Posted on 05/25/2008 10:32:06 AM PDT by The_Republican
Hillary Clinton was inartful in mentioning the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy on Friday, as she tried to explain why she is staying in the race for the Democratic nomination. But that's all she was: inartful.
Clinton spoke with an eye on a dwindling political calendar and an awareness that the record is studded with lengthy Democratic nomination fights. Bill Clinton went all the way to June before winning the party's standard in 1992, and Kennedy was still in the thick of a race in June 1968. It has been a long time since the country has had a race of that duration, and this is the year.
That was the context in which Clinton had previously mentioned Kennedy. But on Friday her history lesson she went awry when she referenced Kennedy's assassination, not his victory in the California primary. Here is what she told the editorial board of the Argus Leader newspaper in South Dakota:
"My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary, somewhere in the middle of June, right? We all remember, Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California."
Clinton erred in that her words, taken super-literally, can be stretched to mean that she is hedging against the possibility that Barack Obama will be killed. That is preposterous. And to claim that she was deliberately fostering a poisonous atmosphere is to contribute to the bitter political climate that so many Americans decry.
Since the statement and the uproar that followed, Clinton - who, after all, holds RFK's seat in the U.S. Senate - realized how it came out garbled, as things often do in political campaigns. She expressed regret.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. helpfully put Clinton's remarks in proper perspective.
"I've heard her make that argument before," he told The New York Times. "It sounds like she was invoking a familiar historical circumstance in support of her argument for continuing her campaign."
Indeed, she was. Clinton has been dogged for months by the question of why she has stayed in the race - and it's enough already.
However slim may be Clinton's chances of securing the nomination come convention time, this is a razor-thin race by any standard. The popular vote and delegate count margins are as narrow as they get. Clinton has every right, even a responsibility to her supporters, to continue to make the case that she would be the stronger general election candidate against John McCain.
This is an unpredictable campaign and it is not over, not quite yet. That important point should not be lost in the hype and hyperventilation over a bad choice of words.
Huckabee is out of the race and he caught flack for saying something far less specific.
While I am no fan of Hillary Clinton, she did not plan in advance to make an inappropriate remark.
Barack Obama, on the other hand, knowingly and willfully wrote a campaign-related speech that he knew would get the United Church of Christ into trouble with the Internal Revenue Service, which it did. The IRS reached the same conclusion that I did some time ago: the UCC told Obama and his people the rules in advance, Obama and his staff agreed to them, and then Obama proceeded to break the rules deliberately.
More details here. Please circulate as widely as possible so everyone will know how Barack Obama knowingly and willfully jeopardized his own church’s tax exemption to promote his campaign.
http://www.israpundit.com/2008/?p=1132
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Silly me... I took it as a threat.
ARKANCIDE
It doesn’t matter.
She made a stupid comment in public. For the “I’m ready on day one” and the “World’s Smartest Woman,” this was a fatal error. It was a rookie error and a bad one at that.
But, since she is a Clinton and a woman, most forgive her stupidity.
What is McCain had said it? Political death and savage attacks by the media.
Also, she's lying about the 1992 campaign still going on in June in California. Although Jerry Brown was still technically running, it was essentially all over for him when he lost in New York on April 7. Brown was hoping for a win in California, but Clinton beat him there too.
Honey Bunny...
It was Michelle Obama that first made reference to Obama, A Black Man, being shot.
I watched with horror as the media sliced and diced Hillary for saying, “after all, Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June.” She was referring to the timeline, as a reference point for staying in the race. But immediately she was called to task for a “major gaffe,” an insult to Saint Obama. How twisted is that?
Comrade Obama is not the only Democrat in danger of being assassinated by some idiot, so is Hillary. Of course it’s on her mind.
I didn’t think what she said was stupid at all. Stupid for saying it, maybe, but not stupid for thinking it. The media created this mess - not Hillary. OsamaObama is the media’s boy. And Osama just went “right on!” with it.
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