Bush Daughter Joins Today Show as Correspondent

In what is surely not a case of stunt casting, the Today Show has decided the person most appropriate to be a correspondent on education issues is a daughter of former U.S. President George W. Bush.

The NBC morning chatfest announced over the weekend that it had hired Jenna Hager, better known to most people by her maiden name of Jenna Bush, to contribute on a monthly basis.

"It wasn't something I'd always dreamed to do," Jenna, 27, said of the announcement. "But I think one of the most important things in life is to be open-minded and to be open-minded for change."

The former First Daughter, who now teaches at a Baltimore school, isn't a complete stranger to the show, having made two previous appearances. She even co-hosted an hour of Today with her mother, Laura Bush, last year.

Says the show's executive producer, Jim Bell, "I think she can handle it... she knows something about pressure and being under some scrutiny. When she came here for a handful of appearances, she knocked it out of the park."

Jenna, who plans to make her first contribution early this fall, says her focus will be, "on what I'm passionate about because I think I'd do the best job on them - education, urban education, women and children's issues and literacy."