Caroline Kennedy: Keeper of family flame, diplomat

I watched JFK saga on one of public stations today. A lot of sad stories along with Ambassador when she was just a little cute girl.

I look forward to Caroline Kennedy being an inspiration to many of the young women in Japan, just by virtue of her appointment.

Neil Diamond song and BoSox anthem "Sweet Caroline" (1969) was inspired after her.

This is going to be one emotional week for the new Ambassador. I wish her nothing but prosperity and success as she takes on this responsibility.

If I read another Caroline Kennedy tongue-bath "news" story, I'm going to throw up. As the story said, she was born to privilege and spent her life staying there. She is the President's financial supporter, so she gets thrown the patronage appointment. I had hoped that Obama was smarter than to use an important ambassadorship in such a way, but I was wrong. It is a measure of the contempt that the current administration feels for Japan that she was appointed.

Contrast her with Ambassador Sasae, the Japanese representative in Washington. He is a career foreign policy specialist and diplomat with credentials and language skills, a quarter century of professional service.

The comparison is stark.

@Vast Right-Wing: This is an article on Carolyn on JT Board. If you want to write about Sasae, ask JT to create an article. People who want to write about Carolyn and not jealous of her family wealth should be able to make their comments here freely.

@vast right No regular citizen in the States cares or knows who is the Japanese ambassador, so irrelevant and unknown are they. Look at the enthusiasm in Japan with people lining the streets waving US/Japan flags and live NHK TV coverage of her. All my students know about her and are enthusiastic. The only contempt I see is coming from you

Vacuous Right-Wing Conspirator is living in the past - back when ambassadors actually had serious responsibilities often requiring them to act independently from their governments. With today's modern communications, the ambassador serves mostly a ceremonial role along with a random meeting or two where they deliver a carefully scripted (by their state department) message to the country's head of state. In return they receive the same carefully scripted messages from the host country for delivery to their boss back at their state department. Modern-day ambassadors are just glorified messengers. They're not allowed to forge policy nor are they allowed to publicly back issues at odds with the current administration of their home country. Successful ambassadors may privately disagree with a stance taken by their home country, but will never let the host country know that. The ones who don't last long are the ones who forget that basic rule.