As Caroline Kennedy (AKA “The Princess of Camelot”) unhappily found out, that most congenial spot for happily-ever-aftering is not located in NY. Little surprise that the upstate media was hostile (video link) to her newly awakened ambition to become the state’s junior senator (“Have you ever been to Syracuse before?,” asked one reporter). But while The Wall Street Journal’s John Fund complained that “far too many [journalists] gullibly swallowed the Camelot story line fed them by Kennedy sycophants even after it became obvious she wasn't ready for political prime time,” some downstate reporters – notably The Village Voice’s Wayne Barrett, poked her inflated résumé full of holes.

Of course, there never was a Camelot - except in the stuck-in-the-sixties minds of aging liberals, who refuse to set aside childish things. Here’s how columnist Jonah Goldberg explained the origins of the Camelot mythology surrounding JFK and the Kennedy clan:

Nearly 45 years after the man’s tragic death, the liberal establishment remains enthralled to the cargo cult that is the John F. Kennedy myth.

And it is a myth. Start with the “Camelot” label. It’s worth remembering that nobody used that word to describe JFK’s presidency when he was alive. The media’s marketing of the term stems from Jackie Kennedy’s recollection that her husband liked the Broadway musical “Camelot,” which had opened a month after Kennedy’s election. Theodore White, a journalist-admirer of Kennedy’s, convinced Life magazine to run with the idea. The musical’s tagline “for a brief shining moment” became an overnight cliché to describe the supposedly glorious idealism of Kennedy’s “thousand days.”

Though The New York Times takes a backseat to no one when it comes to kissing Kennedy keister, the paper notes:

In reality the Kennedys ceased long ago to be the nation’s “first” political family. For most of the last two decades the Clintons have dominated the Democratic Party as its power couple. And in scorekeeping terms the Republican Bushes have set a new standard for monopolizing high office - their string of victories now includes three presidential terms, two vice-presidential ones and a pair of governorships in two politically important states (Florida and Texas).

By contrast, the Kennedys’ hold on high elective office has been relatively modest — the 1,000 days of John F. Kennedy’s presidency, the Senate terms of his two younger brothers, Robert and Edward, along with the careers of other family members that stalled or peaked at lower levels. …

In fact, it has been many years since a Kennedy mounted a successful major campaign.

This ain’t Boston or Providence, and the Kennedy name doesn't amount to a hill of beans in a city famous for its cut-throat meritocracy (if you can make it here, you'll make it anywhere) and its ability to size you up and cut you down to size in a New York second (it's up to you, New York, New York). And with voters growing increasingly disenchanted with dynastic politics, Kennedy was, um, bush league.

On the January 10, 2009 edition of “Fox News Watch” columnist Jim Pinkerton and journalism professor Jane Hall debated whether Kennedy was manhandled by the press simply because she is a woman. Pinkerton defended his view that she is simply a simpleton:

Hall: I think there's some sexism here. A male, young Kennedy with no experience I think would not have...

Pinkerton: Hold on. Hold on. Stop right there. … Teddy Kennedy, 30 years ago, on "60 Minutes," gave an equally idiotic interview to Roger Mudd. … And he got slaughtered for it. … Look, the secret here is the Kennedy family - they're not that smart. Only when the media actually tape records them - and the New York Daily News counted 200 "you-knows" in the course of a 30-minute interview. When you actually get them on the tape, as opposed to be getting puffed up by some admiring reporter, then you realize they're stupid.

Hall: She can't have the education she has and be a dummy.

Pinkerton: Yes, you can. You absolutely can. If you're a Kennedy, you can actually fail through Harvard.

Hall: Let's do an I.Q. test.

Pinkerton: She won't take it.

He might have added that Caroline’s brother John-John was not the sharpest knife in the drawer, either – and that in addition to being dumb, the Kennedys are a dissipated, drug-and-alcohol addled lot. But that’s what we have Gawker for:

Caroline was the last, best hope for the Kennedy family, which has had members in the Senate since Jack was elected in 1952. …

So now what? Ted won't be a Senator for too much longer - as his ten-minute seizure at the Inauguration morbidly demonstrated … Patrick J. Kennedy is a congressman from Rhode Island - he's also a famous drunk and pill-popper …

So unless the people of Rhode Island decide to promote Pat or, god forbid, Robert Kennedy Jr starts campaigning now … the Senate has run out of Kennedys.

Somewhere in corrupt political fixer heaven, Joe Kennedy is pissed.

But see, thanks to YouTube and the blogosphere Chappaquiddick could not be fixed today – and neither can this (edited) tape of one of Kennedy’s interviews:

As Washington Post media critic-cum-political pundit  Howard Kurtz put it, “Caroline Kennedy's bid for the Senate ended the way it began – badly”:

The woman who had trouble articulating why she wanted to be a senator - indeed, had trouble articulating anything at all - folded her tent in a flurry of conflicting leaks and statements. The woman who was so wary of the press pulled the plug - or had it pulled on her - without bothering to explain herself to reporters, hiding instead behind a bland statement. …

[S]he was a lousy politician. And the New York media, rather than being blinded by her celebrity aura, played the key role in exposing that fact. …

Kennedy gave the impression that she wanted to be knighted by David Paterson. I'll never forget that initial photo op upstate where she literally ran away from reporters shouting questions. Sorry, that's not how politics is practiced, especially for someone who has not held public office and long stayed out of the limelight. She had something to prove.

The New York Daily News reports that Kennedy lost Gov. David Paterson at “hello”:

Gov. Paterson was completely underwhelmed with Caroline Kennedy from their first conversation about Hillary Clinton's Senate seat, a source close to the governor said. …

Paterson was turned off when Kennedy first called him and asked if she "could" be considered for the seat.

By asking if she could, rather than saying she wanted to be considered, Paterson immediately felt she wasn't really interested, the source said.

In meetings, the governor and his aides decided she had no political depth, the source said.

She had no firmly held views and little idea about why she wanted the job, the source said.

Her abysmal public rollout cemented the governor's fears that she had no political instincts.

The governor felt the sheltered Kennedy had no communication skills and absolutely no empathy with the voters, the source said.

Ironically, it was Empire State realpolitik that destroyed the dynastic mythology of Camelot once and for all. 

Here’s why Patterson picked Kirsten Gillibrand, according to The Times:

Ms. Gillibrand’s selection was a careful political calculation by the governor, who will run for his second term as governor in 2010, when Ms. Gillibrand will also be on the ballot. The choice reflects Mr. Paterson’s thinking that his selection should be someone who can help him attract key demographics - in Ms. Gillibrand’s case upstate New Yorkers and women.

Ms. Gillibrand, who lives near Hudson, N.Y., just outside of Albany, with her husband, Jonathan Gillibrand, a financial consultant, and their sons, Theodore, who is 5, and Henry, who is 6 months old. (Ms. Gillibrand received a standing ovation on the floor of the House from her colleagues for working right up to the day she gave birth to Henry.)

Ms. Gillibrand, who had never held public office, won her seat in 2006 against great odds, defeating a four-term Republican incumbent in a race that turned intense and nasty in its final days.

She proved to be a formidable candidate, raising millions of dollars and assembling a campaign organization that aggressively exploited the personal and political baggage of her opponent, Representative John E. Sweeney, who frequently found himself on the defensive.

NY’s senior senator Charles Schumer was also championing Gillibrand behind the scenes, reports The Associated Press:

"Schumer was pushing her, he was really pushing," said a Democrat [who] was familiar with the inner workings of Paterson's selection but spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak publicly about the process. …

Schumer ran the Senate Democrats' national campaign efforts in two successful elections, and he says Gillibrand has the qualities of a winner.

"I found women candidates run better and win more easily," he said Friday at Gillibrand's news conference, also emphasizing the importance of having an upstate resident. "But above all, talent, ability, work ethic are the most important attributes for the U.S. Senate, and Kirsten Gillibrand fits that bill.

"She's a go-to person," Schumer said. "She will get it done."

Schumer’s calculus takes into account that there are only 16 women in the Senate; that with a population of 7 million, upstate NY has had no representation in the Senate in nearly 40 years; and that the pro-gun, Blue Dog Dem is a natural politician who can hold her own in parts of the state that traditionally vote Repub.

During the press conference in which he announced his choice, Patterson said Gillibrand is “dynamic, she’s articulate, she is perceptive, she’s courageous, she is outspoken.” In other words, she is everything Kennedy is not.

Editorial Note: While Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) - unnecessarily, as it turns out - fretted that Caroline Kennedy would be treated with kid gloves by elitist, liberal journos, the MSM is not off the hook. Because she gave birth to a child with Down syndrome at age 43, columnists were quick to question Palin’s decision to become pregnant at that age, not to abort Trig when she found out he had a congenital birth defect, whether she “endangered” Trig’s life by giving a speech in Dallas then flying home to AK to deliver him, and whether she shouldn't stay at home and raise her special-needs child. Gillibrand gave birth to her son, Henry, at age 41 (the risk of conceiving a child with Down syndrome is 1 in 100 at age 40 vs. 1 in 70 at age 42) after a 13-hour day in the House “voting on the farm bill and sitting through an endless hearing of the Armed Services Committee, where she successfully offered an amendment before moving on to the delivery room,” writes New York Times columnist Gail Collins. The Stiletto has thus far not come across any criticisms of Gillibrand for having a baby in her 40s, or any suggestion that she should stay home to raise one-year-old Henry and his four-year-old brother Theo.