SHOOTING CAROLINE DOWN

Posted at 8:58 a.m. ET

We've given considerable attention to the Caroline Kennedy saga in New York.  It's important for many reasons.  First, the successor to Hillary Clinton in the Senate is important by definition.  Second, if appointed to Clinton's seat in the Senate by the governor, Kennedy will be the subject of instant presidential talk for 2016.  Third, having endorsed Obama and helped defeat Clinton in the presidential primaries, Kennedy's appointment would be a direct insult to Clinton, just as Hillary is becoming secretary of state.

But the Caroline boomlet is running into stiff winds.  There is resentment.  There is talk of dynasty.  There is ridicule.  Michael Goodwin of the Daily News has written the most stunning rebuke of the once first daughter.  This is very strong stuff, especially in liberal New York.  His piece is called "Say goodnight, Caroline: How JFK's daughter flubbed the audition to become the next Senator Kennedy."  Pretty much says it, doesn't it?  Read on:

...a strange thing is happening on the way to the coronation. The wheels of the bandwagon are coming off. Fantasy is giving way to inescapable truth.

That truth is that Kennedy is not ready for the job and doesn't deserve it. Somebody who loves her should tell her.

Her quest is becoming a cringe-inducing experience, as painful to watch as it must be to endure. Because she is the only survivor of that dreamy time nearly 50 years ago, she remains an iconic figure. But in the last few days, her mini-campaign has proved she has little to offer New Yorkers except her name.

Yikes.  That is heresy.  People have been burned at the stake in New York for less than that.

Camelot must be Gaelic for chutzpah.  New York can do better.

And...

...the minute she faced the routine questions that help define a candidate for virtually any office, she had nothing to say. There was no "there" there.

It gets worse:

"As a mother, as an author, as an education advocate and from a family that really has spent generations in public service, I feel this commitment," she said. "This is a time when nobody can afford to sit it out, and I feel I have something to offer."

The "sit it out" part is revealing. Among those who want the job, she has done the least public service by any measure. She didn't even vote in about half the contested elections in the last 20 years.

Finally...

Limousine liberals are a dime a dozen, and carpetbaggers are nothing new in New York. And with the social scene constantly churning out the old for the next new thing, there's no reason middle-aged dilettantes can't also try their hand at politics.

They just can't start in the Senate.

That, from Goodwin, is a public knifing.  It is also a rebuke to President-elect Obama, who certainly had to approve this foray into politics by Caroline Kennedy, who headed his vice-presidential search team.

December 28, 2008.