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Nov. 6, 2009
Rabbi Berel Wein: Choosing to hear
JWisdom.com Zero to 1/60th: How to Empower An Hour with Gavriel Aryeh Sande (7 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick The mullahs' big week
Suzanne Fields A Fallen Wall for Fallen Man
Nov. 5, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet: Three scrumptious -- but simple -- butternut squash dishes
JWisdom.com Hidden Hints: Unlocking Faith & Prayer with Rabbi Jay Yaacov Schwartz (10 minutes)
Nov. 4, 2009
Tom Hamburger and Kim Geiger: Should prayers be covered?
JWisdom.com When God played peacemaker With Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Nov. 3, 2009
Martin Peretz: Beware, Barack. Beware, Rahm. Beware, Axelrod
JWisdom.com Are you are closet idolater? With Sara Yoheved Rigler (10 minutes)
Nov. 2, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The Holocaust is now on Facebook
JWisdom.com Abraham's Strange Change With Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer (5 minutes)
Oct. 30, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: Secret to Immortality
Caroline B. Glick Silencing dissent in America
Oct. 29, 2009
Lini S. Kadaba: Do tactics avert flu or reduce humanity?
JWisdom.com We Must Revamp our Religious Vocabulary With Gavriel Aryeh Sanders ( 10 minutes)
Oct. 28, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Atheists in Bubbleland
JWisdom.com Why what we wear impacts who we are With Rabbis Mordechai Becher, Menachem Golberger and Aliza Bulow ( 10 minutes)
Oct. 27, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The United Nations Is Outraged Again, Or: Department of Mideast Static
JWisdom.com The Science of Love With Rabbi Jonathan Rietti ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 26, 2009
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Damaging disclosures with a twist
JWisdom.com Wisdom and Wonks With Rabbi Eytan Feiner ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 23, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: Are you ready for the ultimate pleasure?
JWisdom.com Watermark and oneness with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 4 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick Stop using limited powers in a way that expands our enemies' advantages over us
Oct. 22, 2009
Steven Emerson: Terror Cases Share Desire to Kill Americans
JWisdom.com No More More Family Fights --- Really? By Sarah Chana Radcliffe ( 5 minutes)
Oct. 21, 2009
Tonya Alanez: Holocaust denier sues survivor, calling Auschwitz memoir 'vicious lies'
JWisdom.com Meditating Jewishly: A Panacea for Success by Sarah Yoheved Rigler ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 20, 2009
Dennis Prager: Obama and Dalai Lama: Why Israel Worries about U.S. President
JWisdom.com Abraham was not religious By Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer ( 6 minutes)
Oct. 19, 2009
JWisdom.comWhy Good People Do Bad Things By Rabbi Eytan Feiner ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 16, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: The Perfect Number
JWisdom.com Hearing Voices By Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 5 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick How Turkey was lost
Oct. 15, 2009
Jeff Jacoby: Peace vs. the 'peace process'
JWisdom.com: Former MTV producer and stand-up comedian Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff: Taming a Control Freak (A VERY fast 15 minutes)
Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review Dec. 18, 2008 / 21 Kislev 5769

Sweet Caroline

By Cal Thomas


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | I first met Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston. Returning from a visit to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, I stopped in the press center and found her talking with New York Times columnist Frank Rich, who introduced us. I told her I had just been to the library and saw her doll collection. We had a brief conversation during which I noticed something missing: pretentiousness.


Like many Americans my age, I first "met" Caroline when she was a child. The image of her in those black-and-white photos holding her father's hand and riding her pony remain indelible.


Now, Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg wants to be a United States senator. After success as a wife and mother with no hint of scandal, the Senate might be a step down for her, but if she wants it, who will deny her? Certainly not David Paterson, the governor of New York, who can only gain by appointing her to Hillary Clinton's soon-to-be vacant seat.


"She's not qualified," some say. Was Hillary Clinton qualified when she ran for the seat? Sen. Clinton had never served in elective office, either. And what "qualifies" one to be a member of Congress? Sweetheart deals on loans? Men like Ted Stevens of Alaska and the 91-year-old Robert Byrd are the twin peaks of pork. Has their behavior "qualified" them to be in the Senate?


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In a Dec. 16 New York Times story headlined "Resume Long on Politics, but Short on Public Office," David Halbfinger offers a resume that looks pretty good to me. (She) is "no dilettante," he says, which is in stark contrast to some in Congress who are. Halbfinger then lists a number of private efforts by Kennedy Schlossberg that accomplished worthwhile things with her own time and money. What conservative wouldn't support volunteer work and raising private money, rather than spending more public funds, of which there are none left?


Being a Kennedy, of course, means she is a liberal, but that isn't a disqualification for public office or there wouldn't be so many of them. It's New York, after all, and Gov. Paterson is not about to nominate a conservative.


Even if the governor offers her the seat, state law requires her to run in 2010 to complete Sen. Clinton's term and then again for a full term in 2012. That's a lot of running, which doesn't leave much time for working.


It's difficult for those of us who came of age in the '60s to let go of that decade, at least the early part before things got ugly. Much has been written (and put into music) about that decade and the myth of "Camelot" (the Kennedy presidency, not the musical). It is true that some Kennedys have behaved as a privileged class, getting away with things that others would not have been able to get away with. But just as one cannot pick one's family, neither should Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg be judged favorably, or unfavorably, based on her relations.


She is her own person, though she clearly benefits far more than if her name was Schwartz, or Jones. She should be assessed on her fitness for office based on her positions on issues. Inexperienced women have been appointed to office, usually following the death of their husbands. Some, like Margaret Chase Smith and Mary Bono, have distinguished themselves. If Kennedy Schlossberg gets the job, there will be time to learn whether she is her father's daughter in more than her biological DNA. I'm betting she has some of his political DNA, as well.


Is there anyone in doubt what campaign song she'll choose?


"Where it began, I can't begin to know when
But then I know it's growing strong
Oh, wasn't the spring, whooo
And spring became the summer
Who'd believe you'd come along...
Altogether now:
"Oh, sweet Caroline
Good times never seem so good
I've been inclined to believe it never would."

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