Looks like Caroline Kennedy, who many politicos seemed certain would be named to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Hillary Clinton, has backed out. Polls have shown that Kennedy would have been an unpopular choice among New Yorkers. That reality, combined with the fact that Gov. David Paterson has assured that he is still in the interviewing stage, eroded the notion that Kennedy was a shoe-in for the slot. According to CNN, as of about 8 p.m. Wednesday, she had not yet informed New York Gov. David Paterson of her decision to withdraw. Kennedy is the 51-year-old daughter of President John F. Kennedy. Initially, she expressed her interest in being appointed to the junior senator spot, but her suggestion sparked widespread disapproval from many who said she lacked the political experience to hold such a weighty title. Others, however, were excited about the possibility of a Kennedy representing them, considering the clout that the name brings to the table. Caroline Kennedy’s decision coincides with the failing health of her uncle, Sen. Edward Kennedy, who collapsed on Tuesday during the Inauguration lunch. Kennedy was diagnosed with a deadly form of brain cancer in May, and he has been undergoing treatment.

New York governor didn’t like SNL’s blind jokes. New York Gov. David Paterson wasn’t laughing when “Saturday Night Live” portrayed him in their Weekend Update segment as a blind, doofus drug addict – and neither were advocates for disabled persons, who say the skit was offensive. “Now that [Alaska Gov. Sarah] Palin’s not around, they seem to have run out of material,” said Paterson, who is legally blind. “The idea of a person rolling around the stage in a chair, being disoriented, can’t find anything, bumbling, in a sense looking like a clown, is a way disabled people are portrayed all the time. The perception that disability equals inability to be responsible is totally wrong.”  Mocking politicians is nothing new for SNL, and they spared Paterson no pain Saturday night. At one point during the skit, cast member Fred Armisen, who portrayed the governor, says, “Come on, I’m a blind man who loves cocaine who was suddenly appointed governor of New York. My life is an actual plot from a Richard Pryor movie.” At one point, looking confused and disoriented, Armisen says he became governor “because of a “sex scandal I was miraculously not at the center of.” Paterson, who ascended to the governorship last spring after Gov. Eliot Spitzer was snared in prostitution sting, has admitted to cocaine use during his youth and extramarital affairs. A spokeswoman for the Paterson, Risa Heller, said it isn’t that he boss can’t take a joke. “The governor engages in humor all the time, and he can certainly take a joke,” said Heller. “However, this particular ‘Saturday Night Live’ skit unfortunately chose to ridicule people with physical disabilities and imply that disabled people are incapable of having jobs with serious responsibilities. The National Federation of the Blind also criticized the skit, calling it “absolutely wrong” and an attack on all blind Americans.