Send Princess Caroline to DC

Senate seat the perfect ending to her 'fairy tale'

By Sarah Quinn, Newser Staff

Posted Dec 9, 2008 12:54 PM CST

(Newser) – Sure, you can make a case against it, but Caroline Kennedy becoming a senator would be the perfect ending to a "modern fairy tale," Ruth Marcus writes in the Washington Post. Putting aside her tendency to "recoil from political dynasties," Marcus points out that there are plenty of politicians who didn't exactly pay their dues—does Jesse Ventura ring a bell?

In fact, Kennedy wrote a book on the Constitution and is an education-reform expert. "She hasn't exactly been, to use the dangerous phrase of the woman she might replace, having teas and baking cookies," Marcus observes. She also notes that she's drawn to the drama of "our tragic national princess." Inspired by Barack Obama—often compared to her father—Kennedy is shedding her "detachment from the hurly-burly of politics."

[Images (3)]

[Quotes (1)]

Barack Obama and Caroline Kennedy share a moment before addressing Obama supporters at a rally in Scranton, Pa., on April 20, 2008. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, File)

Caroline Kennedy is seen during the 2007 JFK Profile in Courage Award presentations at the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston. (AP Photo/Chitose Suzuki, File)

Caroline Kennedy hugs her uncle Sen. Edward M. Kennedy as he leaves Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston on May 21 2008. Ted Kennedy was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds)

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I know it's an emotional—dare I say 'girly'?—reaction. But what a fitting coda to this modern fairy tale to have the little princess grow up to be a senator. - Ruth Marcus

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Send Princess Caroline to DC