Obama to send Kennedy to Britain?

Is there any truth in a rumour started by the Daily Telegraph this week that Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, only surviving child of JFK, will be appointed US Ambassador to London if Barack Obama wins the presidency? Possibly not.

In the States, the idea is being treated with caution. The Washington Post called the idea improbable, while several American commentators have made the point that her grandfather, Joseph Kennedy, who was ambassador to London from 1938 to 1944, hardly endeared himself to the British people by advocating appeasement of the Nazis. (During the Blitz, he was nicknamed 'Jittery Joe' for his habit of running for the air raid shelter at the merest hint of an approaching Luftwaffe bomber.)

Others believe the Daily Telegraph may have attached too much importance to the fact that Caroline was put in charge of the vetting of vice-presidential candidates and is to nominate Obama at next week's Democratic Party convention. But these are merely ceremonial roles, and reward enough to the Kennedy family for coming out for Obama against Hillary Clinton back in January.

It seems what excited the Daily Telegraph's columnist Tim Walker most was the idea that the parties at Winfield House, the US ambassador's official residence in Regent's Park, might improve. "I haven't been to a really good party there since the jovial Phil Lader's tour of duty came to an end in 2001," wrote Walker.

On this matter, New York magazine happily concedes the point. "She's a Kennedy - we at least know she can hold a drink. Those Brits would love her."