Election Issues Today

Caroline Kennedy and the Making of a U.S. Senator

What exactly qualifies a person to be a U.S. Senator?  Not constitutionally, but in our own eyes?

Caroline Kennedy is 51 years old, a graduate of Radcliffe College at Harvard and Columbia Law.  She is intelligent and informed and carries both the burden and the benefits of her family name.

She has stated that her interests in the Senate seat are “patriotic, political and personal, and the three are intertwined.”

She would bring to the job name recognition and the ability to focus attention on issues she deems to be important.  Her favors and alliances would be sought after by the most experienced old hands in the Senate.  They know the power of a name and the value of influence.  She would bring both to the job.

She probably has as many qualifications for the Senate as Hilary Clinton did when she ran for the same seat.  She probably is more qualified than Al Franken who ran for the Senate in Minnesota this year.  Remember Ronald Reagan ran for California governor from his position as president of the Screen Actors Guild.  And Arnold, the current California governor?  What were his qualifications?   I think…POTENTIAL for LEADERSHIP, is perceived by voters and they respond at the ballot box.  So if Kennedy does get the appointment, she will have to hold on to it at the ballot box in 2010, and then again at the end of the shortened term in 2012.

You don’t know how well a candidate will do until he or she gets into the job.  Some of  the best-qualified candidates in U.S. history didn’t do all that well in office.  (Herbert Hoover comes to mind.)

So I wish Caroline good luck.  I think she would do a good job.