Caroline Kennedy Denies Kids Convinced Her to Drop Senate Bid

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Matt Lauer gave it the old college try with Caroline Kennedy today, using her appearance on the Today Show (to plug the Kennedy Profiles in Courage awards) as a chance to solve the ongoing mystery over why she dropped her bid to occupy Hillary Clinton's vacated Senate seat. A Vanity Fair excerpt of the forthcoming book Ted Kennedy: The Dream That Never Died cited an unnamed "family adviser's" assertion that Kennedy's children had intervened and begged her to drop her campaign, telling her "that if she was getting this worked up just getting the job, they didn't want to see what she would be like in the trenches of a political campaign or a fight in Washington."

When Lauer asked Kennedy about her kids' role in the abrupt withdrawal, she replied, "Anybody who knows my children and knows me knows that that is absolute nonsense. But, you know, all in all, it was a great experience for me. I know you may find that hard to believe but I met a lot of interesting people. I saw, you know, how much there is to do." But why did she drop out? "That was the right decision. There are many ways to serve." Well, that explains it! Though many have said that Kennedy's patrician air and lack of political chops made her unfit for public office, the evasiveness she displayed this morning suggests she would have fit right in.

The awkwardness in the video above starts at the 3 minute mark, escalating to Kennedy's wickedly sarcastic "I'm so glad that you asked about that" response to Lauer's meddlesome, you know, questions.

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By John Del Signore in News on May 18, 2009 3:32 PM

Comments [rss]

NannyState

Who cares ?

arrogantnative

You know....um...I think she dropped out...you know...because....maybe...umm...you know...she realised...you know...that....ummm...you know...she had...you know...no idea...ummm...you know...what the fuck...you know...she was doing...you know...and was going to ...umm...emabrass...you know...herself...you know?

Spirit of 76

Yeah, Caroline has achieved so little in life, not like, you know, someone whose crowning achievement is being, you know, snarky in various blog posts. *cough* JDS *cough* Why, I bet if you talked to people on the street, you might actually be able to find someone who knows his name. Might take a few days, though. Or months. Or years.

The Edge

ysomad?

hotstepper

queen caroline dropped out because...aw hell, nobody cares.

starrygordon

Caroline Kennedy dropped out because Mr. O told her to drop out. He just told whatsisname on Long Island to forget about it, too. Mr. O or his advisors almost certainly picked Gillibrand a long time ago, and all the fuss about the Kennedys and Paterson was, in effect, after the fact. In the old days, we would have said, "Well, it sells papers." I don't know what it sells these days, but the media's instinct for flogging the shadow of a dead horse until past sundown hasn't gone away.

Mr Mel

You're right. There seems to be a love affair between Kirsten and the Dem chiefs. I think they need her to keep the upstate Democrats in line.