Caroline Kennedy's new profile: Politics

Caroline Kennedy's new profile: Politics


Caroline Kennedy has publicly backed Barack Obama and now works as an adviser to him. She is seen here at an April rally in Scranton, Pa., with Obama, left, and Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey, right.
By Charles Rex Arbogast, AP

By Kathy Kiely, USA TODAY


WASHINGTON — With Barack Obama's bid for the White House, the torch has been passed to a new generation in more ways than one: For the first time, the best-known Kennedy on the presidential campaign trail is named Caroline.

As Sen. Edward Kennedy, the patriarch of the nation's most famous Democratic family, battles brain cancer out of the public eye, his niece is emerging as a political player in her own right.

Caroline Kennedy's role as a surrogate for Obama and adviser to him on choosing a running mate raises the intriguing possibility that the only surviving child of President John F. Kennedy is taking an unexpected step into the family business.

Kennedy's bold political moves this year represent a significant departure for an author and philanthropist who has spent most of her life trying to duck the spotlight that has followed her since her tragically interrupted White House childhood. Today, Kennedy is a 50-year-old mother of three.

Friends are convinced recent events represent more than a brief interruption in Kennedy's private Park Avenue lifestyle.

"From my perspective, the most revealing thing about her endorsement of Obama is that it demonstrates she's not at all withdrawing from a legacy that comes from her father," says John Seigenthaler, a retired newspaper editor who sits with Kennedy on the panel that bestows the annual Profile in Courage Award in honor of her father.

"It's a different frontier that she's crossed here," says Seigenthaler, who worked for Sen. Robert Kennedy, D-N.Y., her late uncle, and later was editorial page editor of USA TODAY.

Another family friend, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., also sees Kennedy's newly raised profile as politically significant.

"It's a big statement," says Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee. "She has credibility because she hasn't been out there."

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http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-06-26-caroline_N.htm