Now that Hillary has announced herself as a candidate in the 2016 Presidential election, Democrats need to be thinking about what the debate (national policy discussion) should be about going forward. The Republicans are right now readying a plan to paint her as a Romney-style out-of-touch plutocrat, and this may resonate with a lot of Democrat and Progressive voters who have never much liked Hillary in the first place. The Democrats need to have an open-air policy debate among themselves about just what the party stands for, about the issues that are important to average Americans rather than the Clinton spin-doctors telling us what we should all be talking about. We need real democracy, not just a campaign within our own party. If Clinton is the inevitable candidate, then she needs to hone her campaign skills in a real primary contest before she goes out to take on the Republican challenger. The last thing the party needs is an uncontested cake-walk to a coronation. And the Democrats need to be prepared -- have another horse saddled up (candidate) ready to run should Hillary make a serious flub somewhere along the primary trail (say something stupid) and disqualify herself as a viable candidate against the up-coming Republican opponent.
Elizabeth Warren has denied (multiple times now) that she's a candidate -- too bad! So, as you have probably already guessed, I'm proposing that Caroline Kennedy be put forth as a Democrat (Progressive) alternative to Hillary. Somebody needs to keep Hillary honest so she doesn't -- with a wink and a nod to Wall Street -- fudge on her Democrat principles. We all know -- or at least we think we know -- Caroline's politics. In 2008 she came out as a strong supporter of Barack Obama in a New York Times op-ed piece titled: "A President Like MY Father". Her concluding lines were:
" 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."
Now maybe she herself can be that inspiring figure -- that President for a whole new generation? She comes from a family with a long-standing history as champions of Democratic principles, an established tradition of sacrifice and unflinching public service for the country. Nobody can forget the heart-wrenching picture of that shy little girl in the white dress standing stoically beside her mother at her father's funeral. Well, that little girl has grown up now (she is an activist, an author and a lawyer, currently U.S. Ambassador to Japan), and she would be an attractive and articulate candidate. A Caroline Kennedy presidency would be the capstone on her father's legacy, and the fitting denouement to the careers of her two uncles and the whole Kennedy legend. And what could be better for Democrats than to have a candidate from both of the country's premier political families? The Clintons and the Kennedys.
Some will surely want to question her experience, her qualifications to be President. Well, just remember, nobody ever came to the highest office in the country less qualified, more ill-prepared, than George W. Bush. He would take us into two unending wars -- one of them in Afghanistan. After he was appointed President by the Supreme Court, when he first came into the office, when questioned by a reporter, he did not even know which continent Afghanistan was on. George -- as was typical with him -- had no clue. Not when he came into office, and not when he left. He remained clueless George. I smile today when I think what -- had he lived -- the dapper, erudite and cosmopolitan Kennedy would have thought about the bumpkin-like George Bush.
The truth is -- if we're honest -- nobody is ever prepared to be president. There is no college course, no curriculum or internship, that prepares a person (man or woman) to be the commander-in-chief of the world's foremost superpower. It's all on-the-job training. Just ask Barack Obama. What matters most is character and integrity, and a certain moral courage. The courage to stand firm and do the right thing under the most difficult of circumstances. John Kennedy had the character and integrity, the moral courage. He stood firm against the war hawk generals in his cabinet (Curtis Lemay and others) who were advising him during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and thus avoided a nuclear confrontation with the Russians. And Caroline is cut from the same cloth.
A lot of other past presidents didn't really have the greatest credentials when coming into office. Being a business-minded country, we tend to like business men. Herbert Hoover was a business man, and look where he took the country. Harry Truman was a failed haberdasher and a run-of-the-mill machine politician from Kansas City, at the time one of the most politically corrupt cities in the country. Most of the other presidents have been lawyers -- with the odd general thrown in just for verisimilitude. Ike was a general, he won us World War II. Teddy Roosevelt and FDR were sort of the exceptions, New York aristocrats with a flair for politics. The Kennedys are Massachusetts aristocrats who have demonstrated a similar flair for politics. Caroline has been around politics her whole life, and is today a living part of the Kennedy tradition -- started for the most part by her father. Maybe now it's time for a little Kennedy magic, a return to Camelot.
This is the perfect time -- during a period of profound cynicism about government and disillusion with the workings of our political institutions -- for another Kennedy (this time a woman) to step forth, assume the mantle of leadership and inspire a whole new generation, unite people around a commitment and a common cause the way FDR did during the Depression, restore the peoples' faith in government, be a beacon of hope like her father and a positive agent of change for every American and not just a handmaiden serving the interests of the wealthy and well connected. Time for a real American Princess (right out of Camelot and the mythical King Arthur's Court) to come to the aid of her country. She has the grace and style, the panache and personal magnetism of both her parents, the courage and moral integrity, to make this country feel good about itself again, and the unwavering commitment to democratic ideals. This is partly what makes her such a uniquely qualified and special lady, and such an inspiring candidate.
A campaign should be started on Facebook and Twitter to promote Caroline Kennedy as a Democratic candidate for the nomination for president. Now is the time to bring a Kennedy back into public service. And she might as well start at the top.
The Money Trader