Why Caroline Kennedy?

[question everything]

What are her experience and qualifications to select a VP, besides understanding image and offering the Kennedy glitter?

Remember, she never said that she supported Obama because of his policies or track record. It was because people told her that the hope he offered reminded them of when JFK ran for office, and because her 18-year old daughter told her to.

And, will Eric Holder be the next to have to leave the process since, supposedly, he played a part in the Marc Rich pardon (that so many DUers hold against Clinton?)

[onehandle]

1. Caroline Kennedy will not be the VP.

I don't even know why it's being discussed.

[question everything]

3. No she is on the "committee" to select one

together with the now departed Jim Johnson and Eric Holder.

[The_Casual_Observer]

2. "Blue Ribbon Committee"

Have to have one.

[question everything]

5. And having a blue blood (American style) she deserves a spot

right?

[The_Casual_Observer]

13. Makes about as much sense as anything else that's totally political.

[jobycom]

20. That's the best answer to most questions on DU!

:thumbsup:

[Windy]

17. She is a very intelligent and gifted woman. And your comment about not

saying she supports Obama's policies is ridiculous. You have not been following her campaign speeches, etc...

I'm sorry that you have sour grapes. There are many of Hillary's supporters who have put everything behind and have decided to support the party nominee.

If you remain committed to starting arguments about Obama, his team or his decisions, there are other forums that will accomodate your rants.

I don't want things to deteriorate here.

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[question everything]

23. Wow, no womder you have not posted much in more than two years

Such deep thoughts, well reasoned explanation. No wonder you are very careful to distribute your scintillation thoughts.

[BlooInBloo]

6. Oh sheesh.

[2rth2pwr]

7. Her name.

[hedgehog]

8. This came up yesterday and posters made an excellent case for

Caroline Kennedy.

She's on the board of several organizations and has experience judging people's resumees.

She's clean as a whistle and owes no favors to anyone.

She has extensive knowledge of all the players.

[grassfed]

14. latest refuge for clinton deadenders

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x6347476

[snacker]

15. Those are great points.

She is also not too much "in-the-loop" that she can't see the big picture. I personally would respect her input. She seems very honest and genuine.

[question everything]

22. Interesting list

But does judging people's resume for, say being on boards of charities is the same as being a V.P?

[NYCGirl]

30. So, are the Commission on Presidential Debates and the NAACP Legal Defense

and Educational Fund charities? Not to mention the Harvard Institute of Politics.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caroline_Kennedy

Kennedy is currently President of the Kennedy Library Foundation,<4> a director of both the Commission on Presidential Debates and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and Honorary Chairman of the American Ballet Theatre. She is also an adviser to the Harvard Institute of Politics, a living memorial to her father.

[question everything]

31. Are any decisions made by any of these agencies

as noble as they are - affect anyone's life?

We are talking a heartbeat from the President, as we saw when it was Truman who OKed bombing Japan and sending troops to Korea. As we saw with LBJ expanding our involvement in Vietnam.

I accept others' suggestions that she provides the "connection" to Kennedy and that she could soften a decision not to choose Hillary (with which I would agree).

But to compare honorary positions on various boards with a one determining the future of whole counties does not make any sense.

[NYCGirl]

32. Maybe we should get Cheney on the case, right?

What kind of "experience" are you looking for? It's a vetting committee, not a choosing committee.

[nebula]

9. Her job is to vet potential VPs, not select them

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

10. You're right.

Obama should be picking people with PhD's in Vice Presidential Science, and 5-10 years experience in the VP selection industry.

[JimGinPA]

11. You Forgot To Call Her A "Dilettante"...

That worked really well for one of you concern trolls yesterday.

[NYCGirl]

12. I think these qualifications are just fine:

Kennedy is an attorney, editor, and writer. She is one of the founders of the Profiles in Courage Award, given annually to a person who exemplifies the type of courage examined in her father's Pulitzer Prize-winning book of the same name. The award is generally given to elected officials who, acting in accord with their conscience, risk their careers by pursuing a larger vision of the national, state or local interest in opposition to popular opinion or powerful pressures from their constituents. In May 2002, she presented an unprecedented Profiles in Courage Award to representatives of the NYPD, the New York City Fire Department, and the military as representatives of all of the people who acted to save the lives of others during the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.<3>

Kennedy is currently President of the Kennedy Library Foundation,<4> a director of both the Commission on Presidential Debates and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and Honorary Chairman of the American Ballet Theatre. She is also an adviser to the Harvard Institute of Politics, a living memorial to her father.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caroline_Kennedy#Work

[Me.]

16. First Of All. She Is A Lawyer & Published Author Regarding The Bill of Rights & Constitution

Then we can get into other areas like her extensive work on behalf of New York city children and the school system. She brings a world of experience and contacts to the vetting committee and is a humanitarian voice on the committee. A nice change considering that usu sally most vetting committees only consider possibles from a political standpoint. Committees from the past have given us Lieberman and Cheney.

[jobycom]

18. Just a political appointment. She's qualified enough, knows a lot of people

and supported Obama early on. She's got a famous name that Obama wants to be identified with. It's a small way of linking Obama and Kennedy, paying her back for her support, and getting a qualified manager in the process. She has no political baggage, either, so it's not a risky choice. And, she's a woman, which may help smooth some tensions over the primaries and Obama's male-centered goofs (Sweetie, Annie Oakley, such stuff), and will also help to convince people that there was no gender bias in the VP selection if Clinton or Sebelius aren't chosen.

Or something along those lines, anyway. Probably most emphasis is on her experience and connections, second emphasis is on her name and prior support, and last on all the little assets she brings.

In case you don't know, she's an attorney, and she's a leader in several agencies, including the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and the Commission on Presidential Debates, as well as other institutions involving her father, or the arts. That gives her management experience, and also introduces her to a lot of people who will be on the list or will at least be helpful in compiling the list, and since she's not an office-holder or a politician, she's not likely to have any conflicts. All that makes her a smart choice. There are a lot of smart choices, but she brings the added bonuses listed above.

That's about all I can think of, really. Do you think it's a bad choice?

As for Eric Holder and Marc Rich, no one cares anymore. If you're trying to point out that politics breeds hypocrisy, you've done so, but I think we all knew that anyway. :)

[question everything]

25. Thank you. That's the best post on this thread

Her name and her connection.

Yes, she is a lawyer but has she ever done legal work for a living? All her activities involve charity and volunteer work. Nothing where anyone's life (or a whole nation's life) hangs on a result of a decision.

All that glitter.

[jobycom]

29. She's not running for anything.

She's not even the final word on any decisions. She's just one of the people Obama is using (in all senses of the word) to choose a VP. In the end, he'll probably choose whoever he's thinking of at the moment, anyway.

As for her never working for a living, I doubt she's ever had to. But just because she's always been an American princess doesn't mean she's been a Disney character. I don't know what she's done as an attorney or as a director of her various organizations, but I do know that the NAACP LDF isn't glitter. It has worked actively on issues where lives hung on the results. It has been an admirable institution, and one of the strongest forces in shaping America over the last seven decades. I'm sure Brown v Board of Education and all of the Civil Rights defense activity during the 60s and 70s was before her time, but the organization has remained instrumental in education issues and legal representation. Here's a list of the major cases from the 2000s, from Wikipedia:

* 2000: Rideau v. Louisiana threw out the 28-year-old, third conviction of Wilbert Rideau for murder because of discrimination in the composition of the Grand Jury that originally indicted him more than 40 years earlier (As of 2004 he is still facing a fourth trial).

* 2000: Smith v. United States was resolved when President Clinton commuted the sentence of Kemba Smith. Smith was a young African-American mother whose abusive, domineering boyfriend led her to play a peripheral role (she did not sell drugs but was aware of the selling) in a conspiracy to obtain and distribute crack cocaine. She had been sentenced to a mandatory minimum of 24½ years in prison even though she was a first-time offender.

* 2000: Cromartie v. Hunt and Daly v. Hunt said that it is legal to create, for partisan political reasons, a district with a high concentration of minority voters; hence the North Carolina district from which Mel Watt was elected to the House of Representatives was ruled not to be an illegal gerrymander.

* 2003: Gratz v. Bollinger the Supreme Court ordered that the University of Michigan change its policies by removing racial quotas in the form of "points" but allowed them to continue to utilize race as a factor in admissions, which took race into account in order to admit a diverse entering class of students.

* 2007: Meredith v. Jefferson County Board of Education In a defeat for the LDF, the Supreme Court ruled racial quotas unconstitutional.

---

[Bucky]

19. Because she's connected. Because she knows people.

She hasn't been sitting around for the past 30 years saying "Hey, you know my dad usta be president."

via Wiki:
Kennedy is currently President of the Kennedy Library Foundation, a director of both the Commission on Presidential Debates and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and Honorary Chairman of the American Ballet Theatre. She is also an adviser to the Harvard Institute of Politics.

That's the profile of someone who knows people and knows what people are looking for in a VP. I think she's a good choice.

[dionysus]

21. obviously you haven't gotten the "let's attack ppl who endorsed obama" out of your system yet...

sad.

[global1]

24. My Theory On Why Caroline Kennedy Is On Obama's VP Selection Committee Is.......

when the VP chosen by Obama is not Hillary - Caroline being on the selection committee will provide him cover.

[question everything]

26. Makes sense

and, by the way, I don't think Hillary should be his VP, even though I supported her.

[ChimpersMcSmirkers]

27. She's a proxy for Ted, who is more then qualified to help pick a VP.

[whistler162]

28. [sarcasm]They called you but you didn't answer...

so they had to settle for their second choice.

The original question is like asking what made Alice R. Longworth special.

[FrenchieCat]

33. Fuck! We just went through this discussion........

Now, why are we having it AGAIN? http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=6347476

Don't you have something else better to do? :shrug:

[grassfed]

37. from the posters journal

"Hillary Clinton (along with her husband) is being universally depicted as a loathsome racist and negative campaigner, not so much because of anything she has said or done, but because the overwhelmingly pro-Obama media - consciously or unconsciously - are following the agenda of Senator Barack Obama and his chief strategist, David Axelrod, to tear to pieces the first serious female US presidential candidate in history... "

[question everything]

40. Obviously, I do. I do not spend all days and hours on DU

and missed that thread.

Of course, in the "good old days" of GD-Obama, when one poster after another trashed Hillary for the same story, it was OK.

Such hypocrisy.

Instead of foaming at the mouth, why not add words of wisdom to the debate - if you possess any?

Do you always start every sentence with a FUCK? You may want to start reading books (and thus, you may miss some threads on DU) to improve your vocabulary.

[NashVegas]

34. Symbolism

[On the Road]

35. He's Trying to Unify the Party

and draw on a wide range of opinions and backgrounds. Whatever else Kennedy has going for her, she is from the most presigious Democratic family of the last 50 years, is smart and well connected, and is a female in one of the few positions of influence Obama will select until the VP nomination.

[Fleshdancer]

36. Caroline Kennedy does quite a bit of behind the scenes stuff...

From wikipedia:

Kennedy is an attorney, editor, and writer. She is one of the founders of the Profiles in Courage Award, given annually to a person who exemplifies the type of courage examined in her father's Pulitzer Prize-winning book of the same name. The award is generally given to elected officials who, acting in accord with their conscience, risk their careers by pursuing a larger vision of the national, state or local interest in opposition to popular opinion or powerful pressures from their constituents. In May 2002, she presented an unprecedented Profiles in Courage Award to representatives of the NYPD, the New York City Fire Department, and the military as representatives of all of the people who acted to save the lives of others during the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.

Kennedy is currently President of the Kennedy Library Foundation,<4> a director of both the Commission on Presidential Debates and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and Honorary Chairman of the American Ballet Theatre. She is also an adviser to the Harvard Institute of Politics, a living memorial to her father.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caroline_Kennedy

[Spirochete]

38. Who would you rather have...

SATAN????

[K Gardner]

39. Jeez.. and some things just never change.

[Duder]

41. Do you use prostitutes?

As a vp candidate that might be one of the questions asked. Some may answer more honestly to a person they can trust to keep what's said in confidence. Someone like Caroline Kennedy would be a trustworthy choice. Someone like Hillary for example, which polls have shown people don't have a lot of trust in, would make a poor choice for vetting candidates.

As for why Caroline Kennedy supported Obama:

OVER the years, I’ve been deeply moved by the people who’ve told me they wished they could feel inspired and hopeful about America the way people did when my father was president. This sense is even more profound today. That is why I am supporting a presidential candidate in the Democratic primaries, Barack Obama.

My reasons are patriotic, political and personal, and the three are intertwined. All my life, people have told me that my father changed their lives, that they got involved in public service or politics because he asked them to. And the generation he inspired has passed that spirit on to its children. I meet young people who were born long after John F. Kennedy was president, yet who ask me how to live out his ideals.

Sometimes it takes a while to recognize that someone has a special ability to get us to believe in ourselves, to tie that belief to our highest ideals and imagine that together we can do great things. In those rare moments, when such a person comes along, we need to put aside our plans and reach for what we know is possible.

We have that kind of opportunity with Senator Obama. It isn’t that the other candidates are not experienced or knowledgeable. But this year, that may not be enough. We need a change in the leadership of this country — just as we did in 1960. - Caroline Kennedy

A President Like My Father
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/27/opinion/27kennedy.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Déjà vu