Kids R Us: White House Life After Jenna and Barbara

By Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts
Sunday, April 15, 2007

The rapid acceleration of the 2008 campaign has forced us to recognize a sad truth: The Jenna and Barbara era is drawing to a close. We've been spoiled these past 14 years, watching first young Chelsea Clinton, then the Bush twins come of age in the White House fishbowl. The truth is, by the time most pols are ready to run for president, their kids are all grown up and, frankly, not that interesting anymore. (Sorry, Newt.) Happily, at least some of the '08 hopefuls have lesser-known offspring that have the potential to fascinate us for four years.

JOE BIDEN

Hunky older sons Beau and Hunter are in their late 30s, married with kids and serious jobs (Delaware AG, D.C. lobbyist). But Ashley, an '04 Tulane grad, is only 25! She's kept a low profile since apologizing to Chicago police in 2002 for interfering during a drunk pal's arrest (all charges were dropped).

SAM BROWNBACK

An intriguingly underrated brood, but are they too straight-arrow to sustain our interest? Abby and Andy are both at Kansas State -- she a student newspaper editor, he a stalwart on the university's champion math team -- while Liz is a high school student in Topeka. Mark and Jenna, both 9, were adopted from Guatemala and China.

CHRISTOPHER DODD

Did you know the white-haired senator from Connecticut has children younger than Al Gore's grandkids? Grace is 5, Christina, 2. Perhaps our best chance to bring the Teletubbies to the White House.

JOHN EDWARDS

Adorable Emma Claire, 8, and Jack, 6, get most of the attention. But don't count out 25-year-old Cate (Princeton '04), a Brooke Shields look-alike who had It Girl jobs at the Council on Foreign Relations and Vanity Fair before enrolling at Harvard Law last fall.

JIM GILMORE

Wahoowa! Oldest son Jay is just two years out of U-Va., while Ashton is a freshman there. Ashton was a high school all-American wrestler, 215-pound weight class. You can find them both on Facebook.

RUDY GIULIANI

Drama alert! Son Andrew, 21 (the rambunctious kid who upstaged Rudy's '94 inauguration as NYC mayor), told the NYT last month he can't campaign for dad because he's too busy trying to make it as a pro golfer; also acknowledged tensions with stepmom Judith Nathan. Now a Duke sophomore, he's dated Olympic gold-medal skater Sarah Hughes. Sister Caroline, 17, headed to Harvard this fall, starred as Maria in her high school's "West Side Story," also appears to be sitting out dad's campaign.

BARACK OBAMA

His daughters Malia, 8, and Sasha, 5, are cutie-pie assets on the campaign trail, though as the senator told David Letterman last week, "I ask them sometimes, 'How's it going?' . . . and [Malia] said, 'This is terrific, Daddy, but what are we doing here again?' " Who cares if she really said it -- can't get enough of this kind of stuff.

DENNIS KUCINICH

Only child Jackie, 25 (right), is a vivacious strawberry blonde who covers politics for the Hill newspaper here in D.C. but also sometimes writes about bars. She goes to a lot of the same parties as us. Fun fact: Her godmother is Shirley MacLaine!

JOHN McCAIN

His first set of kids -- daughter Sydney, sons Doug and Andy -- are in their 40s now. But we have high hopes for his second: Meghan is a senior at Columbia, John IV is at the Naval Academy, Jimmy just joined the Marines out of high school and Bridget (adopted from one of Mother Teresa's orphanages in Bangladesh) is a ninth-grader.

GEORGE PATAKI

Hoping he throws his hat in the ring, because his Gen Y kids are a kick: Yale Law grad Emily, right (flunked her first try at the bar, but so did JFK Jr.), is mulling a run for Congress, Yale grad Teddy postponed law school for the Marines, Allison is now at Yale, while Owen is studying at Cornell (what a rebel!).

MITT ROMNEY

Five wholesome, handsome married sons -- Tagg, Matt, Josh, Ben, Craig -- who've already produced 10 picture-perfect grandkids. Where's the fun in that?