Reply #5: I agree with you

[karynnj]

One of my daughters has a close friend who lives in Baltimore, not that far from Jenna. What her friend says is that Jenna keeps a low profile and is liked and respected. There are similar accounts for the other women mentioned.

All of these political daughters grew up with incredible advantages and with varying amounts of likely unwanted fame in their adolescence. Alex has produced some films with moderate success and her book that spoke of political campaigns was very well written and insightful. All of them have done good jobs of creating lives for themselves independent of their fathers.

Vanessa is clearly brilliant and has likely used all the openings her academic success has brought her. I would imagine being Senator Kerry's daughter helped give her an edge even at the high level -which she has used well. But, it is silly to create a competition for having the most successful off spring. It does not make Bush's actions as President less bad that he has has two daughters who seem successful and well adjusted in their 20s. On a personal level, it is impressive that Kerry and his first wife worked together and, in spite of all the difficulties, there it seems Kerry has very strong relationships with his daughter. This, however, has little to do with him as a statesman or leader.

This goes for the negative side too. Al Gore's son has had problems with speeding and drugs. That does not mean that Gore was less a statesman or even less a father. At some point, parents really are not able to control their kids. In 2004, when Dean's son was arrested for being part of a group that stole liquor from a country club, it did not have any impact on my decision between Dean and Kerry - and it shouldn't have had any. In neither of these problems or the Bush girls' problems when in their late teens could a serious case be made that the problem was because their parents did not bring them up right.