting trans fat on restaurant menus to hiring Caroline Kennedy to do public school fundraising. A colleague with a tenant problem telephoned Bloomberg's new 311--and presto, a qualified person solved everything.

I'll never forget artist Christo's saffron banners flying in Central Park flaunting our courage after 9/11.

Let me back up--I mostly see politicians as inefficient sly show-offs. And since the 1980's, I've sighed over New York's lost idealism and artists---Wall Street ethics were raping my city.

Evidence: When I was in the movie business in the 1980's, I was freaked by encounters with thuggy, cocaine-fueled Wall Street bombasts. (Several mercifully were imprisoned.)

Evidence: I'm upset by "accidental" Governor David Paterson's nasty,threatened
treatment of Caroline Kennedy. The Mayor's ex-candidate for the Senate is brainy,celebrated, clean-living.

An idealist like Bloomberg, Caroline would've learned faster on the job than most widows traditionally appointed to serve out their husband's Congressional terms.

Of course Paterson's a lousy example of learning to govern on the job---unlike our Mayor.

Truth is, before Michael Bloomberg stepped up, I'd longed for a ceiling on how much money one person could accrue. But lo and behold our richest neighbor labors brilliantly for the public good.

Thank you Michael Bloomberg for turning my personal philosophy on its ear. He summed up his philosophy: "...the greatest pleasure life offers [is] the chance to make a better world."

When Mayor Bloomberg can't get good things done officially, he often secretly (and not secretly) uses his own money to fix the problem. He's donated millions to the arts alone.

The Mayor's the mystery man who rides a black horse into town and cleans it up. I love what he wrote about being really rich: "You can only eat so many meals, have so much domestic help, travel so many places, and live in so many rooms. You can only sleep in one bed at a time."

I bet Michael Bloomberg will be running the greatest urban show on earth for a long time--unless New Yorkers are a lot less intelligent than I think.

Paterson Admits He Ordered Staff To Deny Kennedy Was Top Choice

2009-02-21T12:31:07Z

For the first time, Gov. David A. Paterson acknowledged Friday that he personally ordered his staff to contest Caroline Kennedy's version of events in the hours after she withdrew from consideration to be United States senator.

However, Mr. Paterson said that he was bewildered when his staffers subsequently unleashed harsh personal attacks against Ms. Kennedy, saying he merely wanted them to challenge the assertion from Ms. Kennedy's camp that she had been his first choice to replace Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Paterson Admits Aide Leaked Damaging Information About Caroline Kennedy

2009-02-04T11:14:32Z

ALBANY, N.Y. - After denying involvement in the leak of damaging claims about Caroline Kennedy after she withdrew from consideration for New York's U.S. Senate seat, Gov. David Paterson now says a campaign staffer was behind the leak.

Paterson also says he'll keep the consultant on the campaign payroll. He did not name the staffer.

The Democratic governor has insisted he had nothing to do with leaking unsubstantiated claims that Kennedy faced tax, nanny and marital problems. Those unproven claims were fed to reporters by a person close to Paterson under the condition of anonymity just hours after Kennedy abruptly withdrew from Paterson's secretive selection process.

That process included a questionnaire asking contenders to list tax, employee and other personal information.

Death Withdraws Icy Hand From Shoulder Of Caroline Kennedy

2009-02-02T19:11:31Z

NEW YORK--Rather than bestowing a final, icy tap to Caroline Kennedy's unsuspecting clavicle, the ethereal entity known as Death suddenly receded into the darkness last Thursday, after Kennedy announced her decision to withdraw her bid to become a U.S. senator. The sole surviving child of slain president John F. Kennedy said she made the choice to drop out of the running after considering the declining health of her uncle, Massachusetts senator Ted Kennedy, who is suffering from an extremely rare and incurable brain cancer. "I am permanently and unequivocally removing my name from consideration for this post," Kennedy said as the shrill cry of a whip-poor-will sounded in the distance. "Right now, I just want to be with my few remaining family members." Sources said Kennedy plans to use the break from political life to devote more time to her personal interests, including flying lessons, ski-football, and late-night drives through Martha's Vineyard.

Barri Gordon Waltcher: At-Home Mothers & the National Service Track

2009-01-30T10:05:51Z

Caroline Kennedy's candidacy for the vacant New York Senate seat brought to the fore the issue of whether volunteerism of at-home moms is ultimately valued by prospective employers when these women eventually want to return to work. While her withdrawal from consideration could be viewed as a setback, in fact there may be no greater time for optimism. Now more than ever, as we enter the Obama era, there is reason to hope that the resume of the Parent cum Volunteer will be viewed more favorably.

For years women who returned to the workforce after taking time off to parent have had to spin the voluntary nature of their work to improve their marketability. Career advisors emphasize skills-based resumes that focus on the tasks women have accomplished, rather than the positions they held thereby fitting into the corporate model and avoiding association with the pink-collar ghettos of the PTA and soccer team. Similarly, the "experience" lexicon has changed -- moms were fundraisers (bake sale coordinators), event planners (school party organizers), project managers (committee chairs), and equipment procurers (team uniform purchasers).

Part of the reason for this approach is that neither full-time parenting nor the volunteer work associated with it is highly valued in the business sector. The type of volunteer work that many at-home moms tend to do -- tasks associated with PTAs, sports teams, religious institutions and charitable causes -- is largely viewed as unskilled with questionable economic value. For that reason, Emma Keller, author of The Comeback, suggests women use the term "pro-bono" instead of "volunteer" when discussing their time away from work. Thus, they legitimize their work to a prospective employer by cloaking it in professional language.

But now we have a President who is a former community organizer himself and who has made service a priority on his agenda. In his Inaugural Address, President Obama spoke of a spirit of service "that must inhabit us all" and how, among other things, it is a "parent's willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate." Moreover, we have a First Lady who calls herself the Mom-in-Chief. A new emphasis on service, and the example of Michelle Obama may influence the prospects of women returning to the workforce.

President Obama wants service elevated to a level of national importance. Among the many programs he proposes to accomplish that goal is the American Opportunity Tax Credit worth up to $4,000 in exchange for 100 hours of community service by college students. That amounts to $40 per hour, which is more than double the average hourly earnings in the private sector. Attaching an economic value to volunteer work may go a long way towards boosting the status of at-home mothers. (Imagine if all moms calculate how many hours they volunteer, multiply that number by $40, and then deduct that amount from their tax liability!)

Obama also has sent a clear signal that community service is valuable in and of itself, regardless of the nature of the task. He has been photographed doling out food and painting a building, two tasks many moms have undertaken without any paparazzi following them around. If the Obama Presidency is all about dreaming big, is it too
far-fetched to imagine that the White House's emphasis on service could lead to the prevalence of service-based resumes? That type of development can only benefit moms.

Furthermore, the First Lady's position as Mom-in-Chief may have a profound effect on people's perceptions of women who are reentering the work force. Here is a smart, Ivy League-educated woman who is so focused on the value of parenting that she has deferred embracing a traditional First Lady issue that might make her seem more "serious." It is hard to predict if or how that decision will have a trickle down effect on other womens' choices. At the very least, it should bolster the confidence that moms will need, first, in choosing to put their careers on hold and then, in developing the confidence to transition back into the workplace after a long absence.

At the same time that this is a period of optimism for women who want to transition back to work, Caroline Kennedy's choices highlight the complexities of the issue. Commentators looking at her as-yet unexplained withdrawal suggest that her story is a setback for other women because she appeared indecisive and ill-equipped for the transition -- qualities that onramping mothers and employers worry about. The Kennedy missteps may well scare women who are not certain whether they can transition from full-time parenting to careers. Fortunately, most will not have to live out their missteps in the public eye (although sometimes the nagging voice of self-doubt is worse). Hopefully, both moms and prospective employers will recognize that like all things Kennedy, this situation was unique and not reflective of the trajectory most women face. In the meantime, we should be encouraged by the priorities of our new Mom-in-Chief and her working husband.

Barri Gordon Waltcher is a former law yer, full-time parent, and co-founder of Mind Your Own Business Moms, which provides career advice to women who have left the workforce to raise children.

Joanne Bamberger: Was Caroline Kennedy Ever the Real Candidate?

2009-01-29T11:22:54Z

So the very high profile bid for the spot of junior U.S. Senator from New York for Caroline Kennedy is over, and it did not end in a pretty way. She announced last week she was withdrawing her name for "personal reasons" after the rumors started swirling that she wasn't on the short list anymore.

As the press reports started bashing her, and the name of the ultimate Hillary Clinton successor, New York Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand, started hitting the airwaves, I wondered whether Caroline Kennedy had been set up to fail as a cover for the real candidates who were being vetted?

Was Caroline the red herring we were all focusing on so we wouldn't pay attention to what was really going on? It just seems awfully strange to have her go from the front-runner to the no-runner in a split second, even if the personal reasons thing is true.

I'm not trying to start the latest conspiracy theory, but when Caroline Kennedy first announced her interest in the seat, it just didn't feel authentic. If she really had her eye on that political slot and had decided that her 50-something decade had brought on a fire in her belly for the political arena, wouldn't it have been prudent to be a tiny bit discreet? Somehow Kennedy found herself shoved into the 24/7 media spotlight and then had to make the high-profile rounds of upstate, snow-belt cities to convince people she was something more than they thought she was -- the sole survivor of the Kennedy/Camelot era who had spent most of her life avoiding exactly this type of notoreity.

Not to mention that whole 'you-know' thing, you know?

Trust me, I get the whole 'Oh-my-God-I'm-50-what-have-I-been-doing-with-my-life' thing that Kennedy said was one of her motivating factors. But Caroline Kennedy could hardly be described as a stay-at-home mom who had no professional standing on her own. She published a variety of well-received books and worked on a number of high-powered boards. She could pretty much have chosen any new venture for 2009 and have it succeed.

While Kennedy was getting most of the speculation coverage, there was only small mention of other contenders -- Andrew Cuomo, Carolyn Maloney and, a few times, Kirsten Gillibrand. Was Caroline nothing more than cover for New York Governor David Paterson's efforts to court and vet the candidate who would most benefit him? We didn't see any of the other wannabes launching tours around the state or conducting interviews with the media about why they were validly on the list. All the others were strangely quiet.

I don't know. Something doesn't smell quite right and, odds are, we'll never know what was causing the odor. But Caroline Kennedy had little to gain and a lot to lose in terms of personal and political capital by stepping off that ledge and trying to enter the game.

There's more to this story and my gut says that it ultimately came down to Paterson's calculations about which Democrat could keep the seat next time around and who would feel more beholden to him in a fund-raising kind of way when he wants to run for his own election to the New York Governor's seat.

Call me cynical, but I prefer to call myself a realist. When Caroline looked like the goose with the golden campaign finance egg, she was the front-runner. But when political reality set in and Paterson focused on needing some support from conservatives who also could help raise money for him in the future, I'm betting that's what put Gillibrand at the top of the list.

There's no question that Gillibrand has a great resume. And I'm not saying that Caroline Kennedy was the best candidate for the slot. It just feels like there was a real political game going on here that had more to do with Paterson's aspirations than with who would be the best Senator for New York State.

Some believe it's a good thing that Caroline has bowed out in terms of impact on other women who want to make their way in politics. And New Yorkers are apparently placing the blame at Caroline's feet for this whole "messy" process. But Caroline Kennedy ended up suffering the fallout as Paterson worried about his own political future. If I were Paterson, I'd be careful. I have a feeling that Caroline and the rest of the Kennedy clan have a pretty long memory.

Joanne Bamberger is the founder and editor-in-chief of the political blog, PunditMom. Joanne is a professional writer and political/media analyst in the Washington, D.C. area, and is a Contributing Editor for News & Politics for BlogHer.

Jamie Stiehm: Three Truly Weird Governors, USA

2009-01-28T15:34:11Z

Even with a shiny new Barack Obama glow emanating out of the White House, I can't shake the passing strange sensation that a trio of governors we've gotten to know lately on the national stage have been as truly weird as the three witches in MacBeth.

Consider the evidence: Governors Sarah Palin of Alaska, David Paterson of New York (not to mention his tawdry and disgraced predecessor, Eliot Spitzer) and of course, Rod Blagojevich of Illinois. Wow, who knew what human dramas, complexes and perhaps perfidies lurked behind the doors of these governor's mansions?

All owe their newfound fame to the presidential election of 2008. Now we know too much, yet the mystery remains: why have we have we here three whacked-out governors in a row?

You could not make some of this stuff up. Let's take Palin first, she who swooped into our collective psyche last September as Sen. John McCain's chosen one for the Republican vice-presidential nominee. Somehow her plain speaking pattern, upswept hair, glasses and supreme self-confidence electrified the body politic. Love or fear her, she and her small-town ways could not be ignored. She was charming when she chose to be, with her winks and aw-shucks, doggone-it lines, but it wore thin when asked about foreign policy or how she intended to "be in charge" of the U.S. Senate. Sarah Palin also showed a smiling mean streak out on the campaign trail.

Substance was not her strong point and we never got an answer to Katie Couric's question: what in heck does the lady from Alaska read, anyway? Stay home up there near Russia and the North Pole, and chill out, Governor. You have delighted us in the Lower 48 long enough.

Less amusing was the daft and drawn-out performance of the New York governor, who botched his chance to appoint the U.S. Senate successor to Hillary Clinton. Paterson had the gift of two political plums in hand, either a Kennedy or a Cuomo, but he picked a first-term congresswoman named Kirsten Gillibrand, an unknown outside of New York. The daughter of the late president, Caroline Kennedy, an author and a civic do-gooder, and Attorney General Andrew Cuomo were shunned and treated shabbily, especially Kennedy. The governor curiously saw fit to let his aides tear her down as she withdrew from the agonizing endgame. This is an unelected governor who only got the job because of the spectacular downfall of the former governor, Eliot Spitzer. The perverse Paterson gave new meaning to "amateur hour" in his handling of a decision that should have been a swift and easy political win for him.

Now comes Blagojevich, who seems to tickle some funny bones on the media circuit as he peddles his own form of legal defense. Indictment and impeachment hanging over his well-groomed head seemed not to faze him one bit as he defiantly went ahead with making his own choice for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Obama. It is sobering to realize that Illinois gave us Obama, but also elected this scary character, Chicago-born from a Serbian family, in the same space of time. While he has not been convicted of charges that he tried to sell the Senate seat to the highest bidder, Blagojevich's self-deluded public conduct is so far from dignity and reality that "Nixonian" is really the only word that does him justice.

Just to be safe, let's stick to electing senators to the presidency for a long time to come.