If she becomes the NYS senator AND runs and wins in 2010, Caroline Kennedy will be our first female POTUS.

I'm going to show you a few things, and perhaps you will understand why women believed Hillary Clinton stood a better chance than anyone, ever before her, of becoming the first female POTUS:

Mae Ella Nolan became the first woman member of the House of Representatives. She succeeded her husband.

The first woman elected to the Senate was Hattie Wyatt Caraway of Arkansas. Appointed to fill the vacancy caused by the death of her husband, U.S. Senator Thaddeus Caraway, Ms. Caraway then sought and won election on her own in 1932.

The first female governor was Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming who was elected on November 4, 1924 and sworn in on January 5, 1925. She was preceded in office by her late husband William B. Ross.

I shouldn't have to point out the obvious, here, but just in case: each of these women were already well known to their region's voters and had the goodwill vote going for them. However, it appears that it was outrageously easy to create a resentment wedge and divide female voters - the largest demographic block of all - when it came to trading on your husband's name to reach for the highest office in the land.

Enter Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg - America's lost princess of Camelot. By remaining out (for the most part) of the political and celebrity spotlight until her 40s, Caroline built up a heaping truckload of political capital and never used an ounce of it until January 2008, when she very publicly switched horses (she had contributed to both Hillary Clinton's and Barack Obama's campaigns in 2007) and put the finishing touches on the Camelot torch-passing ceremony.

There's hardly a woman between the ages of 35-55 who didn't pick up and flip through the copy of Life Magazine when the Princess of Camelot got married and sold those photos. I can still remember the clovers on her dress. Women of a certain age watched her grow up, from a distance, with a mixture of quiet sympathy, curiosity and envy, not the least of which had anything to do with her proximity to John-John, our American prince.

Is that enough goodwill for you?

Now here we are, and we're told she wants a Senate seat. She'll get it. And if she keeps it in the next election, I have no doubt whatsoever, she'll be running for POTUS in 2016. Unless she fucks up and pisses off DC, Washington insiders will cream all over themselves seeing she wins.