Page 3 Profile: Caroline Kennedy, Ambassadorial candidate

Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of John and Jackie (AFP)

Don't say the Kennedy curse has struck again!

Thankfully, Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of John and Jackie, is alive and well. The 55-year-old Democrat fundraiser has kept a reasonably low media profile – perhaps understandable given the attention thrust on her parents and the string of misfortunes that beset her large and influential family. But now it seems Kennedy is ready to step into the spotlight: the Canadian media is speculating that President Obama could appoint her as the ambassador to America's neighbour.

The Bushs, the Clintons and the Kennedys – does anyone else get a chance in American politics?

While Kennedy has raised a great deal of money for Obama, you don't have to look too far back to find evidence to suggest he could do better. In 2008, she announced her interest in taking the New York senate seat vacated by Hillary Clinton. She later withdrew. However, her interviews were disastrous: the New York Times even compared her to Sarah Palin.

Who's the competition?

Christine Gregoire, the former governor of Washington state, and retired Republican Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine are likely candidates. Jennifer Granholm, the former governor of Michigan, and Dave Bing, the Mayor of Detroit, have also been mooted. Not everyone is taking the speculation seriously. "The fact that we even play this guessing game tells us something about our own exaggerated sense of our importance," Brian Bow, a political scientist at from Canada's Dalhousie University, told the Globe and Mail newspaper.