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Political dynasties fade away
Washington Times ^ | 27 January 2009 | David R. Sands

Posted on 01/26/2009 10:40:01 PM PST by Aussie Dasher

Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. didn't get the vacant Illinois Senate seat.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton didn't get the Democratic presidential nomination, taking the job of secretary of state as a consolation prize.

And Caroline Kennedy and Andrew Cuomo lost out to an obscure two-term upstate congresswoman for the New York Senate seat once held by Mrs. Clinton.

Whatever happened to American democracy's traditional deference to political dynasties?

Call it Bush/Clinton/Bush/Clinton fatigue syndrome, or perhaps the new Obama meritocracy, but some of the most famous names in U.S. politics have come up empty-handed in recent days.

"I don't know how much of this you can tie to Obama, but it is a striking pattern," said Brian Flanagan, who has studied U.S. political dynasties as associate director of the Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Mich.

"It's even more striking when you consider we've just completed the first presidential election since 1976 where there wasn't a Bush or a Clinton on the ticket and where the winner this time had no political pedigree whatsoever," he said.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...


TOPICS: Extended News; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: dynasties; fading; kennedys
I'd be delighted if all the bloody Kennedys faded away for starters!!!
1 posted on 01/26/2009 10:40:02 PM PST by Aussie Dasher
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To: Aussie Dasher

Time to do away with political nepotism. America don’t want royalty. We need new people with new ideas.
Families tend to lead to more of the same philosophy.
I am tired of brand name politicians and political nepotism.


2 posted on 01/26/2009 10:43:25 PM PST by o_zarkman44 (Since when is paying more, but getting less, considered Patriotic?)
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To: Aussie Dasher
I have to take exception with one line from the article:

I suspect we probably haven't seen the last of Caroline Kennedy, either," he said.

Okay, I'm sure we haven't heard the last of Caroline running her mouth, but this woman is incapable of campaigning for office and winning an election. That much we have already learned.

3 posted on 01/26/2009 10:58:02 PM PST by squidly
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To: Aussie Dasher

Olgarchy is the name of the game now.


4 posted on 01/26/2009 11:01:21 PM PST by unkus
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To: Aussie Dasher

How did the author manage to use the words “Obama” and “meritocracy” in the same sentence?


5 posted on 01/26/2009 11:52:38 PM PST by RPTMS
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To: Aussie Dasher
"I'd be delighted if all the bloody Kennedys faded away for starters!!!"


6 posted on 01/26/2009 11:56:02 PM PST by who_would_fardels_bear (The cosmos is about the smallest hole a man can stick his head in. - Chesterton)
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To: Aussie Dasher

Me too and Obama arriving on the scene had nothing to do with it. He is no more what America needs or wants than relecting the old and worn.


7 posted on 01/27/2009 2:33:58 AM PST by freekitty (Give me back my conservative vote.)
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To: RPTMS
How did the author manage to use the words “Obama” and “meritocracy” in the same sentence?

How? By being truly delusional...

the infowarrior

8 posted on 01/27/2009 3:40:06 PM PST by infowarrior
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