Gov. Paterson Disses Caroline Kennedy and Commits Suicide

A weather man who studied satellite models from the Weather Center without first opening his office window is often surprised at the gap between his predictions and the reality.

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I had earlier predicted that Caroline Kennedy would not just be the next senator from New York but the next president of the United States. I should have waited until she was interviewed by Kathie Couric.

Let me confess that I have three degrees of separation from Caroline Kennedy. I am a fan of Maureen Dowd of the New York Times and she is a friend of Caroline Kennedy. That is the extent of my relationship.

I considered the possibility that she would not get Gov. David Paterson’s nod to replace Senator Hillary Clinton in the senate. What I did not envisage is that she would come out of the process damaged.

It is ironic that the woman who helped put Obama in the White House has become one of the first casualties of Obama’s success. The spectacle of Obama political success has crushed the importance of name recognition. Even Jeb Bush’s chance of being president is greatly diminished.

I hope that Caroline Kennedy will fight back. I hope she will reinvent herself. But I doubt if she has the stomach for the fight needed.

Her failure to secure the senate seat is also pulling the rug under Sarah Palin’s leg. She can no longer blame unfair media attack for her plight. Everything is really a mess.

In one masterstroke, Gov. Paterson upset the Clintons, the Cuomos and the Kennedys- the Clintons for considering Caroline Kennedy who supported Obama over Hillary- the Cuomos who had hoped that their beloved son, Andrew Cuomo, the Attorney General of New York, will head to Washington and not have to challenge Paterson for New York governorship next year -and the Kennedys for denying a Kennedy a New York senate seat and possibly setting the stage for a Kennedy absence in the U.S Senate for the first time in over 50 years as Ted Kennedy gets ready to take a bow.

Gov. Paterson has been kidding around New York but that is now over. Appointing Ms. Kristen E. Gillbrand of the House of Representative to replace Senator Clinton in the senate is his final punch line. The New York media has received the ammunition it needed to seriously question the performance of the first blind and black governor of New York. What awaits him in the next one year after the way he treated a Kennedy will not be a joke.

If this is not Gov. Paterson’s political suicide, it definitely means that he sees further than many of us.