For the son of Basil Patterson to  pass over the son of Mario Cuomo in order to pick the daughter of John F. Kennedy seems really lame. — Scott McConnell, at The American Conservative blog.

At least it’s not “George Bush, the son of… GEORGE BUSH.  Al Gore, the son of… AL GORE.  Adlai Stevenson III, the son of ADLAI STEVENSON II, the grandson of ADLAI STEVENSON.  (I point to that one because it’s a weird sort of lineage.  Also there’s a missing Stevenson I have to wonder about.  Was that one intent on running off to a safe job as an accountant or something?)  Harold For, Jr… the son of HAROLD FORD.” 

Bob Casey, Jr… John Sununu…

At least Caroline Kennedy wasn’t named John. 

But Caroline Kennedy’s compelling reason for being Senator, in case you’re wondering, as expressed by why she joined the political fray last January in making an endorsement to Obama:

<i>Q: Why have you stayed out of presidential politics until now? And what kind of a decision was it, given what you represent?

Kennedy: “I really felt like it was a crucial moment and if I had something that I believed in, then I really owed it to myself to express that. I recently turned 50, so I figured, I’d better get going — what am I waiting for?”</i>

Put it on a bumper sticker for her 2010 bid.  <i>”Vote Caroline Kennedy For US Senate: She Turned 50 Awhile Back And Felt Like She Needed To Get Going.”</i>  (lifted from the comments on that nytimes page.)

The horse race aspect is kind of interesting.  In 2010, the Democrats’ gaze on the map is generally better than the Republican, which only means that if it’s a Republican year (as midterms tend to be against the presidential incumbent) it’ll mitigate Democratic losses a tad — for instance, the map was harsh for the Democrats in 2006, and it’s a sign of how disasterous that year was for the Republicans that they lost six seats despite that.  But four senate seats have just been thrown up in the air to semi-incumbency because Obama has gazed the Senate and plucked out Illinois, Delaware, New York, and Colorado.  So, if you’re a Republican strategist trying to win some seats, you start off trying to recruit for those four states, and have a fighting chance where there was less of a fighting chance before-hand.

The plucking of Ken Salazar in Colorado is pretty interesting, because that means the entire Democratic Freshman class of 2004 is now working in the Executive branch — Barack Obama and Ken Salazar.  Incidentally, a good chance of who might run for Ken Salazar’s old seat on the Democratic side?

Why, Representative John Salazar.  And he’s sure to come in with Delaware Senator Beau Biden.

Thank you very much, you’ve all been great.

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