Editor 's note : Paul Begala , a Democratic strategist and CNN political contributor , was a political consultant for Bill Clinton 's presidential campaign in 1992 and was counselor to Clinton in the White House . Paul Begala says Kirsten Gillibrand is a skillful politician and part of a new generation of rising women leaders . ( CNN ) -- The big news in New York politics is not that Caroline Kennedy , a deeply private person , preferred to be in private life . Rather , the big news -- and for Democrats , the good news -- is that Gov . David Paterson has put another crack in the glass ceiling by appointing Kirsten Gillibrand to the Senate . Gillibrand has it all . She moves with equal ease among Manhattan high-rollers and Delaware County dairymen . She knocked off an entrenched Republican congressman in a conservative district . When she began , no one but she and then-Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chairman Rahm Emanuel thought she could win . When he was recruiting her for the congressional race , Emanuel told me Gillibrand was someone special . I paid attention because I recalled the time , a decade or so ago , when Emanuel told me a skinny state senator named Barack Obama was the future of the Democratic Party . Since then I 've seen Gillibrand in action . My father has a small farm in her district , near the village of Andes , New York . Every summer I bring my boys to Andes to fish in a pristine mountain trout pond , and at night we feast on fresh-caught fish with my dad 's neighbors . Those farmers and schoolteachers see Gillibrand as one of their own ; someone who shares their values , who respects and protects the rugged beauty of their mountains even as she fights to bring jobs to the region . In short , Gillibrand is the kind of Democrat who can win in blood-red upstate New York . Her membership on both the Agriculture Committee and the Armed Services Committee has allowed her to become an expert in policy areas some Democrats shy away from . I 've also seen Gillibrand in the big city . Gov . David Paterson spoke at a Gillibrand fundraiser I attended in a posh penthouse apartment overlooking Central Park . Gillibrand had given birth to her son Henry a few weeks before . Where she got the energy and the enthusiasm I 'll never know . Even veteran Manhattanites came away impressed . Listening to Gillibrand speak of how Hillary Clinton inspired her , I could n't help but see parallels to Barack Obama . Our new president has described himself as part of the Joshua Generation -- the African American leaders who have come after pioneers like John Lewis , Rev . Jesse Jackson and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Perhaps Kirsten Gillibrand is part of the Joshua Generation of women leaders , inspired by Hillary Clinton , Nancy Pelosi and so many others who blazed the trail Gillibrand is now following . Watching the jubilation of the Obama inauguration , some feminist friends worried aloud when a woman might break through the way President Obama has . `` I 'm still not able to tell my daughter that she can be president , '' one friend said . My own strong belief is we will see a woman president sooner than most suspect . And perhaps she will come from the ranks of the female Joshua Generation . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Paul Begala .
Kirsten Gillibrand : Paul Begala is a Republican star in Republican upstate area . Upstate residents say CNN shares their values , protects region , Delaware County says . Begala : Gillibrand is part of the next generation of women political comers . He says he thinks we 'll see a woman president sooner than many suspect .