Sayonara, Jackie Kucinich!

As her Democrat Dad Dennis drops (how's that for alliteration?) out of the race today, we send Jackie off with many good wishes in her career as a journalist.

Jackie Kucinich: Daughter Vs. Reporter

Must be hard to report on an election when your Dad's in the running, but Jackie Kucinich does a good job of staying fair as a reporter for The Hill. Here's her latest campaign-related article about the people of Ohio discussing whether or not to move their primary date from March back to January.

Does A Name Make The Girl?

My name (Sameera) fits me to a T, because it means "companion of the night" in Arabic. Did my birth mother know I'd turn out to be a blogging night owl? Or did she just think the name sounded pretty? I guess the orphanage could have changed my name, but somebody looked at my face and thought that "Sameera" seemed like a good fit. And somebody else did the same for you, and chose your name.

Here are Sparrow's Awards and Honorable Mentions for the names given to some of the candidates' daughters:

Best Fit For A First Daughter Wannabe On Nov. 4, 2008:
Abigail (Brownback) means "father in rejoicing" in Hebrew.

Works Great When Your Middle Name Is Joy:
Catharine (Edwards) means "pure" in Greek.

Really Shows What Her Father Wants To Do To President Bush:
Jacqueline (Kucinich) means "supplanter" in Hebrew and French.

Best Fit Right Now Since She Just Graduated From High School:
Caroline (Giuliani) comes from the word for "free man" in French and German.

Hardest To Live Up To:
Bridget (McCain) is "the exalted one" in Gaelic.

Most Poetic in 2 Languages:
Meghan (McCain) means "pearl" in Greek, and Meghana means "thunder" in Sanskrit.

Hardest To Fulfill Unless A Teacher Gets Mad While At The Board:
Chelsea (Clinton) means "chalk landing place" in Olde English.

All The Candidates' Kids

A full list of First Kid Hopefuls is drifting around in cyberspace; here it is at Yahoo! News. The youngest is Christina Dodd, age 2, the oldest is Doug McCain at 47, and there aren't any candidates with kids in sixth through ninth grades (ages 10-15).

Kids who need babysitters: Christina Dodd, 2, Grace Dodd, 5, Sasha Obama, 5, Malia Obama, 8, Jack Edwards, 9, Emma Claire Edwards, 9, Mark and Jenna Brownback, both 9.

The teenagers: Bridget McCain, 16, Elizabeth Brownback, 17, James McCain, 18, Caroline Giuliani, 18, Andy Brownback, 19, and Ashton Gilmore, 19.

In their 20s: Abby Brownback, 20, Andrew Giuliani, 21, Jack McCain, 21, Meghan McCain, 22, Jay Gilmore, 23, Sam Hunter, 24, Jackie Kucinich, 24, Sarah Huckabee, 24, Craig Romney, 25, Ashley Biden, 25, Cate Edwards, 25, Chelsea Clinton, 27, David Huckabee, 27, Ben Romney, 28.

Jackie Kucinich And The Tall Stepmother

Yo. First Ladies in Training these days are tall. Michelle Obama is 5'11", and a couple of years ago Dennis Kucinich married a 27-year-old 6'0" British redhead, Elizabeth Harper (photo source: sskennel). You can also see their wedding photos here.

Good thing his daughter Jackie's sassy and confident; she writes for The Hill (read her article published today about ethics), and here's a photo of her with an equally cute intern friend; Miss K's on the left.

Washington Post Chimes In

So I'm not the only one keeping an eye on the spawn swimming in the campaign. Today, in The Reliable Source, Post columnists Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts give a great rundown on the First Kid hopefuls, providing these juicy tidbits:

Abby Brownback's a newspaper editor at Kansas State and her National Merit Scholar brother Andy's on the university's champion math team. Their sister Liz is still in high school in Topeka. The Brownback clan also includes Mark and Jenna, both 9, adopted from Guatemala and China.

Jay Gilmore graduated from University of Virginia two years ago, where his wrestler brother Ashton's a freshman.

Caroline Giuliani starred as Maria in her high school's production of "West Side Story."

The godmother of Jackie Kucinich (a twenty-something who parties with the authors of the Post article) is Shirley MacLaine of the New Age.