Caroline Giuliani update

Rudy Giuliani's daughter moved quickly to try to remove herself from the media's glare this afternoon, but in doing so she surely kept alive questions about how she feels about her father's presidential run.

The online magazine Slate set off a media commotion early in the day after it did some research on Caroline Giuliani's political preferences. Here's the story's lead: "There's one vote that Rudy Giuliani definitely can't count on in his 2008 presidential bid: his own daughter's. According to the 17-year-old Caroline Giuliani's Facebook profile, she's supporting Barack Obama."

Caroline has listed herself as a member of Obama’s Facebook group, “Barack Obama (One Million Strong for Barack),” the article reported.

Only a few hours after the story surfaced, a "spokeswoman" for the younger Giuliani emerged, Joannie Danielides. Here's what she had to say: "Before the presidential campaign got underway, Caroline added herself to a list on Facebook as an expression of interest in certain principles. It was not intended as an indication of support in a presidential campaign, and she has removed it. Caroline is not commenting on the 2008 election."

So, she may not be backing Barack, but she's not exactly providing her dad a ringing endorsement, either.

The candidate couldn't avoid commenting on the matter as he traveled about Iowa. “My daughter I love very much,” he told reporters. “I have great respect for her and I’m really proud of her and I don’t comment on children, because I want to give them the maximum degree of privacy."

Some folks couldn't resist long-range psychoanalysis. A PR person for Maimonides Medical Center in New York sent e-mails to reporters advising that Dr. Alan Hilfer, a pediatric psychologist and director of psychology at the hospital, was available to comment. In fact, the e-mail contained a comment, quoting Hilfer as saying, "In the world that an incoming college freshman lives in, a declaration on Facebook is a very public action. In public families, particularly those in the political world, it is understood that their differences will be kept private. Caroline Giuliani obviously has very significant issues of anger directed towards her father."

In other words, she just might be like a lot of 17-year-olds.

-- Don Frederick