AM Update: Caroline Kennedy ends bid, Clinton confirmed

UPDATED 10:45 a.m.  

Caroline Kennedy has ended her bid to replace Hillary Clinton in the U.S. Senate.

Clinton was confirmed and sworn in Wednesday as the nation's 67th secretary of state. Gov. David Paterson must now choose a replacement and is expected to do so by this weekend.

"The governor had been indicating to many people he was going to go with her," CBS 6 News political analyst Fred Dicker told the CBS Early Show Thursday morning. "Many of the candidates thought that she was the governor's choice, so it was really a stunner."

"It could be the result of the final state police investigation or other disclosures she may have made but there's really a big mystery there," Dicker added. "There's no question about it."

In a statement released early Thursday, Kennedy confirmed she told Paterson she was leaving for personal reasons. Her uncle, Sen. Edward Kennedy, suffered a seizure on Inauguration Day.

A person who worked closely with Caroline Kennedy on her bid for the Senate says a pressing personal matter unrelated to her uncle's health prompted her to tell the governor she was withdrawing from consideration

Dicker broke the story Wednesday.

[WEB-EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: Fred Dicker's analysis of Kennedy's dropout]

"Nobody's buying the claim that it could be related to her uncle Teddy Kennedy's ailment," Dicker told the Early Show. "I mean, after all, he's been ill for sometime that means it wasn't a surprise and you can make a case that his ailment is a reason for her to stay in the race so she could carry on the Kennedy legacy."

Democratic strategist Hank Sheinkopf said it was a "graceful way to get out the door before it gets slammed on you. The other side of this is she was a meteor in New York State politics, burned out quickly, but may be back. We don't know."

Spokesmen for Kennedy and for Gov. David Paterson would not comment.

The Post reported Kennedy withdrew her name from consideration after learning Paterson wasn't going to choose her to replace Clinton, though sources told the Post over the past week she was a near-certainty for the position [VIDEO: Analysis: Senator as Good as Decided]. Dicker told CBS 6 News the "view from the inside" was that the likely decision would be Kennedy.

Paterson has met with potential replacements in recent weeks. That list includes Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown, congresswomen Carolyn Maloney and Kirstin Gillibrand, Congressman Steve Israel, Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi and Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.

According to a poll released last week by Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, when asked who they thought Paterson would pick, 31-percent of polled New Yorkers said Cuomo and 24-percent said Kennedy. Maloney had 6-percent, Gillibrand 5-percent and Israel 2-percent, according to the poll.

Eighteen percent of those polled said they thought Paterson would pick someone else. According to the poll, more than 30-percent of participants said they hadn't heard enough about Cuomo or Kennedy.