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Caroline Kennedy is no longer interested in replacing Hillary Clinton in the U.S. Senate.

NEW YORK (CNN) - Gov. David Paterson had no intention of appointing Caroline Kennedy to fill the Senate seat vacated by Hillary Clinton, a source close to the New York governor told CNN Thursday.

The source told CNN that Paterson did not think Kennedy was "ready for prime time," citing her efforts, at times awkward, at trying to win the appointment. She told the press at midnight as Wednesday turned into Thursday that she was withdrawing her name from consideration.

Paterson is charged with naming a replacement for Clinton, who resigned her seat to become the secretary of state in President Obama's administration.

"She clearly has no policy experience and couldn't handle the pressure," said the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation. "Why would he pick her given how badly she handled herself in recent weeks?"

A Kennedy ally, though, denied that she had any indication he was leaning against choosing her to fill out Clinton's term.

And another Kennedy confidante said that Kennedy allies are getting frustrated about what they perceive as the governor's insiders slighting her.

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A recount began Wednesday in the race between Sen. Norm Coleman and his Democratic challenger Al Franken.

MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota (CNN) - The Senate campaign in Minnesota between incumbent Republican Norm Coleman and Democratic challenger Al Franken was considered to be quite nasty, with attack ads and angry statements by both sides. Now, it seems the recount between the two candidates could be just as ugly.

Two weeks and one day after Election Day, a mandatory recount is underway in the state in the battle for Coleman's seat. Workers at 107 sites across Minnesota Tuesday began counting the more than 2.9 million votes cast in the contest.

Unofficial results put Coleman, a freshman Republican senator, just 215 votes ahead of his Democratic challenger, Al Franken, known across the country from his days on Saturday Night Live and from his years as a talk show host on Air America, the progressive radio network. The slim margin for Coleman, far less than one half of one percent, triggered an automatic recount, the first time there's ever been a recount of a US senate race in Minnesota.

Now election officials are beginning the long process of recounting all of the ballots. They're surrounded by election observers and lawyers from both campaigns, and the media.

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Aaron Wheeler said he's voting Democrat for the first time ever.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (CNN) - Sometimes you stumble on stories. Thursday was one of those times.

We were outside Veterans’ Memorial in Columbus reporting on early voting. I approached a man with an “ I just voted” sticker on his lapel to ask him whether he’d encountered any lines. The “lines weren’t bad” he said, with a broad smile. Lines were the last thing on Aaron Wheeler’s mind as he explained why he drove 600 miles back to his old hometown from Virginia, where he moved this month, to vote in what he called “one of the proudest days” of his life.

“My family has been Republican for three generations,” he said, but “I knew I had to change and vote Democrat in the first time almost ever.”

Wheeler said he was one of about 16 black Republican delegates at the 2004 GOP convention, and was proud to support George W. Bush.

This time, he said, he did not attend the Republican convention –and decided he would go one step further and vote for Democrat Barack Obama.

What’s influencing his vote? The economy was one factor, he said. But said he he made his decision “when I saw Barack Obama beaten down for no reason by negative things by Palin.”

Wheeler reminisced about marching with Martin Luther King as a boy, and referred to the slain civil rights leader when he told me he voted for Barack Obama… “not just because of his color….but in the words of Dr. King, the content of his character.”

“Tears come out of my eyes as I cast my ballot,” he said. “I voted for Barack Obama today.”

Obama and McCain are starting to prepare for the upcoming debates.

(CNN) - The presidential candidates face their first debate Friday in Oxford, Mississippi and both are taking time off the campaign trail to prepare.

While the Obama campaign confirmed that Barack Obama will be prepping this week in Tampa, Florida, the Republican presidential hopeful has a different approach.

A source inside the McCain campaign says the Arizona senator has been prepping on the campaign trail for the past several weeks and took time Saturday to prepare. This source says as of now, John McCain is not expected to take days off before Friday's debate to prep.

One other item of note: Greg Craig, a former State Department official under President Clinton and a longtime Obama supporter is reportedly playing the role of John McCain in the Illinois senator's debate practices.

CNN has confirmed that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will sit down for her first television interview with a national media outlet. (Photo Credit: Getty Images)

(CNN) – Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Sen. John McCain’s surprise pick for the VP spot on the Republican ticket, has agreed to her first television interview with a national media outlet since being named as McCain’s running mate.

CNN confirms that Palin will sit down with Charles Gibson of ABC News later this week; the exact date has yet to be announced.

According to the McCain campaign, Palin will stay on the campaign trail through this Wednesday and then return home to Alaska where she will speak at a ceremony marking the deployment of her eldest son’s Army unit to Iraq on September 11. Palin’s interview with Gibson will be conducted near the end of the week.

Since the McCain campaign picked Palin as the Arizona senator’s running mate, the media has delved into her background and criticized Palin and the McCain camp for not making her more available to the media. Before Palin’s selection, she was a virtual unknown on the national political scene while one of McCain’s trademarks since mounting his first run for the White House eight years ago has been accessibility to the press.

UPDATE, 3:15 p.m.: CNN Correspondent Dana Bash has confirmed additional details about the upcoming interview: According to a McCain aide, the plan is for Gibson to have time with Palin over two days - Thursday and Friday of this coming week. The interview will be part sit-down, part walk-and-talk at various locations in Alaska.

A spokesman for the Democratic National Convention says these flags were not intended to be thrown out.

COLORADO SPRINGS, CO (CNN)–Republicans kicked off a McCain/Palin rally in Colorado Springs with veterans handing out American flags they say were discarded after the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

Tom Kise –a spokesman for the McCain campaign in Colorado said a worker at Invesco field who wants to remain anonymous dropped off the flags to the McCain campaign this past week. He says there were 84 bags that amounted to roughly 12 thousand flags.

As thousands in the crowd waved flags, Senator McCain noticed them – saying “those flags look great” - but did not make direct mention of the flap.

Damon Jones, a spokesman for the Democratic Convention tells CNN “the story is false.”

He says the flags were bundled together, placed in bags and intended to be distrubited at Invesco. Jones says they “were removed without authorization”.

Updated with DNC response

In response to the accusations, DNC spokeswoman Karren Finney released the following statement:

"American flags were proudly waved by the 75,000 people who joined Barack Obama at the Democratic Convention. John McCain should applaud that, but instead his supporters wrongfully took leftover bundles of our flags from the stadium to play a cheap political stunt calling into question our patriotism. On the same day he agrees to join Barack Obama at Ground Zero on September 11, John McCain attacks the patriotism of Obama supporters who so proudly waved the American flag at our historic event in Denver just days ago."

(CNN) - John McCain's campaign confirms to CNN that they raised roughly $15 million last month - his best month in more than a year. Final numbers have yet to be calculated.