Caroline Kennedy, the mother of 3-children, sat down for her first extensive interview after announcing she is interested in taking over the Senate seat being vacated by Hillary Clinton.

Kennedy says the September 11th terrorist attacks and working for President-Elect Barack Obama's campaign motivated her to ask Governor David Patterson to consider appointing her to become the junior senator of New York.

Caroline was harshly criticized for refusing to sit down and answer direct questions from the media. In her first interview, Kennedy said, "many people remember that spirit that [my father], President Kennedy summoned forth. Many people look to me as somebody who embodies that sense of possibility. I'm not saying that I am anything like him, I'm just saying there's a spirit that I think I've grown up with that is something that means a tremendous amount to me".

Caroline credits her late mother, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, with giving her the courage to seek the Senate position. "I think my mother ... made it clear that you have to live life by your own terms and you have to not worry about what other people think and you have to have the courage to do the unexpected".

Kennedy has often been asked and thought about entering the family business of politics, but it never seemed like the right time. When President-Elect Obama asked Hillary Clinton to be his Secretary of State, Caroline said she thought "Well, maybe now. How about now?". If appointed, the very private figure acknowledges she will need to reveal personal information and says she will need to "work twice as hard as anybody else" to prove herself to the voters of New York.

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