A Tough, Public Road Ahead for Kennedy

Caroline Kennedy has thrown her hat in the political ring, and with it her reputation and much-cherished privacy, the New York Times reports. Tabloids have long kept a respectful distance from JFK’s daughter, but now that she’s running, they’ll “relentlessly follow her across the state,” says a former New York Post reporter. Kennedy will also have to campaign hard to shake her neophyte label and win over Upstate New York.

“Upstaters are going to want an upstater on the ticket,” the mayor of Buffalo recently told her. Hillary Clinton faced similar challenges, however, and unlike Clinton, Kennedy can’t be accused of being a carpetbagger, since she’s lived in New York most of her life. “It’s a state that likes people of stature,” says Bob Shrum. “We always assume that they are going to have more trouble than they do.” (More Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg stories.)