Saturday, May 24, 2008

Clinton Invokes RFK Assassination

While meeting with the editorial board of the Sioux City Argus Leader (South Dakota) on Friday, Hillary Clinton was asked why she hasn't dropped out of the race; mathematically, she cannot secure enough pledged delegates to win the Democratic nomination. She said that the nomination process is a long one and who knows what will happen between now and Democratic National Convention in Denver.

Clinton's reply follows:
“People have been trying to push me out of this ever since Iowa... 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. I don’t understand it."

As would be expected, her comments set off a barrage of criticism in response to her invoking Robert Kennedy's assassination in 1968, and within hours, she expressed regrets at a campaign stop:

“The Kennedys have been much on my mind the last days because of Senator Kennedy. And I regret that if my referencing that moment of trauma for our entire nation and particularly for the Kennedy family was in any way offensive.”

Read the New York Times article on Clinton's assassination gaffe here.

Clinton assassination comment and regrets:


plez sez: hmmmm... i guess she isn't holding out for an invitation to be Barack Obama's veep... sounds to me, like she's betting on an assassin's bullet to secure her the nomination!

is it me OR is hillary clinton out of her freakin' mind?!? two weeks from today marks the 40th anniversary of bobby kennedy's assassination by a bullet fired by sirhan sirhan! although, there has been little publicity about death threats, it is obvious that Obama has been the recipient of credible threats since he announced his candidacy; he's had around the clock secret service protection for close to a year! i don't like to bring up such a grim prospect, but this blog published a post that white supremacist groups have been organizing to prevent Obama from ever taking the oath of office.

how can hillary be so crass? so unfeeling? so politically incorrect?!? when backed into a corner, she will say ANYTHING... and i mean ANYTHING to justify her claim to the white house!

and when she realizes how off base her comments were, she can't even muster the fortitude to properly apologize. she doesn't apologize to the kennedy family (she only expresses regret for her offensive remarks). she doesn't apologize to Barack Obama and his family for the implication that she's pinning her hopes of being the democratic nominee while dancing on Obama's grave prior the democratic national convention! if it was good enough for hubert humphrey in 1968, it's good enough for hillary clinton in 2008.

assassination of national figures is the ugliest of american history: lincoln, mckinley, harrison, kennedy, martin luther king, jr., robert kennedy, etc. a Black man is poised to ascend to the highest office in the land and hillary clinton doesn't want to get out of the race because the specter of him getting gunned down before the convention is too great!

some have decided to give her the benefit of the doubt... that could not be what she was thinking when she brought up kennedy's assassination. plezWorld is not so easily dissuaded and asks, if she wasn't implying that there is a good chance that Obama will get assassinated, what was she implying? and why did she bring it up?

keith olbermann commentary on hillary clinton - 10:42


some have called for Obama to offer the veep office to billary. how many weeks would it take for the clintons to plot his assassination? maybe i've watched too many seasons of "24", but something tells me that the clintons couldn't stomach being Obama's second banana for 8 years! something tells me that they couldn't stomach being his second banana more than a couple of weeks!

5 comments:

Pradeep Nair said...

This was an absolutely indiscrete remark that Hillary could easily have avoided. She should have been careful. If she wanted to assert her right to stay on in the race, this was not an example to quote.

plez... said...

pradeep,

i agree... this was a bad remark on many levels. both examples (1) bill clinton's 1992 race and (2) robert kennedy's 1968 race weren't very competitive after the early primaries. neither of them were battling a formidable opponent into june and both of them were the presumptive nominee before june, like Barack Obama.

like Obama, kennedy did not need to win the california primary in june to sew up the nomination. so the argument that she was just framing a historical context for her battling on into june is specious, at best. wishful thinking that a bullet will rid the process of Obama, is the worst possible scenario.

she would've been well-served to just say that she was going to stay until the last vote was counted.

Truthiz said...

Prior to her most recent act of madness, I’d been thinking that there might be a slim chance Barack would offer her the VP spot IF he truly felt that she could help him win in November.

Suffice it to say, I no longer think that chance (if it ever existed?) exist anymore!

The truthiz, I never trusted Hillary. But I liked Bill.

But I admit, the depth of ruthlessness and depraved Indifference displayed by Bill and Hillary, throughout this entire campaign, has been quite a revelation for me!

I think they’re on the verge of destroying themselves politically and psychologically.

AAW said...

First time on your blog via Average Bro. I wrote about this on my blog and criticized Hillary's fuzzy math (as a numbers person, that drives me nuts). Kennedy entered the race in March of 1968 and less than three months later, he was assassinated.

Hillary has been in the race for about a year and half, so she had no business bringing up that moment in history (much less bring up the horrific event).

Also, her husband pretty much wrapped up his nomination b/w March and April of 1992. Even Tim Russett, this past Sunday showed an old clip of himself making the prediction in first week of April of 1992, that Pres. Clinton had the nomination.

plez... said...

truthiz,
i don't think bill nor hillary have any idea of what this campaign has done to their legacy as the standard bearers of the democratic party. for some reason, they think that they'll just re-invent themselves after the november elections.

aaw,
glad you stopped by my little corner of the blogosphere... and pray that you return.