Caroline Kennedy a Strong Candidate for the Potential Vacant U.S. Senate Seat in New York

In New York speculation is beginning on who would fill Hillary Clinton's Senate seat if it should become vacant.

Clinton's possible elevation to Obama's cabinet would give Gov. David Paterson, authority to appoint someone to the U.S. Senate until a special election in 2010 to pick who would serve out the last two years of her term.

The name that is sure to be at the top of the list is Caroline Kennedy. The NY Post reported last summer that Caroline Kennedy's high-profile appointment to Barack Obama's vice-presidential search team was orchestrated in a deal brokered by her uncle, Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy, in exchange for his endorsement. Some have speculated that Sen. Kennedy would tap her to succeed him in his Senate seat if he decided to retire in the near future.

The problem with the argument that she should be Sen. Ted Kennedy's successor is that Caroline Kennedy is a New Yorker not a chowderhead. Kennedy was 5 when she moved to Manhattan with her mother and brother.

Many believe that her willingness to take on a high-profile role in the Obama campaign reflects a new stage in her life when her children are almost grown and she feels freer to devote herself to her family’s legacy.

Elizabeth Mehren, a professor of journalism at Boston University and former reporter who covered the Kennedy clan, suggested that Kennedy feels less need to protect her children - and herself - at this stage of their lives.

“She’s in her 50s and she’s stepping out,” Mehren told the Globe and Mail. “She waited a long time.”

Paul Kirk, a former national Democratic Party chairman who serves with Kennedy on her father’s library board, attributed her new engagement to a desire to make a difference.

“You can’t ring a bell quietly,” Kirk told USA Today. “She realizes she bears some responsibility to keep the legacy going.”

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