Is Caroline Kennedy Qualified?

By Michael Carmichael, Huffington Post. Posted December 17, 2008.

Upon her return to America, Caroline studied at Harvard and Columbia earning an A. B. and a J. D. In the 1980s, she married Edward Schlossberg and gave birth to three children: Rose; Tatiana and Jack.

Using her skills as an attorney and author, she wrote six books including a legal textbook: In Our Defense: The Bill of Rights in Action as well as the bestsellers -- A Patriot's Handbook and Profiles in Courage for Our Time.

Caroline Kennedy's executive experience includes her service as CEO for the Office of Strategic Partnerships for the New York City Department of Education and her Presidency of the Kennedy Library Foundation. She serves on the boards of the Commission on Presidential Debates and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Caroline serves as the Honorary Chair of the American Ballet Theatre, and she is a member of the Advisory Boar of the Harvard Institute of Politics.

Working for a formidable variety of charities, Caroline Kennedy has commandeered fundraising drives that have yielded a quarter of a billion dollars for worthy causes - the primary beneficiaries being education, civil rights and the arts.

Over the past year, Caroline Kennedy has gradually raised her public profile in parallel with the news of her uncle's illness and uncertainties about the robustness of his capacity to serve as the ranking New Frontiersman in the Senate. First, she emerged as a prominent backer of the presidential candidacy of Barack Obama. In a statement published in the New York Times titled, "A President Like My Father," Caroline Kennedy wrote:

I have never had a president who inspired me the way people tell me that my father inspired them. But for the first time, I believe I have found the man who could be that president -- not just for me, but for a new generation of Americans.

During the presidential campaign, she contributed the maximum amount to Obama and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. Sensing her capacity to engage with the political dynamic, Barack Obama invited her to serve on his committee for the selection of his Vice-Presidential running mate. The humorist and filmmaker, Michael Moore, beseeched her to "do a Cheney" and name herself as Obama's running mate. In August, she addressed the Democratic National Convention to introduce her august uncle for his immensely popular speech.

The image of a US Senate graced by two Kennedys both bearing the flame of JFK and conjuring the era of Camelot presents a potent concoction of political magic at a critical juncture in American history now seemingly on the threshold of a resurgence of progressive energy and the promise of positive change in the Obama Era.

See more stories tagged with: politics, gender, hillary clinton, caroline kennedy, new york senate

Michael Carmichael is a political consultant, historian, author and broadcaster.

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