Daddy's Girl

Anyone who reads this blog with any regularity is certainly aware of my particular attachment to the relationship of fathers and daughters. It starts with my relationship to my daughter and expands from there to encompass other particular examples of the relationship and to the general reality of what that relationship means across the wide ranging array of personalities, beliefs, and values that people hold all over the world.

In an, until now, unrelated connection, I have also always held a particular fondness for Caroline Kennedy that goes beyond just the fact that she is the daughter of JFK. It is somewhat mysteriously tied to the fact that, as a kid growing up in WEST Palm Beach, Caroline was playing across the river on Palm Beach. This connection was enhanced by the fact that on several occasions, my folks - part of the South Florida working press (my dad was the Palm Beach County Bureau Chief for the Miami CBS affiliate) - would pull me out of school to go with them to see Kennedy and family come into Palm Beach International Airport. Partly due to the fact that Caroline was just slightly younger than me, I felt a strange connection, as if I was almost a part of the family; an idealistic, if not fully genetic (or financial), Kennedy cousin. This is a feeling that has remained with me my whole life.

Beyond all that, I have an enormous respect for how this woman has lived her life. What she's done, what she thinks, what she writes and what she has to say.

So, today, when I woke up to the news that she was endorsing Obama - with a New York Times op-ed entitled A President Like My Father - I sat up to take notice.

On the other side of the country my long term friend, and producing partner, Zach had already done the same thing, adding the article to a growing collection of links on his blog about why he supports Obama and why he adamantly opposes Hillary. The links and articles and opinions are informative, passionate, and even quite amusing (the Letterman clip is particularly encouraging and terrific).

All of this material is worth the time it will take to read. If you can read it and still support Hillary, well then more power to you (and her!). As for me... I have come to the conclusion that this is the most important (and most significant) presidential election in my lifetime.

And... I'm ready for CHANGE We Can Believe In.