CONTAINING LINKS TO 1280 STORIES FROM THE NETWORKS' NIGHTLY NEWSCASTS
     COMMENTS: Caroline Kennedy Edges out Flying Shoes

A busy day of news saw political developments in New York State and Illinois edge out flying shoes for headline status. The pair of size tens that whizzed past President George Bush's head in Baghdad on Sunday may have become a viral video hit throughout the Arab World but the American network newscasts chose celebrity politics instead. CBS led with an update from Chicago on Gov Rod Blagojevich's corruption case. NBC and ABC, with substitute anchor Elizabeth Vargas, chose the request by Caroline Kennedy, the former First Daughter, that she be appointed to New York State's soon-to-be vacant Senate seat. The Kennedy bid for office was Story of the Day.

"She wants it and she is actively campaigning to get it," was how ABC's John Berman described the decision by the unelected Kennedy scion to toss her hat in Gov David Paterson's direction. NBC's Andrea Mitchell saw Kennedy "about to embrace the family business" as she applied to join the world's most deliberative body, where her father and one uncle had served and a second uncle still is. "She has never been part of any political debate. Quite deliberately she stayed back," mused CBS' Jeff Greenfield, until this primary season. "She must have gotten a taste of this in the campaign." An unidentified Kennedy family friend told NBC's Mitchell that JFK's daughter was "steely and determined."

That late entry into elective politics consisted of her endorsement of Barack Obama over Hillary Rodham Clinton. CBS' Greenfield noted the piquancy of--and an ensuing backlash against--her applying for the seat "being vacated by the woman whose Presidential dreams she helped end." NBC's Mitchell quoted from an online petition directed to Paterson by Rodham Clinton allies: "Please note we specifically exclude Caroline Kennedy." CBS' Greenfield quoted Rep Gary Ackerman, a Democrat from Queens NY, acknowledging Kennedy's possession of ample name recognition. "But so does J.Lo." Quipped Greenfield: "Welcome to the NFL."

ABC's George Stephanopoulos talked to Empire State Democrats and concluded that "it will be difficult if not impossible for the governor to say no" to Kennedy. "She can raise an awful lot of money." NBC archivists dug up a clip of then senator John Kennedy on their own network's interview show Look Here just days before his daughter was born in 1957. "If you were to have a son would you encourage a political career for him?" asked host Martin Agronsky. "Yes and I hope if I had a daughter I might encourage her to play some part. I do not think it should be confined to men only."

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