Hillary's Bizarre RFK Comment (and BS clarification)

[ProSense]

Instead of trying to help bring the party together — Election Day is 24 weeks away — Clinton went to Florida to argue that if Barack Obama is the Democratic nominee, his nomination will be illegitimate. And if the DNC plays by the rules Clinton used to support, it’s guilty of vote-suppression — comparable to slavery, Jim Crow, and Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe.

link

(emphasis added)

Now RFK's assassination:

May 23, 2008 4:54

Hillary's Bizarre RFK Comment

Posted by Karen Tumulty

Though she has now apologized for that very strange and tasteless comment to the Argus-Leader, this was not the first time she's said it. This from her interview with TIME Managing Editor Richard Stengel, published March 6:

TIME: Can you envision a point at which--if the race stays this close--Democratic Party elders would step in and say, "This is now hurting the party and whoever will be the nominee in the fall"?


CLINTON: No, I really can't. I think people have short memories. Primary contests used to last a lot longer. We all remember the great tragedy of Bobby Kennedy being assassinated in June in L.A. My husband didn't wrap up the nomination in 1992 until June. Having a primary contest go through June is nothing particularly unusual.

Her excuse now is that the Kennedys have been "much on my mind these days" with the illness of Senator Edward Kennedy, but that doesn't explain what brought it to mind more than two months ago.

UPDATE: H/T to commenter Elvis Elvisberg, who notes that even the reference to her own husband's campaign was wrong. His primary race was effectively over in March.

May 23, 2008, 2:44 pm

Clinton, Defending Nomination Battle, Cites R.F.K. Assassination

By Katharine Q. Seelye

SIOUX FALLS, S.D.– Senator Hillary Clinton referred to the assassination of Robert Kennedy in 1968 as a reason she should continue her battle with Senator Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination.

Mrs. Clinton’s remarks came during meeting with the Sioux Falls Argus Leadereditorial board. She was responding to a question about calls for her to drop out of the race. The editorial board meeting, in advance of South Dakota’s primary on June 3, was carried live on the Argus Leader’s Web site.

“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,” Mrs. Clinton said, dismissing the idea of dropping out.

Mr. Obama learned of the remark when he was traveling to a rally in South Florida. He was not expected to publicly discuss it, aides said. Instead, the campaign issued a one-line statement.

“Senator Clinton’s statement before the Argus Leader editorial board was unfortunate and has no place in this campaign,” said Bill Burton, a campaign spokesman.

But an aide to Mrs. Clinton said that she was simply using the Kennedy assassination as a benchmark to underscore that nomination fights can go a long time and that she was in no way implying anything else.

“She was simply referencing her husband in 1992 and Bobby Kennedy in 1968 as historical examples of the nominating process going well into the summer,” said Mo Elleithee, a spokesman for the Clinton campaign. “Any reading into it beyond that is outrageous.”

Video: http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/">Clinton Clarifies RFK Comments

What the hell is she talking about? Where is the apology to Obama and all Americans?

[Hope And Change]

1. She can go and fuck herself.Fucking witch!

[Kittycat]

2. ProSense...

Can you dig up the other two references she made to RFK in the past? It's like she keeps dropping it over and over again. Couple the latest, with Huckabee's comment last week, and what a disaster!

[ProSense]

6. Someone needs to keep track of all her weird comments and gaffes.

One despicable comment after another, and the excuses keep coming.

[Kittycat]

10. Here's one - on BenSmith's blog

Not the first time

This isn't the first time Clinton has invoked Bobby Kennedy's assassination as part of an argument about the length of the primary process. On March 6 she told Time :

I think people have short memories. Primary contests used to last a lot longer. We all remember the great tragedy of Bobby Kennedy being assassinated in June in L.A. My husband didn't wrap up the nomination in 1992 until June, also in California. Having a primary contest go through June is nothing particularly unusual. We will see how it unfolds as we go forward over the next three to four months.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/

[geiger]

3. HRC now "regrets" comments is the headline I saw on CNN coming in the door home

Isn't there a time to be sorry?

Except she isn't.

After engaging in race baiting of the worst kind anyone can imagine, the only thing she's sorry about is that Obama didn't respond with FAUX outrage. He doesn't have to, because everyone already knows she's gone out of her mind. BUT, how cool is Obama. And look at the parrot video on my signature line for some comic relief. This whole thing has gotten out of control. Everyone, even the parrot, wants her out.

[populistdriven]

4. Hardball question for Hillary

Can anyone tell us reasons why a political candidate would invoke assassination as a reason to continue running in a race which there is no mathematical way of winning possible?

[Ichingcarpenter]

5. Its her New Campaign of Hope

That's what it is....... she is staying in the race even though she can't win
but Hope someone gets whacked

She has loss her soul to the dark side.

[Kittycat]

7. Did they pose it to the panel to answer?

If so - what did they say? Stuck in a hotel room with only CNN (god save me).

[ProSense]

11. It makes no sense.

Seriously, who says this sort of thing? Your average person doesn’t say it, let alone somebody running for president. Hillary Clinton didn’t lose this race because she was a victim of sexism. She lost this race because people are tired of her clawing for power and running over everything to do it.

link

Clinton Invokes Assassination of RFK

by BooMan
Fri May 23rd, 2008 at 05:30:17 PM EST

I don't know how stupid Hillary Clinton thinks the American public is but it is somewhere around massively stupid.

<...>

If you look at a timeline of events leading up to the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago, you'll note that George McGovern didn't announce his candidacy until August 10th, a mere sixteen days before the convention commenced. As for Humphrey, he wasn't even on the ballot in the states that held primaries. He entered the race too late for that, after LBJ announced he would not seek or accept the Democratic nomination:

Robert Kennedy's assassination certainly changed the balance of power in the nominating process, but Humphrey was ultimately nominated on the first ballot despite not having earned the delegates at the ballot box. McGovern offered himself as a candidate at the last moment. The rules have changed since 1968, but the fundamentals are the same. If, God forbid, Barack Obama was to be assassinated before the convention in Denver, all the delegates would be free to pick whomever they like, whether they have been part of the campaign or not. Clinton doesn't get more of a claim to the nomination because she gets the maximum number of delegates in the three remaining contests. She already has the claim that she won the second most delegates. Further campaigning does not add to that claim.

But to raise the specter of assassination as a rationale to stay in the campaign is completely tasteless, especially with Teddy Kennedy's recent diagnosis with brain cancer. The fact that it doesn't even make any sense just adds to the ominous feeling that there is an implied threat. Of course, she has now apologized for any misunderstanding.

In any case, this is, at a minimum, an extremely unfortunate turn of phrase that insults our intelligence. Perhaps she merely meant to refer to the June part of the situation, as she claims, but we already have a candidate that has won the majority of the earned delegates. He will be our nominee unless there is a compelling reason to choose someone else. If that happens, Clinton already has the strongest claim to be his replacement and further campaigning only undermines her chances of winning over Obama's delegates. As she travels the country on her Insult Your Intelligence Tour she is bound to continue to give offense.

(emphasis added)

Hillary is despicable.

[backscatter712]

8. With any luck, the karma for Hillary's RFK remark will put a stake through her campaign's heart.

Hope some more supers endorse or even flip and put an end to this primary.

[K Gardner]

9. She referenced assassination on MARCH 6th??!! This was NO MISSPEAK !

[ProSense]

12. No it wasn't n/t

[ProSense]

13. "waiting for your opponent’s assassination is NOT a viable campaign strategy"

I Have Had Enough:

Justin Gardner is exactly right; waiting for your opponent’s assassination is NOT a viable campaign strategy.