Caroline Kennedy: From first daughter to U.S. ambassador?
JFK’s eldest is seen as likely choice for next ambassador to
Japan
Caroline Kennedy Is Seen as Likely Choice for Japan
Envoy
By MICHAEL D. SHEAR
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/02/world/caroline-kennedy-is-considered-for-japan-ambassador.html?_r=0
WASHINGTON — Caroline
Kennedy, the daughter of President John F. Kennedy, is likely to be the next United States ambassador to Japan, according to people familiar
with the appointment process.
The vetting of Ms.
Kennedy by the White House is almost complete, and an appointment could be
announced in the coming weeks, along with the names of several other choices
for important diplomatic posts. Ms. Kennedy, 55, was an early supporter of
President Obama in the 2008 presidential election and offered forceful backing
as he battled Hillary Rodham Clinton for the Democratic nomination. She also
served as a co-chairwoman of Mr. Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign.
The diplomatic
assignment would vault Ms. Kennedy, a lawyer and the author of 10 books, into
the kind of public life that her family has embraced for several generations,
including in the diplomatic corps. Ms. Kennedy’s grandfather Joseph P. Kennedy
Sr. served as ambassador to Britain
from 1938 to 1940.
Esther Newberg, the
agent for Ms. Kennedy’s current book, a compilation of poetry for young
children, declined to comment on the author’s behalf.
“She is on her book
tour, actually, and that’s the only thing she is talking about,” Ms. Newberg
wrote in an e-mail.
White House officials
also declined to comment on Ms. Kennedy. Jay Carney, the press secretary, said
he had “no personnel announcements to make” about ambassador appointments.
Asked to comment on Ms. Kennedy’s qualifications to serve as ambassador to Japan, Mr.
Carney declined.
Ms. Kennedy does not
have any obvious connection to Japan,
but she would arrive in Tokyo as a kind of
celebrity — a member of one of America’s
most famous families and someone close to the president. Sending her to Tokyo would continue a
long presidential tradition of appointing well-known American political figures
to the post. Former American ambassadors to Japan include Walter F. Mondale,
the former vice president; Mike Mansfield, the former Senate majority leader;
and Thomas S. Foley, the former speaker of the House.
Ms. Kennedy is the
president of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation and the chairwoman of the
senior advisory committee at the Institute
of Politics at Harvard’s
Kennedy School of Government. She would replace John V. Roos, the former chief
executive officer of a Silicon Valley law
firm.
Bloomberg News and
The Washington Post first reported that Ms. Kennedy was under consideration for
the ambassadorship.
If nominated and
confirmed, Ms. Kennedy will face a nation still working to recover from the
tsunami and nuclear disaster in 2011. The ambassador will also be on the front
lines of the president’s efforts to refocus American diplomacy on Asia. The next envoy will arrive in Japan as North
Korea’s new leader, Kim Jong-un, makes increasingly
aggressive moves toward the United States
and South Korea.
In 2009, Ms. Kennedy
was thought to be a likely candidate to replace Mrs. Clinton in the Senate upon
her confirmation as secretary of state. But after a brief venture into the
contact sport of New York
politics, Ms. Kennedy took herself out of the running for the seat, citing a
“very private family matter.”
White House officials
declined to give a timeline for an announcement about the Japan post. It
is possible that Ms. Kennedy’s nomination will be announced with appointments
to other diplomatic posts.
Marc Lasry, a
billionaire hedge fund manager and Obama supporter, is said to be the
president’s pick to be ambassador to France. Former President Bill
Clinton told attendees at a pair of fund-raisers last month that Mr. Lasry was
set to get the job.
John R. Phillips, a Washington lawyer, is frequently mentioned as a
possibility for ambassador to Italy.
Several people familiar with the process have said in recent weeks that Matthew
Barzun may be appointed as the ambassador to Britain. The job was once thought
to be going to Anna Wintour, the editor in chief of Vogue magazine, who was a
prodigious fund-raiser for Mr. Obama.
Ms. Kennedy is
married to Edwin Schlossberg and has three children. If confirmed by the
Senate, she would become the first woman to represent the United States in Japan.
Caroline Kennedy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caroline_Kennedy
photos
http://www.google.hr/search?q=caroline+kennedy&hl=hr&client=opera&hs=KzM&channel=suggest&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=Q0RdUdnZLKTb4QTZloDADA&ved=0CDoQsAQ&biw=1024&bih=651
Caroline Kennedy, President
http://www.jfklibrary.org/About-Us/JFK-Library-Foundation/Board-of-Directors/Caroline-Kennedy.aspx
Caroline Kennedy is an attorney and the editor of nine New
York Times best-selling books on constitutional law, American history, politics
and poetry.
She is President of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation
and a member of the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award Committee. A
graduate of Harvard University and Columbia
Law School,
she is Chair of the Senior Advisory Committee of the Institute
of Politics at Harvard University,
Honorary Chair of the American Ballet Theater, and serves on the board of
directors of New Visions for Public Schools.
From 2002 – 2011, she was Vice Chair of the Fund for Public
Schools, which raised over $280 million to support public school reform and
engaged a record number of New Yorkers to volunteer in New York City schools.
Ms. Kennedy is married to Edwin Arthur Schlossberg,
president of Edwin Schlossberg Inc., a multi-disciplinary design company that
specializes in interactive exhibit design and museum master-planning. They have
three children.