With Caroline Kennedy out, who is the frontrunner to replace Hillary Clinton as New York’s representative in the U.S. Senate?

Caroline Kennedy has a lot of things going for her in her attempt to get appointed to the U.S. Senate.

Caroline Kennedy has friends in high places, including President-elect Barack Obama, whom she supported in his quest for the presidency.

Will she or won’t she? The possibility of a more public profile for Caroline Kennedy, who stepped out of the shadows to play a prominent role in Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, is a subject of intense political speculation.

In an effort to highlight some of Barack Obama’s more controversial associations, the Republican National Committee has created a Facebook spoof site called BarackBook.com.

Former Fannie Mae Chairman James Johnson said he has quit Sen. Barack Obama’s vice-presidential search team after the Wall Street Journal reported he may have received preferential mortgage loans from Countrywide Financial Corp.

Last week California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger endorsed Republican John McCain for president. Sunday, the governor’s wife, Maria Shriver, endorsed Democrat Barack Obama.

In a heartfelt op-ed column in Sunday’s New York Times headlined “A President Like My Father,” Caroline Kennedy endorsed Barack Obama for president.

“I have never had a president who inspired me the way people tell me that my father inspired them,” the daughter of president John F. Kennedy wrote. “But for the first time, I believe I have found the man who could be that president — not just for me, but for a new generation of Americans.”

Things are getting a little tight in Iowa, so it may not be the right time for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton to roll out her presidential cabinet.

But should she ultimately get the nomination and then win the presidency, odds are that she might ask the New York City power couple of Joel I. Klein and Nicole K. Seligman to join her team.

And she could also keep things all in the family and sign on Stephanie Seligman, Nicole’s sister, to work at the White House or just about anywhere else.