By Patrick Appel
Nate Silver states the obvious:
If the news is true that Caroline Kennedy has withdrawn her bid for the Senate, then one of two things has happened. The first possibility is that David Paterson decided some days ago to go with another candidate, and gave Kennedy the opportunity to save face by withdrawing her name from consideration. You know: the old "You Can't Fire Me! I Quit!" shtick.
The second possibility, not entirely mutually exclusive with the first, is that Kennedy was just not all that into being a senator in the first place.
Whatever the reason, this is probably for the best.