Caroline Kennedy refuses to answer reporters’ questions in Syracuse

Caroline Kennedy

This morning I was really on the fence regarding what I thought of Caroline Kennedy’s pitch to become a U.S. senator in New York. She has told New York Gov. David Paterson, who gets to make the appointment, that she’d like the seat Hillary Clinton will vacate when she becomes President-elect Barack Obama‘s secretary of state.

Sure, Caroline Kennedy doesn’t have any elective office experience, but, for me, that wouldn’t necessarily rule her out. Other experience can prepare one to lead, I think.  I really felt I didn’t know enough about her to assess her. She’s been involved with a lot of nonprofits, but I’m not in that world. I don’t know if that is  experience that would prepare her to lead in our troubled state, or if her involvement was little more than lending her celebrity name to an agency’s letterhead.

Earlier today, I read a blog, which I found made compelling arguments to support her. I wasn’t sure if I bought it all, but it did make me think. I guess, though, in the back of my mind, I couldn’t help feeling that Caroline Kennedy was a woman seeking an office that’s she’s not quite ready to seek. Like Sarah Palin, she seems like a woman with an asterisk next to her. I thought: Gosh, there are qualified women; why not pick them. It seems to reinforce negative stereotypes about women’s lack ability when the ones who rise to the top aren’t really the cream of the crop.

Then Caroline Kennedy came to my hometown in Upstate New York, and how she behaved really influenced my opinion of her. She refused to answer reporters’ questions about her experience — or lack thereof — or even about where she was heading next. (She actually told a reporter, she was heading “to the car,” when obviously he was asking what city she might be traveling to.)

After I listened to her ignore the press, I knew I could never support her candidacy.  Admittedly, I’m biased. I believe those who govern us or seek public office should be transparent to the public, and, in our country, that’s still done mainly through the media.

To me, there’s only two reasons why someone who seeks to lead in our state would refuse to answer any questions: She’s so arrogant that questions from Upstatate hicks like us don’t really matter or  she doesn’t know what to say.

Either reason is a deal breaker for me. It reminds me too much of Sarah Palin and her inability to answer even the simplest question (like what newspaper she reads)  without being coached. If Kennedy can’t handle a  handful of reporters from Syracuse, N.Y., asking questions that Kennedy should have anticipated she’d be asked, what could she answer?

To me, I found the answer to the question that I started this day with:  Is Caroline Kennedy ready to be my senator. I think not.

 I realize I have no say in the matter. If Paterson taps her, she’ll serve until Clinton’s term is up, and then she’d have to run. But I hope she won’t be his pick.

— bitchy mommy