Running for First Dad

Within the late historian Arthur Schlesinger's hearing, President Kennedy is reported explaining why the family turned out so well (?): "... no one can say it was due to my mother. ...when [bootlegging scion and diplomat father Joe] was around, he made his children feel that they were the most important things in the world to him. He seemed terribly interested in everything we were doing. He held up standards for us, and he was very tough when we failed to meet his standards. This toughness was important. If it hadn't been for that, Teddy might be just a playboy today."

Let's set aside the thoughts that raises about current Massachusetts senator Ted Kennedy — or criticism of Schelsinger who was on point with much of history but overly enamored by the Camelot mystique he was helping to create — and move back to fathers. Someday current events will be removed from the purview of bloggers and into the bailiwick of professional historians.

And when it does we (if still alive) will learn a little more about presidential wannabe dads and their younguns. A recent scrap of the evidence they'll have to work with comes from a USA Today report that includes info that Fred Thompson's son made $170,000 for three years as an advisor to his dad's political action committee while the PAC only donated $40,000 to other candidates; that the Mitt Romney Five will someday share from a $100 million trust fund; and that the one mom in the race, Ms. Clinton, seems to be the only candidate whose child(ren) is little involved in her campaign. (Rudy G's children are involved, but mostly, it seems, in opposition to his aspirations.)

** With which dad as Pres (sorry Hill) would you be a happy child? **