Washington – President Barack Obama announced Wednesday that he is nominating former first daughter Caroline Kennedy as U.S. ambassador to Japan, offering the most famous living member of a prominent American family a new role of service to country.
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Kennedy, an attorney and bestselling book editor, is being rewarded for helping put Obama in the White House where her father served until his assassination 50 years ago. If confirmed, she would be the first woman in a post where many other prominent Americans have served to strengthen a vital Asian tie.
Kennedy helped propel Obama to the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination in a celebrated endorsement over Hillary Rodham Clinton — the only time she’s endorsed a presidential candidate other than her uncle Ted Kennedy in 1980. She played a prominent role, particularly in courting female voters by headlining swing state events for Obama during both his presidential campaigns.
She was a co-chair of Obama’s vice presidential search committee and in the 2012 race served as one of 35 national co-chairs of his re-election campaign. She called Obama “the kind of leader my father wrote about in ‘Profiles in Courage'” during a prime-time speech at the 2012 Democratic National Convention.
The White House announced her nomination without any particular fanfare, listing her in a news release along with other selections for administration posts. Obama said in a statement that all the choices bring “a depth of experience and tremendous dedication to their new roles,” but he offered no comment specific to Kennedy.
Kennedy, 55, doesn’t have any obvious ties to Japan, a key ally in dealing with North Korea’s nuclear ambitions. She would replace John Roos, a wealthy former Silicon Valley lawyer and top Obama campaign fundraiser.
Japan is one of the United States’ most important trading and military partners and accustomed since the end of World War II to having renowned American political leaders serve as envoy. Former U.S. ambassadors to Japan include former Vice President Walter Mondale, former House Speaker Tom Foley and former Senate Majority Leaders Mike Mansfield and Howard Baker.
She also would bring a third generation of her family into the U.S. diplomatic corps. Her grandfather Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. was President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s ambassador to Britain, while her aunt Jean Kennedy Smith was ambassador to Ireland under President Bill Clinton.
Caroline Kennedy was five days shy of her sixth birthday when her father was killed, and she lived most of the rest of her life in New York City. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University, got a law degree from Columbia University, married exhibit designer Edwin Schlossberg and had three children.
Kennedy is president of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation and chair of the senior advisory committee of the Institute of Politics at Harvard. She has served on the boards of numerous non-profit organizations, helped raise millions of dollars for New York schools and edited numerous bestselling books on history, law and poetry.
She considered running for political office after Clinton resigned the New York Senate seat to serve as Obama’s secretary of state. But Kennedy eventually withdrew herself from consideration to fill the seat, once held by her uncle Robert F. Kennedy, citing unspecified personal reasons.
Any qualifications besides her name being Kennedy?
These ambassador positions in fancy places such as the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Japan etc., seem to be political perks, which are given as rewards for very large fund raisers, for the current occupant of the White House. In this case, the appointed ambassador to Japan has zero experience in foreign policy. When she was planning to run for elective office in New York State (Senate), she had the chutzpah to sit down for lunch, with that great racial “healer”, the Rev. Al Sharpton. When she was forced to drop out of the race, because of her lack of qualifications, there was a statement, that her Uncle Teddy, would get even with those, who blocked her political path. Ms. Kennedy can’t even speak English correctly, without saying “You know” repeatedly. Her brother, John, Jr., was much more politically astute, than she will ever be. I liked and admired JFK, but I think that outside of her gelt, she has zero qualifications.
It must be a purposeful snub to the Japanese, for some reason.
If barack is qualified to be president then she is qualified to be ambassador. Hamaivin yovin
She is married to a Jewish man. Will he be going with her? Her grandmother, Rose Kennedy and her grandfather Joseph Kennedy are still spinning in their graves. Joseph Kennedy was such an anti-Semite. I guess Hashem has a sense of irony as well as a sense of humor.