Posted on 05/25/2008 6:41:16 AM PDT by CWWren
Sen. Hillary Clinton
Context, as in "you've taken my words out of context," is the last refuge of a politician caught with foot in mouth. That's where Hillary Clinton is today, alternately explaining and apologizing. But with both feet in her mouth, she doesn't have a leg to stand on.
Gravity is the toughest opponent of all, even for a Clinton hellbent on a comeback.
Of course the meaning of words can be distorted if they are lifted from their surroundings. The problem for Clinton is that her reference to the assassination to Robert F. Kennedy is just as outlandish when everything she said before and after is taken into account.
There is no question she was citing the RFK murder of 40 years ago in the spirit of "anything can happen" and thus as a reason she should stay in the race against Barack Obama.
Which means she was thinking of murder as a momentum changer. Not a pretty thought in any context.
But the full context works against Clinton for a larger reason, too. The assassination remark is the latest evidence that her increasingly erratic campaign suffers from a severe case of split personality disorder.
One day it's a focused machine, gobbling up votes in numbers big enough to stave off Obama's nomination triumph. The next day the same machine spews out gaffes and B.S. as though it's been sabotaged.
Dr. Jekyll, meet Mr. Hyde.
Consider the last three months. Fresh off big popular vote wins in Ohio and Texas in March, she shot herself in the foot with a tall tale about coming under sniper fire during her trip to Bosnia as First Lady. Only when she became the subject of ridicule, with a videotape showing her smiling and accepting flowers from a child in Bosnia, did she confess to being wrong.
In April, her top strategist, Mark Penn, was caught working both sides of a key issue in the upcoming Pennsylvania primary. Among Penn's private clients was the government of Colombia, which was pushing for approval of a free-trade agreement at the same time Clinton was denouncing the idea. When Clinton fired him, he was her second campaign honcho to get dumped.
May brought more of the same, even before the RFK reference. The day after disappointing results in Indiana and North Carolina, she trotted out the race card, saying "Senator Obama's support among working, hardworking Americans, white Americans, is weakening again." She went on to landslide wins in West Virginia and Kentucky by tapping that very demographic.
The headline-grabbing blunders stopped her from scoring big gains against Obama, even though he was wounded by the Jeremiah Wright issue, his "bitter" comments about small-town values and growing concerns about his kumbaya foreign policy overtures. The delegate deficit is a hurdle for her, but she had a potent argument about his vulnerability in the general election.
Instead of cashing in, Clinton repeatedly stepped on her own story. And with finger-wagging Bubba piping up with frequent off-message zingers, the prospect of the restoration of the Clinton presidency has been a political wash at best.
She's now so toxic she's probably doomed any hope of being named Obama's running mate. He didn't want her to start with; now he won't have to take her.
This one matters most because the notion of Obama being assassinated has been much discussed. He is the first black candidate with a real chance to be President, and, not incidentally, received the endorsement of Ted and Caroline Kennedy, making him the symbolic heir to the Camelot legend that was twice felled by assassin bullets. She couldn't have picked a worse point.
Still, myths aside, Obama is looking weak. In addition to Clinton's pounding him in key states, President Bush and Republican nominee John McCain have taken turns using Obama as a piñata. His yes-we-can crusade has been reduced to explaining why he wants to meet personally with the leader of Iran, whose militias are killing American troops in Iraq and who pledges to wipe Israel off the map.
Obama's views on the Mideast are so muddled the appeasement label is starting to stick, but Clinton is in no position to benefit. That's the impact, full and final, of her mentioning murder in a political context.
Many thought, apparently, that she was making a veiled threat to her opponent. She could have cited the demise of Vince Foster with the same result.
Operation Chaos has worked perfectly. No way she can come back in 2012, as she was given more time to hang herself! The Democrats now have a candidate that alot of Democrats won’t vote for.
Now is time for Rush to work on the House and Senate!!
A big part of her problem is that she still can’t get used to the MSM no longer covering for her. For her entire career on the national stage the Lib media has been carrying her train. She can’t just switch gears to a defensive mode so quickly.
It is just so delicious seeing her on the receiving end of the media smear machine, having the most innocuous remarks picked apart for inflammatory material.
ARKANCIDE
While I don't follow her every word, that is exactly the impression I have of her overall campaign theme. She's been saying it, or conveying it, since Obama started putting her to shame a few months back.
And that's why so many people interpret her reference to assassination the way they do.
She's staying in because anything can happen. Especially to an inconvenience to Clinton.
The only question I have is... how will she do it.
Agreed. It is very rare to see the liberal media smear a non-Republican; enjoy it, it doesn’t happen very often.
She is not alone in her thoughts about how long B. Hussein O. could last alive.
Do tell, just wait till after the conventions. A guilty lib media is going to do all they can to make up for their lese majeste by tearing into Maverick John.
RUSH, Lets go after that Traitor MURTHA first! He called Our Proud Marines “Cold Blooded Murderers” with the Blessings of Dingy Harry and Bugeyes Piglousy. They are Dispicable Traitors!
One can't help observing that this outrage and abondon are now expedient to them--
Or that these same Democrats and their operatives are not similarly outraged and moved to abandon by obstruction of justice, the intimidation of witnesses, perjury, rape, sexual assault, the plundereing of U.S. defense secrets by agents of foreign governments, the plundering of the FBI files of U.S. citizens, the criticism of a sitting U.S. President and interference with U.S. foreign policy by a former U.S. President while on foreign soil, the endorsement of a brutal dictator (viz. Fidel Castro) by a former U.S. President, et al.!
Yes. We have seen it. It is the very dark soul of the Democrat Party.
“A big part of her problem is that she still can’t get used to the MSM no longer covering for her.”
That is a very good point.
It is really hypocritical of the liberal media when you think about it.
The context was that, in the past, primary contests were still going strong in June and she mentioned primary contests by Bill Clinton and RFK.
If some nut case missed the "assassination" angle, the liberal news media has ensured that he has not missed it by now.
A lot of people do wishfull thinking.
“Operation Chaos has worked perfectly. No way she can come back in 2012, as she was given more time to hang herself! The Democrats now have a candidate that alot of Democrats won’t vote for.”
Why can’t she come back in 2012? The fact that with all the problems she has that the media is covered up, this will all be swept under the rug.
“The only question I have is... how will she do it.”
One word.... Rezko.
“RUSH, Lets go after that Traitor MURTHA first! He called Our Proud Marines “Cold Blooded Murderers” with the Blessings of Dingy Harry and Bugeyes Piglousy. They are Dispicable Traitors!”
And he got reelected after saying it.
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