Caroline Kennedy's Not-So-Eloquent NYT Interview
Yesterday, we learned Caroline Kennedy is able to say "you know" twelve times in under a minute. Now that the entire NYT interview transcript is online, we know how much she loves "you know."
In all, Kennedy, who wants to be named Sen. Hillary Clinton's replacement once Clinton is confirmed as Secretary of State, used the phrase 138 times. (Times reporter David Halbfinger throws the term a couple times, too.)
But the most interesting thing about the transcript is not just that Kennedy speaks like, well, you know, a regular person instead of a media-trained politician, but rather her apparent lack of self-awareness about her own celebrity and her seeming ignorance to the role of celebrity in politics.
Halbfinger and Nick Confessore try hard to get Kennedy to give them some tick-tock about her decision to seek the Senate seat, much to Kennedy's chagrin. The quote she gave to try to deflect the questioning — "Have you guys ever thought about writing for, like, a woman’s magazine or something?" — made it into today's story, but if you look at the transcript, her larger dodge is even worse.
NC: Could you, for the sake of storytelling, could you tell us a little bit about that moment, like, where you were, what you said to him about your decision, how that played out?
CK: Have you guys ever thought about writing for, like, a woman’s magazine or something? (Laughter)
DH: What do you have against women’s magazines?
CK: Nothing at all, but I thought you were the crack political team here. As I said, it was kind of over a period of time, you know, obviously we talked about politics, we talked about what’s going on, we’ve been watching the team that the president-elect is putting together — Hillary Clinton is going to be a spectacular part of that team, you know, then there was a vacancy here, you know, just like everybody else, you know: who’s going to fill it, isn’t that interesting, there’s a lot of great candidates, you know, obviously I have become much more politically involved than I have in the past, so you know, I figure, why not try, I really think I have something to offer.
Kennedy's celebrity is the only rationale for her to be a Senator, but she doesn't want to say that. Instead, her argument boils down to she should be a Senator because she wants to be one.