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AALBC.com's Thumper's Corner Discussion Board » Culture, Race & Economy - Archive 2008 » "A President Like My Father" NY Times Op Ed by Caroline Kennedy « Previous Next »

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Mochascafe
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Posted on Saturday, January 26, 2008 - 11:23 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

By CAROLINE KENNEDY
Published: January 27, 2008

OVER the years, I’ve been deeply moved by the people who’ve told me they wished they could feel inspired and hopeful about America the way people did when my father was president. This sense is even more profound today. That is why I am supporting a presidential candidate in the Democratic primaries, Barack Obama.

My reasons are patriotic, political and personal, and the three are intertwined. All my life, people have told me that my father changed their lives, that they got involved in public service or politics because he asked them to. And the generation he inspired has passed that spirit on to its children. I meet young people who were born long after John F. Kennedy was president, yet who ask me how to live out his ideals.

Sometimes it takes a while to recognize that someone has a special ability to get us to believe in ourselves, to tie that belief to our highest ideals and imagine that together we can do great things. In those rare moments, when such a person comes along, we need to put aside our plans and reach for what we know is possible.

We have that kind of opportunity with Senator Obama. It isn’t that the other candidates are not experienced or knowledgeable. But this year, that may not be enough. We need a change in the leadership of this country — just as we did in 1960.

Most of us would prefer to base our voting decision on policy differences. However, the candidates’ goals are similar. They have all laid out detailed plans on everything from strengthening our middle class to investing in early childhood education. So qualities of leadership, character and judgment play a larger role than usual.

Senator Obama has demonstrated these qualities throughout his more than two decades of public service, not just in the United States Senate but in Illinois, where he helped turn around struggling communities, taught constitutional law and was an elected state official for eight years. And Senator Obama is showing the same qualities today. He has built a movement that is changing the face of politics in this country, and he has demonstrated a special gift for inspiring young people — known for a willingness to volunteer, but an aversion to politics — to become engaged in the political process.

I have spent the past five years working in the New York City public schools and have three teenage children of my own. There is a generation coming of age that is hopeful, hard-working, innovative and imaginative. But too many of them are also hopeless, defeated and disengaged. As parents, we have a responsibility to help our children to believe in themselves and in their power to shape their future. Senator Obama is inspiring my children, my parents’ grandchildren, with that sense of possibility.

Senator Obama is running a dignified and honest campaign. He has spoken eloquently about the role of faith in his life, and opened a window into his character in two compelling books. And when it comes to judgment, Barack Obama made the right call on the most important issue of our time by opposing the war in Iraq from the beginning.

I want a president who understands that his responsibility is to articulate a vision and encourage others to achieve it; who holds himself, and those around him, to the highest ethical standards; who appeals to the hopes of those who still believe in the American Dream, and those around the world who still believe in the American ideal; and who can lift our spirits, and make us believe again that our country needs every one of us to get involved.

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.

Caroline Kennedy is the author of “A Patriot’s Handbook: Songs, Poems, Stories and Speeches Celebrating the Land We Love.”


The thing I find the most interesting is that Jackie Kennedy Onasis was a staunch Clinton supporter AND good friend of Hilary Clinton....Interesting!
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Tonya
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Posted on Saturday, January 26, 2008 - 11:34 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

I wonder if his (young) voters even know who Caroline is...or Jackie O for that matter, gol!

So much for looking towards the future (sigh).
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Robynmarie
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Posted on Saturday, January 26, 2008 - 11:39 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Politico 2007:


"... members of the Kennedy clan have already chosen sides, however.

Environmentalist Robert Kennedy Jr., human rights activist Kerry Kennedy, filmmaker Rory Kennedy and former Maryland Lieutenant Gov. Kathleen Kennedy are backing Hillary Clinton, according to The Politico. Family members, including Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg and her husband Edwin, have contributed more than $15,000 to the Clinton campaign."

I guess it is not unusual for someone to contribute to a campaign, but not endorse.
Politics makes such strange bedfellows...

BTW, is there a reason Caroline is not using her married name?
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Abm
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Posted on Saturday, January 26, 2008 - 11:56 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

"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."


Wonder how does former president BILL Clinton - who's political hero is Caroline's dad JFK - feel about that.
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Robynmarie
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Posted on Sunday, January 27, 2008 - 12:17 am:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Why should Bill Clinton care when she has already donated to their campaign?

Money talks, bs walks...LOL.
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Tonya
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Posted on Sunday, January 27, 2008 - 12:26 am:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

...CTFU!!!
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Robynmarie
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Posted on Sunday, January 27, 2008 - 12:40 am:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Maybe it was Mr. Schlossberg who gave to Hillary's campaign, that's why Caroline is dumping his azz. LMAO. She is a sho' nuff 'Bama gal now damn it.

BTW, Caroline endorsed Al Gore and John Kerry and we know what happened to them.
Perhaps she should stick to writing children's books and leave politics to her Uncle, and them. LOL.
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Abm
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Posted on Sunday, January 27, 2008 - 12:58 am:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Robynmarie,

WHEN did Caroline donate to Hillary and WHICH of Hillary's campaign(s) (senate or presidency) she's donated to? Perhaps Caroline was initially supportive of Hillary but has been won over by Obama.

And Caroline endorsing Obama to the extent of favorably comparing him to her beloved father -something she's NEVER done before - is potentially worth a +100X the dough she donated to Hillary's campaign. JFK (and his brother RFK) is still fondly remember by MANY Americans.
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Tonya
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Posted on Sunday, January 27, 2008 - 01:03 am:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Even Wolf Blitzer was like, oh lord...look who's jumping on the "Barack Obama bandwagon" - this nutty whore. LOL
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Robynmarie
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Posted on Sunday, January 27, 2008 - 01:07 am:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

www.opensecrets.org. says Caroline gave to both the Clinton and Obama campaigns in 2007.

Many, many, celebs give to more than one candidate. Hard to take them seriously when they are hedging their bets.
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Enchanted
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Posted on Sunday, January 27, 2008 - 01:07 am:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Robymarie--do not lie
Caroline Kennedy has not endorsed anyone since her uncle Edward in 1980 an she has right to enorse just like you do
Obama is going to be President.
I dont even see why haters lik you an Tanya woul post on this thread
whats the point?
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Robynmarie
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Posted on Sunday, January 27, 2008 - 01:13 am:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

You obviously don't remember Caroline's starring role in at the Democratic convention of 2000.
I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried. LOL.

Read it and weep, dear:

http://archives.cnn.com/2000/ALLPOLITICS/stories/08/15/rothenberg.column/index.h tml
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Enchanted
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Posted on Sunday, January 27, 2008 - 01:18 am:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)


OBAMA is goig to be Preisdent
your tha one who will be weeping start on Feb. 5th
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Cynique
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Posted on Sunday, January 27, 2008 - 01:15 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

It always amuses me how people idolize the Kennedy clan. These were the people that could rival the Clintons when it came to campaigning. Robert Kennedy was a pit bull henchman for his womanizing brother Jack Kennedy, even allowing theh FBI to spy on Martin Luther King, and if you like rumors, there are people who connect the Kennedy's to Marilyn Monroe's "suicide". Ted Kennedy never ran for president because of the scandal he was involved in having to do with Mary Jo Kopeckny, a young women who drowned when the car she was riding in with him plunged into a river because he was driving drunk.

Also, it has always been rumored that the infamous Mayor Richard Daley of Chicagoo stole the election for Kennedys in the state of Illinois.

Because he was assassinated JFK has become a martyr but he was not the knight in shining armour from Camelot that people like to believe he was. Historians are not able to assess his presidency accurately because he never lived out his full term. And like Obama he campaigned on a "new frontier" catch phrase, claiming he was going to fix a country which at the time wasn't actually broken. JFK was young and vigorous and charismatic. But he was from a rich white family inudated with their sense of entitlement, people who admitted they knew nothing about black people until they started wooing them as a voting bloc.
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Mochascafe
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Posted on Sunday, January 27, 2008 - 02:23 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

To be totally honest, for Michelle's sake in the marital sense, I hope he is nothing like Kennedy....

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