TODAY MARKS THE FIFTH ANNIVERSARY of John F. Kennedy Jr.’s untimely death. One wonders if, by now, he would have formally entered politics (a might-have-been that both Michael Bloomberg and Hillary Clinton probably don’t like to mull over).

Still, this much seems certain: as the heir to Camelot, JFK Jr. would have been a compelling figure, front and center, at this year’s Democratic National Convention. Instead, that role goes his uncle, Sen. Edward Kennedy, who gets a prime-time address on the second night of the convention, plus numerous tributes amidst a sentimental journey that week around the Kennedy’s ancestral stomping grounds.