TOP OF THE TICKET

New information out just now explaining why Caroline Kennedy isn’t Sen. Caroline Kennedy.

Ticket readers will recall that back in January, when Hillary Rodham Clinton’s New York Senate seat became vacant with her becoming secretary of State, the daughter of assassinated President John F. Kennedy expressed an interest in receiving the seat appointment from the state’s governor, David Paterson.

This would have continued a historical family position in the Senate. Caroline’s father held a seat from Massachusetts, as does her terminally ailing uncle, Edward now. Another uncle, Robert, once held a New York Senate seat after serving as his brother’s attorney general.

According to a new book by Edward Klein, Kennedy assumed that her mere expression of interest in the political plum would ensure her appointment by the governor, a fellow Democrat. Uh, no.

Yes, New York politicians can inherit family power -- witness, actually, the governor himself, son of longtime Bronx Democratic political boss Basil Paterson. But the wealthy Kennedy had not only not been involved in Empire State political life, but had not even donated much to develop alliances. And, she later admitted, she had sometimes cared so much about politics that she had even failed to vote.

Not good.

The initial public fascination with Kennedy faded substantially after some inarticulate and uninformed interviews. And sources close to the governor, who would have to run next year on a ticket with his appointee, leaked word there were some vetting problems.

Not so, ABC’s David Chalian says. Klein writes in “Ted Kennedy: The Dream That Never Died” that it was really Caroline’s three children -- Rose, Tatiana and Jack -- who shocked her with their negative reactions to her possible public life.

The children expressed the unanimous opinion to their mother, Klein says in a Vanity Fair excerpt, “that she was becoming a different person, one they didn’t much like.”

“Mom,” Rose is said to have told Kennedy, “you are above this.” It was, Klein concludes, a rude wake-up call that ultimately caused the wealthy Kennedy to withdraw her name. And end at least that line of the political dynasty in Washington.

Bristol Palin takes the stage her way

It was almost as if Bristol Palin, the 19-year-old daughter of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, was showing her mom how to make a serious entry onto the national stage. No fireworks, no red-meat rhetoric to fire up the true believers.

Instead, in interviews on the morning shows -- on NBC’s “Today” show accompanied by her father, First Dude Todd Palin, and her 4-month-old son, Tripp -- the unwed teen mother talked quietly and poignantly about how her life has changed since she had a baby.

She pitched abstinence if possible and protection if not. This despite the fact that her mother, tapped in August as Republican John McCain’s running mate, was a strong proponent of abstinence education.

(The governor also has supported sex education courses that discuss contraception as well as abstinence.)

The single mother -- whose engagement to the baby’s father, spotlight-seeking Levi Johnston, was called off -- is now the teen ambassador for the Candie’s Foundation to prevent teenage pregnancy. According to the foundation, the U.S. teen pregnancy rate -- about 750,000 a year -- is the highest in the industrialized world, twice as high as in England and Canada and eight times as high as Japan’s.

And, says Candie’s -- which is in the business of selling what its officials call “frankly sexy shoes” -- teen fathers rarely marry the mothers of their children, and the sons of teen couples are twice as likely to end up in prison.

Bristol says she loves her son, adding that he’s “not a mistake, he’s a blessing.” Still, she said, her life has been thrown into a tempest of diapers, sleepless nights and milk bottles. Her goal: to save even one teenage girl from an unexpected pregnancy.

“I’m trying to tell them that this is a 24-hour-a-day job,” she said. “It’s not like an accessory on your hip; it’s hard work.”

As for her father, Todd Palin said he is “very proud” of Bristol. “You can never turn back the clock,” he observed.

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andrew.malcolm@latimes.com

Read Top of The Ticket, The Times’ blog on national politics at latimes.com/ticket.