In this series, which started in July ‘08, wowOwow follows the political news swirling around Caroline Kennedy since her surprise endorsement of Barack Obama and high-profile placement on his VP selection committee. Now, Caroline is ready to launch a political career of her own. With the Caroline Kennedy Candidacy Watch, we’ll follow all the latest news.  

You may have never expected to hear the names “Sarah Palin” and “Caroline Kennedy” in the same sentence, but we’re hearing it quite a bit these days.

As the race for Hillary Clinton’s Senate seat continues, some are comparing Kennedy to the Alaska governor, saying both have too-thin a résumé for the job they’re campaigning for (or, in Palin’s case, was campaigning for).

"It is a legitimate question: Why is the résumé-thin Caroline Kennedy being treated seriously as a prospective appointee to the U.S. Senate when the comparatively more-qualified Gov. Sarah Palin received such a harsh review?" Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker asked Friday.

A Pennsylvania Times Leader writer says picking Kennedy would be "another slap in the face to the feminist movement."

"Our gender has spent decades begging the world to see us for who we are and for what we have done on our own. If Caroline had never been the sweet little daughter of a beloved young president, and was just a New York attorney without any experience, she wouldn’t even be considered," writes Renita Fennick. "Yet, Sarah Palin, a woman of humble background who worked her way from PTA president to governor of Alaska – without the benefit of the name of a famous man or the help of a prominent political family – is the subject of ridicule."

Even some Democrats have jumped into the fray.

Rep. Gary Ackerman, a Queens Democrat, is saying that, like Palin, Kennedy hasn’t proved she has the "guts and the gumption" to fill Clinton’s shoes.

"Everyone knows who she is, but we’re not sure what she is," Ackerman said on CBS’s "Face the Nation" on Sunday. "You know, they’re Kennedys. They’re all boats, but is she a sailboat when we need a battleship?"

Ackerman accused Kennedy’s handlers of protecting her – much like critics and the press did with Palin during John McCain’s presidential campaign. Media speculated that in order to prevent Palin from sounding ignorant, her handlers kept her from talking outside of campaign rallies altogether. It was therefore hard to get a handle on who she was, and what she stood for.

AP reports that over the weekend, Kennedy aides offered written answers to some news outlets about her positions on gay marriage (she supports it) and school vouchers (she opposes them).

(Click here to read The New York Times’s analysis of Kennedy’s answers to the written questions.)

But the fact that we can’t seem to get to Kennedy directly bothers Ackerman.

"They basically Sarah Palin-ized her," said the congressman who recently compared Kennedy to actress/singer Jennifer Lopez when making the point that a big name doesn’t make a good candidate.

"She has a very famous name and she’s a very attractive candidate. Those are good things in politics. But it’s not an entitlement. You know, one of the things that we have to observe is that DNA, in this business, can take you just so far. You know, Rembrandt was a great artist. His brother Murray, on the other hand, Murray Rembrandt wouldn’t paint a house."

Former Rep. Geraldine Ferraro, D-NY, also seemed to be leaning away from Kennedy, recommending that Gov. David Paterson pick someone already familiar with Congress – a woman, in particular.

"I did put it in a little bit of a support for the six women members. I said I don’t know if any one of them wants it, but I think you should reach out to them and ask them,” Ferraro said.

National Journal has a good piece on how Kennedy’s campaign to convince Paterson to send her to the Senate has pushed gender politics front and center yet again.

Click here to check out wOw’s list of six great other women who could fill Clinton’s shoes.

Here’s this week’s CBS "Face the Nation" segment, featuring Ackerman and Ferraro: