CAROLINE, YOU KNOW, IS NOT READY

Wrote the following column on Dec. 30, 2008
CAROLINE, YOU KNOW,
IS JUST NOT READY
Like Sarah Palin, she is way too
inarticulate to be a national leader

By Martin Zabell

I wrote a column tangentially about Caroline Kennedy a week or so ago. It focused more on my opinion that her backers’ contention that she is smart because of her college degrees is naive because of my own long-ago experience of having Uncle Teddy’s best friend offer to help me get into Harvard.

The truth, though, is that I thought Kennedy was a very smart woman. From what I knew, Kennedy had forsaken the career chosen by many of her innumerable cousins and had, unlike them, thoughtfully mapped out a different way to help people.

The fact that she seemed to go out of her way to stay out of politics and, instead, devote considerable time to a wide variety of charitable causes was a plus in my book.

In addition, her intelligence seemed far more than book smart because she appeared to have her head on straight while many of her generation of Kennedy cousins partied for years (I read "Playboy" for the articles and I still can’t forget that bizarre feature about RFK’s sons and their unbelievably prolific use of drugs at a very young age.)

I can’t recall ever reading about her ever being in trouble, and she just seemed poised and gracious.

Unfortunately, my conclusion about Kennedy’s intelligence appears to be horribly wrong.

On Saturday, I read the following in a Politico article by Ben Smith. The material in quotes are Kennedy’s. "We did have a very nice, you know, conversation, and obviously I'm not gonna talk about that, except to say that she said this was the greatest job that she'd ever had and could imagine having. So, she was very encouraging, and that was, you know, that was nice because she's a huge inspiration of mine......"I've been a Democrat all my life. I am, you know, a Democrat through and through. I've always voted Democratic. You know, that is where my heart lies."

In the space of 99 words (I cut out one sentence), she had used the terms "you know" four times. I was astounded. I have NEVER used the words "you know" while I was speaking. How do I know? Because my father told me as a youngster in 1970s New York that using this phrase was a signal that you were stupid.

I can vividly recall the debate in my neighborhood whether New York Nets basketball star John Williamson or New York Rangers hockey star Nick Fotiu was dumber. Some of us used to listen to their interviews and count the number of times they used the words "you know" as they mumbled and stumbled. It was hilarious – and scary.

I don’t know whether this conclusion about using the words "you know" between unrelated thoughts was a New York thing, but Kennedy did grow up in 1970s New York.

And I wasn’t the only one who noticed the "you knows." As I read through the comments section below Smith’s article, I noticed that several other people had similar thoughts to mine.

After logging off on Saturday, I thought to myself that I was being too mean. After all, I was extremely shy and inarticulate – without using the words "you know" – when I was very young because public speaking is just plain scary and I was unbelievably nervous.

I thought about how I kept fixing my glasses as a college job counselor taped a mock interview with me – while I was watching myself on the screen fixing my glasses. But, I was 21.

I also thought about the fear I had when as the managing editor of a newspaper I was asked to make speeches and my tones were so hushed that people complained afterward that they didn’t hear a word I said. But, I was 27.

And there is nothing wrong with being 51 and being scared to death of public speaking. But why in the world is a 51-year-old with this problem seeking to get involved in politics?

Today, I was less inclined to believe that what I read two days earlier was an anomaly – or just a rookie being nervous in the early stages of one of her first interviews.

In the past few days, Smith has researched some of Kennedy’s past interviews. He reported that she used "you know" 142 times in an interview with The New York Times. That’s not a typo. I didn’t mean to type 14 or 12 or 42. Yes, one-hundred-forty-two.

I’m sorry Caroline, but you are now entering Sarah Palin territory. I really wish you the best and hope you continue your outstanding service to charities, but please don’t enter the world of politics.