The American Spectator

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Unsweet Caroline

1.30.08 @ 12:01AM

WHO'S YOUR DADDY?
Re: Jay D. Homnick's Taking Kennedy from a Baby:

While I am no fan of Bill Clinton (quite the contrary), I find your gratuitous reference to "hillbilly wannabes" mildly offensive to all of us from the rural South who are constantly and unmercifully ridiculed by Hollywood's stereotypical hillbilly images. So, I wish you hadn't used that term and urge you to look for some other way to express your well-taken contempt for the Clintons.

Worse, implying that Hillary is somehow a hillbilly caters in a supportive way to her cynically ridiculous claim to a connection with Arkansas and, thus, the South. Hillary's sole accomplishment in life, the single bullet point in her business plan, has been to trade off Bill's position. The fact that she passed briefly through Arkansas while doing it makes her no more of a hillbilly or any other kind of southerner than does her "home" in New York make her a New Yorker or her sham marriage make her, well, a "Mrs."
-- Van Morgan
Florence, Alabama

Though "Change!" is the campaign's one-word slogan, the Obama administration (if there is to be such) will be anything but. He cannot possibly have built up enough chits in his short D. C. tenure to have any swat, and so easily will be manipulated into the same-old same-old. Perhaps this -- aside from the obvious symbolism -- is what the Kennedy and their party regulars like about him.
-- Ty Knoy
Ann Arbor, Michigan

I hate to sound totally unsympathetic, but what the hell does Caroline Kennedy know about her father? She was 6 years old when he was murdered. All she knows is what she reads (or hears from other political types, who, being political types, are mostly untrustworthy by nature). She doesn't really have any inside info on him. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the fact that she gave Billary a bitch-slap like she did, but realistically I don't consider her to be the most reliable source in this matter.
-- Nick Andrelli
Alexandria, Va

When I heard Caroline Kennedy compare Barack Obama with the savvy politician and Cold Warrior that was her father, all I could think of was, "How could she say that with a straight face?"
-- Robert Nowall
Cape Coral, Florida

Senator Obama is on the verge of capturing the Democratic nomination for President. Establishment Democrats in the left wing of the party are lining up for him. The Clintons, representing the moderate wing of the party have however successfully, painted Obama as a black candidate which will be his biggest obstacle to gaining the nomination. In South Carolina, Obama got three quarters of the black vote and one quarter of the white vote. If this result repeats itself in the rest of the south, Obama will be blocked from an outright win but might still win the nomination at a brokered convention, particularly if John Edwards remains in the race.

Obama can do three things to help himself. First he can paint Bill Clinton as a pretender attempting to gain a third term, a violation of the Constitution. There is already ample evidence that he is is doing so. Second, he can extract a pledge from his supporters that they will not allow race to be a qualifying factor amongst Democrats, the implication being that his supporters will not back the Clintons in the general election if they gain the nomination unfairly by introducing race. Third he can plan and manipulate the convention starting now using the race pledge as a lever at convention time.

The left wing of the Democrats have found their candidate in Obama and they are not about to lay down and let the Clintons get away with finessing their candidate. With a few tricks of their own, they can compete and possibly put the Clintons out of the race.
-- Howard Lohmuller
Seabrook,Texas

There's something very troubling about Jay's article.

He speculates and interprets what is in Caroline Kennedy's mind -- "There was no reason for her to add that line. It was a gratuitous swipe, not terribly gracious by any standard."

I find it gracious. I find it gracious by all standards. And I find it polite and honest.

What I find very far from grace is everything about the Clintons. And whoever can stop a third disastrous two-headed presidency is grace incarnate.
-- Phyllis Caplan

So the Kennedys are rude to the arriviste Clinton HillBillies. I had to wait more than 40 years for them to do something useful. I hope they keep up the good work.
-- Christopher Holland
Canberra, Australia

I agree that the GOP candidates should let the Clinton/Obama feud play out on its own, but I have no problem with GOP pundits pointing out the hypocrisy on the left here. It is simply too delicious for us conservatives to watch the Clinton's turn their wrath on their own with the same vehemence that it was turned on the right for 8 years, plus a Senate campaign. Why should we not point out to everyone watching and listening that this behavior is not new from Hill Billy, that it is the prevailing modus operandi of the Hill Billy machine, and that the media are total hypocrites to pretend that they never knew the Clinton's played dirty politics. We're not trying to stop the crack-up, just trying to point out the truth to all who are watching.
-- Eric Edwards
Walnut Cove, North Carolina

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