Rating: 
Summary: Unsung heroes
Review: Featured in this book are people who made the tough decisions -
the right ones for the situation and often at the cost of their
careers. An example is Gerald Ford who pardoned Nixon so that
the country would not be mired in the Nixon mess for years and
could move on. He knew it would cost him re-election and it
did. Right or wrong, he did what he thought was right.
Courage of convictions - how many of us have it - the unsung
heroes in this book deserve the spotlight this book givesthem -
Rating: 
Summary: Another Success
Review: I don't know about you, but when I saw the book on display I got excited! Wow, I really wanted to know who Caroline Kennedy profiled and what she thought about them. Talk about disappointment to open the Table of Contents and see it's a collection what other people thought. Geez. You know how in Britain the Queen put's her Royal Seal on stuff? Well, that's what I think Caroline's doing here, trying to put a royal seal on a product. It's just not what you would expect from someone who's lineage says ORIGINAL people. If this is the way we are going in 21st century American Literature.... ....
Rating: 
Summary: Opps! How About Writer's Courage?
Review: I don't know about you, but when I saw the book on display I got excited! Wow, I really wanted to know who Caroline Kennedy profiled and what she thought about them. Talk about disappointment to open the Table of Contents and see it's a collection what other people thought. Geez. You know how in Britain the Queen put's her Royal Seal on stuff? Well, that's what I think Caroline's doing here, trying to put a royal seal on a product. It's just not what you would expect from someone who's lineage says ORIGINAL people. If this is the way we are going in 21st century American Literature.... ....
Rating:
Summary: These are the most courageous people they could find?
Review: I picked up this book hoping to be inspired by leaders who showed selfless sacrifice. Instead, I found myself reading about people who lacked character and caved in to political pressure. Like Carl Elliott, an Alabama legislator who signed a manifesto declaring that segregation was against the Southern way of life, joined the racist George Wallace on a campaign platform, and spent himself into poverty by buying TV ads with his Congressional pension while running for governor of Alabama. This is a man of courage? Then there's Judge Charles Price, whose crowing achievement seems to have been ruling that another judge could not display a plaque of the ten commandments in his courtroom. Lowell Weicker was lauded for pushing a state income tax through after his election, though he had opposed such a tax as a candidate. Oklahoma legislator Michael Synar, when faced with an audience of doctors questioning him about the Clinton health care plan, told them to go to hell and stormed out of the room. When I got to the part about the "courage" of Ford pardoning Nixon for Watergate, I gave up reading in disgust. Caroline Kennedy needs a new selection committee, one with a less liberal bias. Here are a few candidates the committee might want to consider for the next awards: Anwar Sadat, for tirelessly seeking Middle East peace and being martyred for it ... Bishop Desmond Tutu, a true moral leader who presided over South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission ... Winston Churchill, who sacrificed his political reputation to fight the policy of appeasement and to call for the shoring up of Britain's defenses against the Nazis' rising power ... and Dietrich Bonhoffer, the German theologian who was martyred for his resistance to Hitler. If you want to read an incisive and well-researched book on character, I highly recommend Os Guinness's book, "When No One Sees: The Important of Character in an Age of Image."
Rating:
Summary: These are the most courageous people they could find?
Review: I picked up this book hoping to be inspired by leaders who showed selfless sacrifice. Instead, I found myself reading about people who lacked character and caved in to political pressure. Like Carl Elliott, an Alabama legislator who signed a manifesto declaring that segregation was against the Southern way of life, joined the racist George Wallace on a campaign platform, and spent himself into poverty by buying TV ads with his Congressional pension while running for governor of Alabama. This is a man of courage? Then there's Judge Charles Price, whose crowing achievement seems to have been ruling that another judge could not display a plaque of the ten commandments in his courtroom. Lowell Weicker was lauded for pushing a state income tax through after his election, though he had opposed such a tax as a candidate. Oklahoma legislator Michael Synar, when faced with an audience of doctors questioning him about the Clinton health care plan, told them to go to hell and stormed out of the room. When I got to the part about the "courage" of Ford pardoning Nixon for Watergate, I gave up reading in disgust. Caroline Kennedy needs a new selection committee, one with a less liberal bias. Here are a few candidates the committee might want to consider for the next awards: Anwar Sadat, for tirelessly seeking Middle East peace and being martyred for it ... Bishop Desmond Tutu, a true moral leader who presided over South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission ... Winston Churchill, who sacrificed his political reputation to fight the policy of appeasement and to call for the shoring up of Britain's defenses against the Nazis' rising power ... and Dietrich Bonhoffer, the German theologian who was martyred for his resistance to Hitler. If you want to read an incisive and well-researched book on character, I highly recommend Os Guinness's book, "When No One Sees: The Important of Character in an Age of Image."
Rating:
Summary: Is she running for something?
Review: I'm at a loss to discover "courage" in the actions of some of these people. Elliot of Alabama, for instance, was just a victim, and a dishonorable victim at that, of the paranoid and ugly majoritarianism of his place and time. Some of the other profilees may have been "right", in Ms. Kennedy's (Onnassis'? Bouvier's?)opinion, but they were not particularly courageous. I think the compiler may have been concerned to show that "famous people are really just plain folks" who quaver and run after a moment of defiance, just like most of the rest of us. Is this part of a ploy to demonstrate that yet another member of yet another politically prominent family is really "just like the rest of us" and therefore deserves the right to "represent" us in high office?
Oh well. At least she didn't claim to have written her "Profiles" herself, as her father did.
Rating:
Summary: Nothing like the Original
Review: John Kennedy's book was a real treat, but I am sorry to say that this book is not. Caroline Kennedy does her best to copy the idea and concept of her father's book, but the same quality material is not present. The Publisher's attempt to copy the past and to capitalize on the Kennedy name falls very, very flat. Sometimes imitation is not the best form of flattery!
Rating:
Summary: Another Success
Review: Mrs. Kennedy has once again demonstrated her keen inteligence and her practice of an on-going dialoque with the American people. The book keeps with the spirit of her father's work, is equally as lucid, yet adapted to our times. Mrs. Kennedy said in a discussion about the book that if her work turns out to be half as good as her parents, then she will be proud. Indeed, Mrs. Kennedy should be very proud.
Rating:
Summary: PROFILES IN COURAGE FOR OUR TIME
Review: Nearly fifty years have passed since the publication of John F. Kennedy's Profiles in Courage, the then - senator's Pulitzer prize - winning homage to American political greatness. The people selected for that book represented the rich legacy of individual courage in the pursuit of justice that belonged to America at mid - century. To recognize annually the continuing presence of these qualities across the broad spectrum of American public service, the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation created the Profile in Courage Award in 1989. The recipients - a diverse group of men and woman who share the distinction of being elected officials at the national, state, or local level - have each served their country by taking a stand in the face of public opinion or political pressure. And just as the Profile in Courage Award celebrates their exceptional achievements, Profiles in Courage for Our Time, edited and introduced by Caroline Kennedy, recognizes that the journey of conscience undertaken by each of these courageous public servants is a story that must be told. Some of the greatest writers have bought their formidable talents to the task of chronicling these heroic episodes. Michael Beschloss, Anna Quindlen, Bob Woodward, Marian Wright Edelman, among other luminaries, provide the award winners the eloquence and passion they deserve in recording their experiences. Profiles in Courage for Our Time is not only a record of past accomplishments, but also inspires us to always ask more of ourselves in the effort to bring about change for the greater good.
Rating: 
Summary: Essays Against Democracy
Review: On page 3 C Kennedy defines "courage" as "sacrificing their own future, and that of their families, to do what they believed was right for our country". I think it is hypocrisy to apply it to Edmund G Ross (supported a President against Congress), or Gerald R Ford (covered up a President who was virtually impeached). Both can be said to have obstructed justice and the lawful popular will. So why was James Florio added to this list? Neither Florio or Ford have suffered from their actions; losing an election isn't a sacrifice, its part of political life. When Florio ran for Governor in 1989 he promised not to raise the sales and income taxes. He not only reneged, he extended the sales tax to items previously exempt! The authors take a perverse pride in these actions, but cannot (or dare not) explain why. It is regressive and reactionary to have a sales tax so much higher than the income tax. Florio was a Congressman from Camden NJ, a once important industrial city that is now a stripped junker of a city. Page 72 shows another dishonest statement about NJ. The Colony of NJ was controlled by the large landowners, then the railroads and other powerful corporations. What Governor has NOT been a servant of the Corporations since the Civil War? A Quindlen uses an anecdote (p.72) to justify Florio's law, but never mentions the special interest forces and the money used to pay for this law. She does admit the most objectionable feature was the confiscation of legally owned guns. The Federal Constitution forbids ex post facto laws! The rejection by the courts underlines the lack of democracy in NJ. Judges were never popularly elected since NJ was a Colony. The loss of the Senate and Assembly in 1991 seemed mainly due to the sales and income tax increases. This was the correct political response. A Quindlen does an incompetent job in writing of the history of gun prohibition (p.76-77). Those "opinion polls" merely reflect the wishes of those who paid for the desired results. The referendums held in Massachusetts and California overwhelmingly rejected gun prohibition. Since 1987 thirty-three states passed "right to carry" laws. Page 78 lists the latest tactic of gun prohibitionists: present it as a police safety measure. They use politically appointed police chiefs; some do it for the money. On page 80 Quindlen finally tells of the Florio taxes His "skill at taking his case to the people" (p.81) failed miserably once Florio had to talk about a subject most people were familiar with. his defeat by a rich dilettante shows the efficiency of political machines in running a scandal-free candidate (just like Woodrow Wilson). The loss of "grass roots" by "Hands Across NJ" shows what happens to a politically naive movement that lacks a competent cadre of leaders. Florio's "sour grapes" comments on "the influence of money in the process" recalls similar whines from Bill Bradley, whose Senate law started to tax Social Security. The failure of Whitman to act on campaign promises is not new (p.86); she was the latest puppet of the Republican machine.
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