First Kids Are Kids First

McCain, Obama clans will follow many who've used White House as playground
By Victoria Floethe,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 8, 2008 5:23 PM CDT
First Kids Are Kids First
In this Dec. 6, 2007 file photo Meghan McCain, left, daughter of Republican presidential hopeful, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., listens to her father's speech in Stratham, N.H.    (AP Photo)

Whether the Obama girls or the McCain brood move into the White House next, all eyes will be on the new presidential offspring. Saturday Night Live's infamous dig at 13-year-old Chelsea Clinton and Jenna Bush's public underage drinking are reminders that nothing, from braces to boyfriends, escapes the spotlight. Some First Kid highlights from AP:

  • Alice Roosevelt's antics drove dad Teddy up a wall. "I can do one of two things," he said. "I can be president of the United States, or I can control Alice."
  • Caroline Kennedy, when asked what her dad was up to, replied, "Oh, he's upstairs with his shoes and socks off, not doing anything."
  • Susan Ford famously slipped her Secret Service detail to scavenge the streets of DC unaccompanied.
  • Amy Carter, age 9 when her father was elected, brought a book to a state dinner. She did not attend another.
  • Tad Lincoln once interrupted a White House tour his mother was giving—by barreling in on a chair towed by two goats.
(More Barack Obama stories.)

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