You know what, I'm wrong. He has publically said he wanted to choose a woman. According to the NY Times. Frankly, I think that this story is kind of stunning, with her back and forth into early morning. It seems that Paterson was giving her the seat, and i have no idea wtf she thought she was doing her, but she looks like a real dope, and if that worm Cuomo gets this seat, a lot of women are going to be pissed off at this melodrama she staged. I actually am really disappointed in her. She made Paterson look like a dope, and she just looks so freaking stupid here. Nice.
Kennedy Withdraws Senate Bid
By NICHOLAS CONFESSORE and DANNY HAKIM
Caroline Kennedy announced early Thursday that she was withdrawing from consideration for the vacant Senate seat in New York, startling the state’s political world after weeks in which she was considered a top contender for the post.
Ms. Kennedy on Wednesday called Gov. David A. Paterson, who will choose a successor to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, to inform him that she was no longer interested.
“I informed Governor Paterson today that for personal reasons I am withdrawing my name from consideration for the United States Senate,” Ms. Kennedy said in a statement released by her public relations firm.
Ms. Kennedy did not elaborate, but a person who spoke to her suggested that her concerns about the health of her uncle, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, who suffers from brain cancer and was hospitalized after a seizure on Tuesday, contributed to her decision.
Ms. Kennedy believed that the job was hers if she would accept it, the person said, but aides to Mr. Paterson would not comment on whether that was true.
Her decision appeared to catch the governor off guard, throwing the Paterson administration into confusion and setting off conflicting news media reports. After frantic talks between the governor’s operation and Ms. Kennedy’s camp Wednesday evening, Ms. Kennedy appeared to waver on whether to withdraw, and was preparing a statement reasserting her interest in the job. But just after midnight, she decided to make clear she was taking her name out of consideration and released the statement saying so.
Ms. Kennedy declined to be interviewed.
The Paterson administration scrambled to respond to the news, providing contradictory answers to reporters’ questions. Just before 7 p.m. Wednesday, Errol Cockfield, Mr. Paterson’s press secretary, said the governor had dismissed reports that Ms. Kennedy was withdrawing as “just the rumor of the day.”
More than an hour later, Mr. Cockfield asked that that statement not be published, and suggested that more information would be provided by the governor’s office. But neither he nor the governor’s communications director, Risa B. Heller, would respond to further questions about Ms. Kennedy.
Ms. Kennedy’s move comes nearly two months after Mrs. Clinton was nominated to be secretary of state.
In the weeks that followed, Ms. Kennedy, along with several members of Congress and leading political officials, began lobbying the governor for the coveted Senate seat. She attracted relentless attention and was viewed by many as the most likely choice for Mr. Paterson, given her national stature and ties to the incoming Obama administration.
“I’m surprised, I’m very surprised,” said Assemblyman Keith L. T. Wright, a friend of the governor’s who met with Ms. Kennedy in his Harlem office. He added: “I had just met with her last week and she told me she was in and ready, willing and able.”
Ms. Kennedy had gained the support of some powerful backers in the state, including several labor officials and a top aide to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, Kevin Sheekey.
But her pursuit of the seat also set off resistance, with some local Democratic officials suggesting it smacked of entitlement, and polls showing voters preferring Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo for the position.
Ms. Kennedy, 51, the daughter of President John F. Kennedy and a resident of the Upper East Side of Manhattan, has never served in public office.
Ms. Kennedy also stumbled initially with the news media, refusing at first to answer questions about why she was running, but later giving a series of interviews in which she elaborated about her interest in the job and her eagerness to enter public life.
Governor Paterson had planned to announce his selection on Friday or Saturday, but it was not clear how Ms. Kennedy’s move may affect the timing. The governor has been coy, and while he has praised Ms. Kennedy, he has also spoken approvingly of other candidates, including Mr. Cuomo and Representative Kirsten E. Gillibrand, who is beginning her second term in Congress from the Albany area.
Mrs. Clinton resigned from the Senate on Wednesday, immediately after being sworn in as secretary of state. The governor has said privately and publicly that he would like to select a woman to succeed her, noting that if he were to choose a man, the number of female senators would drop to just 16.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/22/nyregion/22caroline.html?pagewanted=print
