On Caroline Kennedy dropping out of unusual Senate race...

It's a surprise, but on second thought, not too surprising, that Caroline Kennedy was dropping out of the unusual Senate race to lobby Governor David Paterson to name a replacement to the Senate seat that Hillary Clinton vacates, in her move to become Secretary of State in the Obama administration.

I don't hold anything against Kennedy. But I find it repulsive, that someone who's never had a real job would consider that she's capable of doing something simply with a claim of her "life experience." Surely, no one would argue against the fact that she's born to a president, having lived in the White House for a while, bears a great last name, inherits much wealth to allow a life without any worry of working, and even threw her support behind Obama the candidate back then in his campaign to 1600 Penn Ave. I don't hold any of those against her, in particular. It's who she is.

But if she's arguing that, for what she has, what she's been handed down with, allows her to better serve the people of New York, I simply don't see the logic in it. From my vantage point, she has to earn her dues.

Surely, people were saying the same thing about Hillary Clinton, back then when she's campaigning for the New York Senate seat right after her husband's second term. She was called all sorts of names, carpetbagger being one of those. But Clinton is a fighter. She's tenacious, she fights for what she believes, she develops this thick skin, and she prevails to win the seat, and ultimately wins over the hearts and minds of the districts that she represents with good grassroot work.

I would not discount Kennedy the way that Clinton was discounted back then. I was expecting Kennedy to do the same, if not more, should she really want the job bad enough, should she really think she's better than the next one in line. Heck, she should even have considered putting in even more efforts, lest people think she's getting some kids-glove treatment from uncles and cousins in Senate, if not anywhere else.

Apparently, Kennedy is not a fighter. After her announcement to lobby Paterson to give her Clinton's seat without any election, a whirlwind campaign to try (and fail) to charm the media (counting all those um's and you-know's in rare interviews), she flamed out and called it quit.

It is perhaps fitting, that Kennedy was more often compared to Sarah Palin than Hillary Clinton, with Palin's meteoric rise and fumbling speeches and quick flame-out. But even Palin is more a bulldog fighter than Kennedy.

For Kennedy, it's just another disappointment in the family. Since she's been so comfortable in the shadow for 50 years now (didn't Jackie O do such a fantastic job shielding her kids?!?), she should have just stayed out and kept the mystic of the Kennedy name. With her quick burnout, she has perhaps drawn a full-stop to the name that her father and grandfather had so carefully crafted.