Caroline Kennedy's Pumpkin Carriage

When Hilary Rodham Clinton resigns her Senate seat upon confirmation to become Secretary of State, the resultant Congressional vacancy will create a political vortex that draws many to its center. Among them is Caroline Kennedy.

As I look at some of Kennedy's competition, a lot of familiar names jump from the page - Andrew Cuomo, the state's Attorney General and son of the former governor Mario Cuomo, is another pedigreed pol who has expressed interested, and there are a number of lesser known candidates, including New York City congresswoman Nydia Velazquez, Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown, and Albany-area Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand.

This whole Kennedy debate has kick-started my thinking about how the elected/appointed leadership in this country has evolved over the last several decades. Can you remember a time when those in power had a name other than Bush, or Clinton, or Dole?

We know about Bush 41, who lead a "meh" administration, and Bush 43, who continues to lean forward on the stick to see how close he can come to crashing the plane before January 20. Jeb Bush is considering running for the open Florida seat discarded by Mel Martinez, so perhaps we'll still have a Bush high up in the legislative branch to carry on the family work. Florida's loss could be our pain.

Bob Dole took a respectable Senate career and turned it into one of the worst run Presidential bids (he should have coffee with John McCain to compare notes) of the century, and ended up pushing war memorials and little blue pills. Bob Dole sports statues and wood.

Elizabeth Dole won her North Carolina seat originally based on name recognition, support from the GOP machine, and the fact she was a Republican, rather than through accomplishments related to her haphazard stewardship of the Red Cross or her time in various GOP positions. Thank goodness her lack of visibility and actual work evidence got her bounced from the Senate after one term.

Bill Clinton managed to fend off those aiming for his scalp in his final term as much of his good work was washed away by a spray of fluid on a certain intern's blue dress and a hapless deposition in which he debated what the meaning of the word "is" is - to the point that I actually began to doubt his ability to govern if he couldn't provide the meaning of a word that third graders everywhere understood.

If Hilary had defeated Barack Obama and then gone on to hoist McCain on his own petard, it's entirely possible that we could have been governed by the Bush or Clinton family for 30 years. How ridiculous. That's exactly the kind of aristocracy we paddled across the pond to escape.

Which brings me back to Caroline Kennedy. Being the daughter of JFK certainly gives her a perspective that few would bring, and she's done some good work in the area of NYC school funding, along with other charitable endeavors. She has name recognition, and the support of NYC Mayor Bloomberg, who believes changing the law so he can serve longer than two terms in spite of his campaign promise is completely justifiable because he thinks he's the perfect man to steer the metropolis through these tough economic times. Rules are for putzes.

Kennedy has been less than impressive as she's sauntered out to small towns and medium sized cities, dipping her toe into the December waters of public opinion. She has some previous positions already articulated, such as same-sex marriage (for it) and school vouchers (against it), but it's not her platform that she thinks makes her qualified in this time of national crisis. Kennedy believes her political connections, her ability to fundraise, her committment to public service, and even her experience as a mother and author raise her level of expertise above all other potential candidates.

When the press starting doing some digging into her voting record, they found it spotty at best. Missed elections, a lack of consistency - vaguely reminiscent of past candidates who want you to evaluate them not on their record but on what they say they'll do once ensconced in the big chair.

If nothing else, the election of Barack Obama was a plea for competence, for facts and deliberation, an embracing of strong opinions by bright people who would poke holes in the strategies of others while defending their own ideas, the end result to hopefully be the best possible solution to accomplish the goal at hand.

With Caroline Kennedy, I don't see the investment in building the strong foundation needed to support more lofty endeavors. She's seeking to be judged on a concrete slab of Camelot that was poured before she was born, where she had great assistance to assemble a light political framework made of entitlement and family legacy. She has not hoisted the heavy beams of her own sacrifice to strengthen and improve the ivory tower into which she was born and from whence she now ventures out to meet the commoners.

Political dynasties usually end up benefitting the concept of aristocracy and plutocracy much more than solving the serious problems that exist, such as homelessness, poverty, healthcare, racism, Medicare/Medicaid, Social Security, the Middle East, and nukes in North Korea and Iran. I don't see anything on her CV that prepares her for those challenges. And I don't think cocktail parties and op-ed pieces in major newspapers will generate enthusiasm or strategies to fix what ails us.

There's plenty for Caroline Kennedy to do outside of the Senate. She's said she won't run for the seat in 2010 if she isn't placed into the open seat now. That tells me everything I need to know about her committment to serve. If she thinks she's better than anyone else, it should be easy for her to win the seat in 2010 regardless, given almost two years to make her case. The fact that she wants it handed to her so she's running as the incumbent underscores the doubt in her own mind that she could endure the rigors of a tough race without a leg up on the competition.

Camelot was a long time ago. It's time for us to face reality, roll up our sleeves, and do the hard work needed to get this country back on track. Now is not the time to annoint the Princess and admit her to the ball. There's no such thing as a pumpkin carriage to keep her glass slippers from getting dirty. If she wants to go, she should walk the trail like everyone else.