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No. 1 Kennedy, 96 points

Key jobs: President (1), Senator (3), Representative (4), Cabinet (1)

There is often a founding father, but there is only one paterfamilias like Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., whose demonic drive would create the nation's second Irish Catholic political dynasty. (The first was the Carrolls of Maryland, one of whom signed the Declaration of Independence.) Joe's money buried Hubert Humphrey and won the presidential nomination for son Jack. Joe decreed that the president-elect make Bobby his attorney general and demanded that Jack's Senate seat be available when young Ted was constitutionally old enough to run.

After the tragic deaths of Jack and Bobby, and his failure to win the presidential nomination in 1980, Ted became one of the great legislators in American history, perhaps exceeding his father's expectations.

The second Kennedy generation has been star-crossed. Yet Joseph P. Kennedy has 26 living grandchildren. One rule for long-term dynastic success: Have lots of children.

No. 2 Roosevelt 92 points

Key jobs: President (2), Vice President (1), Governor (2), Representative (4)

When it comes to impact, the Roosevelts deserve to rate at the top, with Theodore and Franklin jointly creating the modern presidency. However - dynastically speaking - they were only fifth cousins. A writer in 1936 computed that there were 17,000 living persons whose relationship to TR was at least as close as that of FDR.

The bridge between TR and FDR was Eleanor - niece of TR, wife of FDR - who might have catapulted the dynasty to first place if she had agreed to accept the Democratic Senate nomination from New York after FDR's death.

Otherwise, there was nothing notable about the Roosevelts in politics except the failure of the next generation, which suggests this rule: Voters give the children of important dynasts one free pass, a step up the political ladder before they must prove themselves. For FDR's sons, Jimmy and Frank, this meant going from election to the House of Representatives to defeat, with Jimmy losing a nomination for mayor of Los Angeles and Frank losing a nomination for governor of New York.

No. 3 Rockefeller 81 points

Key jobs: Vice President (1), Governor (3), Senator (2),

Representative (2)

The 19th-century "robber barons" did not seek public office. After all, the business of America was business. But it was useful to connect their children to politicians. Thus John D. Rockefeller Jr. married Abby Aldrich, daughter of powerful Sen. Nelson Aldrich of Rhode Island. Their son was named Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller, and he would become vice president of the United States.

As with other wealthy politicians, the Rockefellers' riches relieve them of the effort to raise campaign money - a big plus. There are also some voters who prefer to elect politicians who assuredly will not need to have their hand in the till. And for these to-the-manner-born "rich as Rockefeller" dynasts, seeking votes must be fulfilling work because it is one pursuit in which they have to earn their successes.

No. 4 Harrison 76 points

Key jobs: President (2), Governor (2), Senator (3), Representative (5)

No dynasty sought public office with more tenacity than the Harrisons. The result was that even though they were men of limited talent, two of their number became presidents.

"Dynasty" can become a campaign liability, as it was in the 1888 presidential contest, when the brilliant Puck cartoonist Joseph Keppler invented "Grandpa's Hat" to ridicule Republican candidate Benjamin Harrison, grandson of William Henry (who died on the 32nd day of his presidency in 1841). Ben, a man of modest stature, was depicted each week as lost under a gigantic hat. The longer he was president, the more buried in the hat; by 1892 he had disappeared altogether, with Uncle Sam asking, "Where is he?"

While most dynasties stay rooted in one state, the Harrisons were wanderers in search of political or financial advantage. William Henry, whose father had been governor of Virginia, was elected president from Ohio; his grandson was from Indiana, with a cousin who had been a congressman from Illinois. The last of the line, also named William Henry, was a congressman from Wyoming. He died in 1990.

No. 5 Adams 68 points

Key jobs: President (2), Vice President (1), Governor (1), Senate (1), Representative (2), Cabinet (2)

The Adamses made their great contributions to the country before there even was a United States. After 1789, they produced two presidents who decisively were not returned to office. Yet in defeat John Quincy reentered politics as a House member from Massachusetts and played an important role as an abolitionist spokesman.

Over the years, the flinty Adamses became more and more out of step with what voters wanted in their politicians, and after a while they didn't even try. The only 20th-century Adams to hold public office was Charles Francis, a great-great-grandson of John Adams, who became President Herbert Hoover's secretary of the Navy, then a Cabinet office. Secretary Adams was also a descendant of Benjamin Crowninshield, who had been secretary of the Navy during the War of 1812.

No. 6 Bush 67 points

Key jobs: President (2), Vice President (1), Governor (2), Senator (1), Representative (1)

Robert Kennedy had to move to New York and Patrick Kennedy to Rhode Island; apparently Massachusetts was too crowded to hold all of their family's ambitions. But if George H.W. Bush was angling for a political career, there was plenty of room in Connecticut, a state that had sent his father to the Senate. He moved to Texas for oil, not votes.

Whereas young John Quincy Adams listened intently to his parents expound on politics, young George W. Bush had his mind on Little League. Yet George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush would be the second set of father-son presidents. In remarkably short order, they were the second and third generations in national office. Our first accidental dynasty.

Moreover, despite the state of George W.'s reputation when he left the White House, the family has a better chance of staying in the game than any of the other extant dynasties. Jeb Bush, still in his mid-50s, completed two successful terms as governor of vote-rich Florida; his son, George P., a 33-year-old lawyer, is said to have an eye on politics and is half Hispanic as well.

No. 7 Frelinghuysen 66 points

Key jobs: Senator (4), Representative (2), Cabinet (1)

Unlike some of the other families that reached these shores early - the Harrisons (1632), the Adamses (1636), the Roosevelts (1649) - the Frelinghuysens (1720) never took their political eye off the place where they landed. They have been a New Jersey dynasty through six generations in elective office. Rodney is still in Congress, where he and his father, Peter, have served a combined 19 terms.

This is a frequent pattern among political families that can be overlooked amid the glitter of the national clans. Only once did a Frelinghuysen stray from New Jersey: Frederick Theodore was secretary of state in the administration of Chester A. Arthur.

A characteristic of many dynasties is the ability to marry well. The Frelinghuysens, who started as clergy, not great landholders, over time wed a brewery heiress (Ballantine), a sugar heiress (Havemeyer) and a Procter of P&G.

No. 8 Breckinridge 65 points

Key jobs: Vice President (1), Senator (2), Representative (6),

Cabinet (1)

The Kentucky Breckinridges were never in repose. They felt strongly about everything and were often in disagreement with each other, including over the Civil War. Only two had prominent national personas. John (1760-1806) was Jefferson's floor leader in the Senate and then his attorney general. John Cabell (1821-75) was Buchanan's vice president, the Southern Democrats' candidate for president in 1860 and a senator who was expelled in 1861 for supporting the rebellion. He become a Confederate general and then the South's last secretary of war.

Although a rash of Breckinridges served in the House of Representatives, they were less like the dynasties that were mainly there to take good care of their constituents, and more like a collection of the battlers who often give spice to American politics.

When they stepped back from politics in the 20th century, their careers included serving as dean of a school of social service at the University of Chicago, founding the Frontier Nursing Service and editing the Lexington Herald.

No. 9 Taft 64 points

Key jobs: President (1), Chief Justice (1), Governor (1), Senate (3), Representative (2), Cabinet (3)

The Tafts of Cincinnati - lacking the flamboyance of the Roosevelts, the political antennae of the Kennedys and the vast sustaining wealth of the Rockefellers - had plodded along for four generations as a kind of model of unheroic leadership, steady, sturdy, dedicated. How sad then was the legacy of the fifth generation.

The core of the dynasty was William Howard, whom Theodore Roosevelt was responsible for putting into - and kicking out of - the White House, but who concluded his public service where he always wanted to be, as chief justice of the United States. Some years back a radio program called me on Presidents' Day and asked me to name my favorite commander in chief. "William Howard Taft," I said. Not Washington or Lincoln? My reply: "You asked my favorite. Taft was not a good president. But he was the nicest, kindest man to ever be president."

His great-grandson, one of many Bobs in the family, was a two-term Ohio governor from 1999 to 2007. Along the way he was convicted of criminal misdemeanors relating to undisclosed gifts and other favors from lobbyists. He left office as one of the most unpopular governors in the country.

No. 10 Bayard 63 points

Key jobs: Governor (1), Senator (6), Representative (1), Cabinet (1)

The Bayards of Delaware were one of those families that often dominate small-state politics. For half the years between 1804 and 1929, a Bayard represented Delaware in the Senate. The last Bayard to seek office, Alexis Irenee du Pont Bayard, was defeated for a Senate seat in 1952 by John J. Williams, who successfully emphasized his own resume as a chicken farmer.

The Bayards' long tenure in Congress did include one moment of supreme importance. When the 1800 presidential election was thrown into the House of Representatives - with one vote per state - James A. Bayard was the lone representative from Delaware. As a dedicated Federalist, he was expected to support Aaron Burr. But on the 36th vote, he broke with his party and cast the blank ballot that made Thomas Jefferson president.