It’s easy to look at the public reception to the possibility of Caroline Kennedy being assigned Hillary Clinton’s Senate seat, compare it to the reception Sarah Palin’s nomination received, and conclude that there’s bias.
That’s probably part of it, but I think a simpler explanation is that the Palin nomination was a complete surprise to reporters, and her nomination meant they had to dig through things like Wasilla, Alaska public library records to figure out who this person is and what she’s about.
No such digging is required with Kennedy — she’s pre-vetted — we know what she and her family are about. It helps that the press is generally sympathetic to what they’re about. And this goes both ways:
“Who wants to go into politics today except people who are born into it?” opines veteran Democratic political consultant Hank Sheinkopf. “It’s not pleasant, it’s full of incessant disclosure and oversight, you have no personal life. You don’t meet the best class of people. If it isn’t in the family, who would do it? The other alternative is the very rich, who can afford to go into it.”
The Kennedys have already incurred this entry fee, and the press has already collected it. It’s not as if Caroline Kennedy was going to be able to live a quiet, secluded life. Why not get the power of Senator as well, given the chance? Then the press doesn’t have to profile a representative from Utica, look into his church, etc. They can just re-roll their Camelot footage.
I’m not using laziness as a blame — I’d rather see choices that make my job easier, too. But it needs to be overcome.
It’s also hard for me to get too exercised about dynasticism when George W. Bush has been our president for the last eight years, Matt Blunt has been our governor for the last four, Russ Carnahan is the congressman from a neighboring district, Robin Carnahan is the Secretary of State, and Jean Carnahan was our senator for two years, though with the exception of Jean Carnahan, all of them had to win an election.
