Caroline Kennedy Makes Interest In Hillary’s Senate Seat Official

Caroline Kennedy has made it official that she’s interested in Hillary Clinton’s Senate seat. The NY Post has outlined why Kennedy is a good candidate for the seat:

While she hasn’t been especially involved in New York’s political wars, she’s hardly unaware of the issues.

A city resident since shortly after her father’s assassination, she played a critical role in advancing the reform agenda spearheaded by Mayor Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein.

In her two years heading the school system’s Office of Strategic Partnerships, she raised more than $65 million in private-sector funds for the city’s schools. She also serves as vice chairman of the Fund of Public Schools and is a board member of New Visions for Public Schools, which for two decades has worked to bring about systemic public-education reform.

As a member of Barack Obama’s vice presidential selection committee – and a key early endorser of his candidacy – she remains close to the president-elect. That kind of access and influence surely would prove critical for New York.

Moreover, Kennedy’s selection would be a welcome sign of Paterson’s willingness to reject the politics of pander and special-interest pressures merely to satisfy some ethnic or geographic quota.

As we noted last week, this state needs a senator of stature, with a willingness to tough it out when circumstances require.

To the surprise of many, New York got exactly that in Hillary Rodham Clinton.

And we believe it can do so again with the appointment of Caroline Kennedy to fill Clinton’s seat.

There’s critics and naysayers weighing in today on Kennedy’s decision. I’m of the frame of mind that she would be an awesome Senator, however I agree with Peter Canellos in the Boston Globe today, “it’s painful to think that she may be trading her hard-earned right to a normal life for a birthright that may not be as gratifying.”