Death of the Dynasty?
By Graham Davies

Americans love royalty. This is a country which is only 230 years old, so people yearn for a sense of history and a feeling of continuity.

They can’t have kings, queens, princes, princesses, lords and ladies and all the pomp and circumstance and in-breeding and strange rituals that attach. So they’ve evolved the next best thing: the dynasty.

At one point last year, the presidency from 1988-2012 could have ended up as the revolving possession of just two dynasties – Bush and Clinton. It turned out that Clinton Mark 2 was considered too petty and aggressive to be President. So she has been appointed Secretary of State instead.

Now we have news that another dynasty has failed in its attempt to maintain profile, popularity and power. Caroline Kennedy (the only surviving child of John and Jackie) will NOT be the next Senator for New York.

She withdrew from consideration, apparently, for “personal reasons”. More relevantly, she has a shy manner, a weak voice that gets weaker under pressure and a Palin-like inability to answer tricky questions on TV. Her presentation skills are just not up to it.

It’s nice to see the American establishment realising that suitability and competence are more important than surname.

If only they’d had the good sense to think that way in 2001. The world would have been a very different and probably a far safer place.