The editors of the Washington Post Sunday Outlook section aren't looking too politically astute when it comes to promoting Caroline Kennedy for the Senate. Their front page carries an article headlined "She's a Kennedy, But She's a Lot Like Us."
First question: who is "Us"?
The credit line for this article describes the author as nothing like a regular New Yorker: "Anne Glusker is a freelance journalist living in France and the host of 'Stir It Up,' a weekly food program on Swiss radio."
This is hardly a way to build confidence with upstate New Yorkers that Caroline is not some snobby elitist: "After all, France-based food writers say so."
They really didn't need the foreign address for this completely predictable exercise in suggesting Caroline's thin resume is somehow pitch-perfect for our times:
Perhaps, like many women in her situation, she found stimulation and satisfaction in whatever tasks most easily fit her schedule and her life, and her kids' lives. You could say her work history was spasmodic; you could say it was scattershot. But you could also say that as her children have grown up, her focus on public life has intensified, culminating in her fundraising for the public schools and her participation in Barack Obama's presidential campaign. You could say that, consciously or unconsciously, she was preparing for this moment.
Rather than a privileged aberration, I prefer to view Kennedy as a bellwether, a case study in how things could be if only the workplace were more accepting of an unconventional CV, one that may brim with great experience and skills and talent but is also peppered with gaps and one-off projects and volunteering.
