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The Real Reasons Caroline Didn't Make It
The real reason Caroline didn't get the job isn't taxes. It's that she antagonized liberal interest groups, offended the Clintons, and generally bungled the effort. Not that Gov. Paterson did any better: In the words of someone close to him, "he's incapable of the chess strategy required to think through what the consequences of anything might be two weeks from now."
If you've been following the spat between New York Governor David Paterson and once-likely New York Senator Caroline Kennedy, you've probably asked yourself the obvious question: Who's less impressive? It's a tough one. They're both pretty mediocre.
"I don't know who they wanted," says a Clinton friend. "I know who they didn't want."
Despite the efforts of news organizations, it's almost impossible to put together a timeline of exactly what happened between Kennedy and Paterson earlier this week. Both sides have given wildly confusing and totally contradictory accounts of Kennedy's decision to end her informal campaign for the senate, and the rumor mill is churning with suggestions she had a tax problem, an illegal nanny problem, or even an affair with another high-profile New Yorker.
Somebody—probably everybody—is lying about details. Here are a couple of things we know for certain:
It was a ludicrous idea from the beginning. Here was a woman with virtually no history of political involvement or donations, no clear ideas about public policy, no natural constituency, a poor speaking voice and awkward personal skills, who hadn't even bothered to vote much of the time, who suddenly, for reasons she never explained, decided she should be given Hillary Clinton's Senate seat. Apart from her last name, she was the worst candidate ever.
It was hard to argue she was ready for the job, and few did. "She was walking right onto Broadway without having done a debut in a smaller venue," her cousin Robert Kennedy, Jr. conceded in an interview with MSNBC.
Even her friends don't pretend she's a natural leader. One admirer, who worked with her at the Fund for Public Schools in New York, describes Kennedy as utterly passive in dealings with other people. "She went to the meetings, but she was quiet. People would have stepped back if she'd said 'Let's do it this way.' It would have been nice. And we would have had fewer meetings." But Kennedy never did.
Why would a person like this want to serve in the U.S. Senate? Nobody seems to know. "She never had a rationale for doing this," says one major New York political figure. "In every dealing I had with her family or friends, they clearly thought it was a just theirs for the asking. They had a real sense of entitlement."
Some theorize the 51-year-old Kennedy was in the grip of a midlife crisis. Others who know her say she was persuaded to do it by her uncle Ted. Whoever was giving her advice forgot to mention two iron rules of state Democratic politics: Don't antagonize liberal interest groups. And if you can help it, don't cross Hillary Clinton.
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"The state could use a break from the headlines." I always find it odd when someone in the media makes this type of statement. Aren't they largely responsible for creating these stories to begin with? In any case, I'm sure we can all use a break from this particular headline.
You know who doesn't even rise up to the level of mediocrity? Tucker Carlson.
As for everyone who's been so obsessed with Caroline Kennedy- when is it enough? The point that she shouldn't be senator has been made over and over. Why must failures like Tucker Carlson continue to try to destroy her? So she might not be the best candidate. It doesn't make her a bad person. She's not evil because she might have overreached for something she wasn't ready for. After all, it was the Democratic inner circle in NY that planted the idea in her head. She just ran with it. Who here wouldn't have done the same thing if you thought the opportunity was there? Sarah Palin sure didn't object when Bill Kristol annointed her the VP candidate and she was even less qualified for a more important decision. Where was Tucker Carlson's scathing column about that?
Why anyone would pay attention to anything Tucker Carlson says, particularly if it involves a Democrat, is a puzzlement.
He is always, without fail, the dark doomsayer who usually sees from the glass half empty. He seems like a nice guy, but not very credible.
Ah, Tuck - get real! You left out the most important fact, one that was reported on Bill O'Reilly's Fox News show last night - it's 'rumored' that she's having an affair with a journalist.
It wasn't Hillary that did her in, I for one don't even think Hillary would waste time on such a vapid pampered poodle. No, it was her isolation from the American people that she claimed she wanted to represent in the first place!
And I suspect that Paterson wasn't happy with whatever prize Uncle Teddy was offering in exchange for her appointment. Because when all is said and done, this was just Politics As Usual - Democratic Style.
Yet I must say, now that the Dems are in complete control of all things political, there's certainly more drama going on! Better than HBO...:)
Caroline would have been a fine pick After all Hilary Clinton had no experience when she ran and was riding on Bill's coattails. But there's the rub. Caroline betrayed the Clintonistas when she backed Obama. Her faux pas and the lack of elegant rhetorical skills didn't help. But I would bet, without really knowing her mind that HRC would have some say in who succeeded her. And Caroline would be picked "over her dead body." Thus the whirligig of time has its revenges.
This essay is spot on and it's about time someone put so concisely what has been obvious for weeks. Tucker, I wish you would have written most of this a week ago, however. We learned from the conservative pundits in the Sarah Palin debacle that it's a good idea to trumpet the obvious early on. I'm disappointed that everyone was doing the "wait and see" dance all the while that Caroline demonstrated so clearly wasn't up to the task.
"She should have been naturally appealing to feminists." Why? Do you think feminists are "naturally" drawn to incompetence? You've gotta think it through better than that.
Mr. Carlson,
This piece has all the argumentative heft of one composed by the average (high school) Freshman who's intent it is to "prove" what he's already assumed to be true.
You've fairly clearly lined out some of the very valid reasons that Ms. Kennedy was probably out of her depth in this venture in paragraphs 4,5 and 6. But a read through of the rest of your piece reveals the rather flimsy assertion that the "Real Reasons" can be ascribed to your short list of Usual Suspects--i.e. liberal activists and the Clintons.
Paterson lost my vote!
Actually, I think Tucker Carlson nicely sums up in one paragraph how CK as Senator was absurd from the start.
As for "reported on Bill O'Reilly's Fox News show last night - it's 'rumored' that she's having an affair with a journalist."
Yes, it is apparently an open secret that she has been seeing Arthur "Pinch" Sulzberger, publisher of the New York Times--another under-talented scion of a prominent family, who owes his position to his last name. What a perfect pair.
Oh my - a Barbie Doll to replace a Giant? Chuck Schumer, already a great senator for New York will look even better now. If Patterson wanted an upstate politician to replace Hillary, how about US Representative Brian Higgins from Western New York. How about Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown - a young capable African American. How disappointing.
New Yorks only hope is that she's keeping the seat warm for Andrew Cuomo or barring that, hopefully Cuomo will challenge Patterson in the primaries in 2010.
As always, I really enjoyed reading Tucker's opinion/outlook on things.
My main problem with this though is that the only reason Gillibrand was chosen is because she is a woman. All of the polling done suggests upstate New Yorkers like myself overwhelmingly supported AG Cuomo getting the appointment. Instead we get a "gimmick" pick of Gillbrand. Paterson disrespected upstate New York by knowing who we supported and instead going with somebody so he could say "Look at me I appointed a woman".
If there is any luck, Cuomo will challenge Paterson in the primary and we can get a much needed upgrade at governor.
Tucker and his friend Bill Kristol just never get tired of being wrong, do they?
It is predictable what this right wing hack puts into a column. All anonymous sources,throwing in gossip that she may be having an affair in New York, throw in everything Tucker-all made up by you and your neocon friends and then pass it off as truth. When are people going to start standing up to these lying hacks. And then claim that the Clintons did not want her-document this-You cannot. You are one of the reasons this country has gone into decline and you have helped destroy this country through your lies and your distortions all so you can make a buck. Those of the few of us who do read you do it out of a sense of fascination at how you still get employment with such unsubstantiated drivel.
Tucker Carlson on Failures:
Takes one to know one, eh, Tuck?
A trashy post straight from the Bob Novak school of journalism. Pass off rumors as solid reporting, attribute everything to anonymous people who would normally be at odds with the reporter (See? Even these people agree with me, so it has to be true.), and then wander off in search of some new nonsense to report.
No wonder Carlson can't keep a job.
Great article Tucker. I'm only sorry that this story resolved itself before I penned an op ed on Kennedy being unqualified because of her terribly dry looking skin. I mean really, a rich white woman living in NYC who is the daughter of a president; she has no excuse for looking the way that she does.
"I miss Hillary!"
C. Kennedy has some major issues. She despises anyone who likes her because she is a Kennedy. And yet that's all she's done her whole life, i ride her name.She's as big a snob as there is, a sign of lack of intelligence, and does not know one real person. She's mean.
She got the power bug last year. And screwed her own pooch.
Bottom Line: She was trying to represent people that she does not even like. The Rochester event? If she was being honest, she would have told them her thoughts:
You are sycophants and only lie me because I'm a Kennedy."
Her hypocrisy is titanic in nature, and her pain due, because she's simply a mean person.
Do all those here similarly call out, say, the New York Times for using unnamed sources--which they do frequently? Specifically, in covering Kennedy (mostly favorably) they frequently quoted "an unnamed friend" "person who worked with Ms. Kennedy" "source close to Ms. Kennedy". In addition, the awkward moment in Rochester has been well reported elsewhere.
Anyway, I liked this cogent, if slightly overstated, paragraph from Carlson's post. It is what I (and I suspect most people of all political views) thought about appointing Kennedy to the Senate:
"It was a ludicrous idea from the beginning. Here was a woman with virtually no history of political involvement or donations, no clear ideas about public policy, no natural constituency, a poor speaking voice and awkward personal skills, who hadn't even bothered to vote much of the time, who suddenly, for reasons she never explained, decided she should be given Hillary Clinton's Senate seat. Apart from her last name, she was the worst candidate ever."
I respect Caroline Kennedy's charitable work--but I don't thinks she's cut out for politics by experience, skills or temperement.
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Thanks Tucker for saying things like they really are and not what many want to hear?Palin was beat over the head daily because she was not part of the Eastern establishment that has controlled our news and is now responsible for the collapse of our financial systems?Now we are giving billions to these same people including a treasurer in Obamas' cabinet who did not pay his taxes?Lets add Caroline Kennedy to the list because of who she is? Stop it already.
Tucker Carlson -- who knows what qualifications he had before, besides a strident voice and to-laugh-for preppy bow tie? Somehow he's landed up on the shores of The Beast, which keeps publishing these kind of trivialities. Tina and Tucker, trying to reinvent themselves. Not worth checking this site any longer.
Patterson has been stabbed in the back by 'people close to him' more times than Julius Caeser. A revealing view of what a cesspit NYS politics is on all sides. I liked the idea of Caroline in the beginning--she certainly didn't need the graft the others are always after--and who wouldn't take her phone calls? She is an attorney (well...) and an an author and has done a lot of work for the disadvantaged. But what a collecttion of dopes she surrounded her soically shy self with. How embarrassing for Patterson, not that he took so long to make a decision, but that he has such vicious hacks around him. And poor Caroline. She has done a lot of good things for a lot of people and I hope she can put all this ugliness behind her fast. She does not deserve this.
Thanks Tina...I think Tucker's point of view is as credible as anyone's really. Like Caroline, Tucker is the product of position and wealth, though they have taken different paths. All I can say about what I've learned about the New York senate seat subject is the next time I nominate myself for anything I'll make sure I think it all the way through.
The Beast is the first news source I read every morning now. I love the format. As the coffee kicks in and the bagels are toasting Tina and Co. open up the conversation between the woman I love and the amateur politician in me. Thx
Tucker Carlson must being doing something right because lots of people are either happy enough or pissed off enough to blog about everything he writes.
As for Caroline Kennedy - there have been countless un- or under-qualified person serving in the US government over the last couple of centuries. They either learned on the job, quickly, or got thrown out in the next election. We have, unfortunately, also thrown out eminently qualifed persons as well. Ms. Kennedy was certainly under-qualified on many levels, but citing her backing of Obam to demonstrate her lack of political acumen is inaccurate. He won. I saw it, rather, that she backed the candidate she believed was best for the country, without regard for what that might do to her own aspirations. That led me to believe that though her resume is pretty thin, she was unlikely to be seduced by the power and sycophants that come with the position, and more likely to maintain her integrity if she held the job.
It's a moot point now, but I do believe that character and intelligence counts a bit more than a pleasent speaking voice and vast experience manipulating the voting public to enrich oneself.
Thank you.
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