"We think it unwise to shed too much light upon magic", Queen Victoria was said to have remarked when being urged by ministers of the Crown to appear more regularly in public. If only Caroline Kennedy had heeded Her Majesty's advice she would not have been exposed as someone who is incapable of expressing her thoughts in the form of a compound sentence without it being interspersed with innumerable "you knows" and all too frequent "ums". What, one wonders, is Tina Fey going to do with this rich harvest of inarticulate expression ripe for parody? I, for one, can hardly wait.
To the jaundiced eye the Kennedy mystique has always borne the signs of external direction as if there was some master version from which large dollops of confection could be scooped up and vigorously applied as necessary, particularly when it is required to disguise the Kennedy sense of entitlement and its accompanying arrogance.
At last, the master version is turning yellow. The manuscript is fading as its endless pages split and curl upwards disfiguring the print making it, in parts, illegible. In Caroline's case one realises now why her books were co-authored. Unlike her father she didn't have the brilliant Ted Sorensen to write everything for her, but that didn't stop her from trying to revive the political fortunes of her clan which, thankfully, have sunk surprisingly low in spite of all the deferential adulation which they consider to be their rightful due. However, it is not all entirely their fault. Over the years, the Kennedy worshipers have diligently seen to it that myth has been piled upon myth; criminality forgiven; outrageous behaviour dismissed; sheer incompetence excused; and the most awful venality ignored. And so do they progress.
Anyone acquainted with the Kennedys is well aware that the legendary image of them so assiduously propigated and cultivated throughout the years, and sanctified by blood so monstrously spilled, bears little relation to reality. With successive generations of Kennedys the gap between the two has been steadily widening to the point where it is now a positive chasm. Thus, when the light was shed upon Caroline it proved that old Queen Victoria was right after all. In an instant the magic fled along with her determined smile. Doubtless her sense of entitlement remains intact although righteously unfulfilled in her unseemly pursuit of an unearned appointment to the Senate of the United States.
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Very true, Paul. Though I must confess I am curious as to what particular events, recent ones if that, proved the catalyst for this post of yours. I understand of course who she is and what would have become. . but did I miss anything that happened with her in the last 3 or 4 days?
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