June was the point. That's what she was trying to highlight.

[Skip Intro]

She was taking something someone would remember to make her point that primary contests have gone this long before. It wasn't the smartest thing she's ever done, but she was not trying say she needs to stay in because such an event could occur this year. And I think all the perpetually outraged Obama fans know this.

[LoZoccolo]

1. Lame explanation is lame. n/t

[papau]

11. She said she regretted using RFK 68 as part of expanation of why she's still in race

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/05/23/clinton.comments /

she regretted comments that evoked the June 1968 assassination of Robert Kennedy as part of her explanation for why she was staying in the presidential race late into the primary season.

[LibraLiz1973]

She regretted that idiots took what she said WAY out of context

and used it to bash her.

[CaptJasHook]

61. Yep. Just like I have seen Hillary supporter after Hillary supporter

take Obama, members of his campaign and his supporters way out of context as well.

Petard. Hoist away.

[Yael]

49. I'm sure she does regret it.

Or someone told her that "she regrets it" and she was able to repeat the line.

[Occam Bandage]

58. Of course she regrets it. She just fucked up enormously. This could hurt her brand badly.

[DevonRex]

31. And if all she meant was June, she would have just fuckin said JUNE. So

I agree with you. Lame explanation.

[skooooo]

2. IGGY

[alteredstate]

3. Yep, you're right.

It definitely wasn't the smartest thing she's ever done.

[Writer]

4. Pssst. It's a freak show. Just sit back and enjoy it.

Of course they know this.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

5. Why didn't she say that the '68 nomination went through June then? Why meniton "assassination"

at all?

[LucyParsons]

What s/he said!!!!!!!

DUH. She didn't have to say it that way. And if she's too tired from the campaign trail to speak properly, how can we trust her to answer those 3am calls!

:rofl:

:puke:

[rudy23]

17. Exactly. That's why this was a lie. You'd think with Ted Kennedy's illness in the news this week,

that she would be extra aware of not mentioning something like that.

She's too good a politician and too smart a person to not be thinking about that.

[Arkansas Granny]

38. What makes it a lie? Maybe you don't like that she said it, but it's not a lie.

[McSame]

74. And because it's not a LIE you are still supporting this

person for the leadership of the most powerful nation in the world? Like she's going to say all the RIGHT things only AFTER she gets elected? Like when she's in talks with Iran, (not some Sioux Falls SD newspaper), she will suddenly be tactful??

Hello, honesty is not the ONLY quality we look for, we look for tact, diplomacy, and sensitivity to the issues facing the world.

Hillary has a failure on most, if not all of these points.

[Carolina]

48. she's proven she's not that smart

after all she trusted Bush when she voted for IWR.

She's also proven she's a craven liar who will do and say anything to feed her egotistical quest for power.

And finally, her campaign has shown that she's not such a good politician.

[BklynChick]

6. everything the Clintons say is purposeful. why are you finding excuses for such a disgusting

statement?

[rateyes]

25. I'm for Obama, but I've yet to hear anyone say why Hillary would

purposefully make such a stupid-assed statement. She does want the nomination, or at the least the VP slot. She would have to know that, purposefully spoken, she would be toast. Just as she is toast for making this dumbass gaffe.

[Writer]

40. Here's my question: How did the NY Post pick up on this story and run with it?

Reporters for these rags jump on phoned in tips from in-the-know contacts. Someone tipped the Post on this. Who?

[Carolina]

56. the fact that the original source was the NY Post

is irrelevant especially since HRC has cozied up to its owner Rupert Murdoch!

[tekisui]

7. Bullshit. She fucked up big time.

[rateyes]

28. You're right. She fucked up.

[Birthmark]

8. Shhhh!

You'll knock the head off their frothy indignation.

Then they'll really go nuts!

[Lucky 13]

9. She apologized to the wrong person!

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

10. June was the month Kennedy was assassinated was her point for what?

The Battle of Waterloo was in june.

So what's the point?

[wileedog]

12. That is the reason that it was so stupid

Because it leaves the question open for interpretation. And no, I don't think she is "hoping" for a bullet.

But I didn't see a lot of leeway given to him on his "bitter" comments. I wouldn't expect much quarter here if I were you.

BTW, this is besides the fact that her point is complete disingenuous because primaries started much later back then.

[LiberalAndProud]

13. Nixon won.

And her point would be what?

[BklynChick]

14. We all know very well what her point was. Sick fuck.

[dcindian]

15. She hurt the family of others with her venomous uncaring attack.

Feel for people not a political career.

[countingbluecars]

16. Sounded to me like

she said she is staying in the race just in case her opponent gets killed. Pretty sick to say it out loud.

[DerekJ]

18. Oh, just shut up.

[mcctatas]

19. Then she should have stopped after bill didn't clinch it until june

sweet suffering mary, what will it take?

[DevonRex]

20. That is absolute and total bullshit. Goodbye. nt

[John Q. Citizen]

21. i'm tired of making excuses for people named Clinton. Aren't you?

[LibraLiz1973]

22. I'm sorry, are you over here trying to REASON with these nutjobs?

They see and hear what they want.

It's insanity.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

29. i concur

[LisaM]

23. Of course they know it.

The overreaction seems very concerted, too. I swear they've got some list of people to ping and come start over-the-top threads. They MUST, or they would open DU and see there are already twenty threads on the same subject, with almost the same title.

The real issue is the desperation to drive Hillary from the race. They're frantic for Obama to win and Hillary to lose. I've never seen any candidate (or perhaps I should say his supporters and media surrogates) try so hard to run out the clock. Of course, Hillary has done far better than Obama since March 1st - and may pick up a lot more votes in Puerto Rico.

[Writer]

34. I think Axelrod leaked this suggestion to the NY Post because he needs an excuse...

not to put her on the ticket. They need to get rid of her somehow.

An assassination? Try a character assassination. It's obvious that she was referring to running in June, and she has said this a couple of times previously with no uproar.

It's one of those things I can feel in my bones. All you can do is get the popcorn, sit back, and enjoy the BS.

:hug:

~Writer~

[SemiCharmedQuark]

44. Yes, it's all David Axelrod's fault. He made her say it three times.

I don't believe that she's trying to murder Obama, and I don't believe she is hoping that he is assassinated. That being said, her comment was wrong and it should not be defended.

[Writer]

51. Her comment is being made to sound evil when she had no evil intent. n/t

[SemiCharmedQuark]

65. It was a stupid and thoughtless comment at best.

It shouldn't be defended any more than it should be taken as proof that she is the devil.

[Carolina]

68. Bullshit, and BTW Axelrod didn't leak squat

Turn on your TV and there's your girl in all her vileness making the statement herself.

And yes, she's evil, vile, vicious, desperate and despicable

[LisaM]

54. That's a good point.

Yesterday, I was thinking how strange it was that everything seems to stack in Obama's favor (the two Hillary-leaning states that didn't get to have primaries, for example, the over-representation of caucus states at the beginning, the careful sprinkling out of SD endorsements, I could go on and on, you get the picture). You've just pointed out that it is surely no accident. It's the most poisonous campaign I've seen on the Democratic side in my memory.

[Writer]

67. Well I don't buy that everything stacks in Obama's favor; however,

I do see a very effective media campaign executed by Axelrod. In fact, I'll say that he has orchestrated one of the best whisper campaigns since Bush's 2000 bid. When your candidate is a relative unknown running against a known candidate with high negatives, it's easy to leak suggestions to the media that the known candidate has done an evil deed. This certainly is one. He was doing television today, for Pete's sake!

[LisaM]

70. Well, I was probably using hyperbole - a habit of mine.

But I completely agree about the whisper campaign. It's effective, particularly when you combine with the relentless attacks on Hillary that begain in 1992. And I mean relentless. I had a friend who called her a b**** right before the primaries started - and she doesn't even dislike her! (She did apologize). I've also lost another friend completely over this election - she complains about "some of the things Hillary said" and then can't name one, for God's sake. And this was someone that I see eye-to-eye with ideologically.

[Writer]

73. It's the building of impressions.

It's cursory knowledge. You can't actually say why you believe something about a person in the news, but you just "know" it somehow. I remember Al Gore's speech during the run-up to the Iraq War. In that speech he discussed the impressions that the Bush administration used in order to link Hussein to Al Qaeda, etc. The Bush Admin. dismissed him as "irrelevant," of course, but the impression a politician or a celebrity builds with the public is far more important than anything factual.

[slinkerwink]

77. It was during the EDITORIAL VIDEOTAPED MEETING WITH THE SD NEWSPAPER

that she made the comment.

[Carolina]

66. WTF: "The real issue is the desperation to drive Hillary

from the race." Oh puhleeze. Hillary is so fucking desperate she will do and say anything... she's the one whose kitchnen sink sewage is engulfing her since she didn't wrap the nomination up by Feb 5th, despite her sense of entitlement.

Hillary and Hilbots... desperate, delusional, despicable.

[ProSense]

24. Hillary doesn't know what the hell she's talking about. Also, her BS excuse doesn't make sense

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.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

26. anyone who thinks or interjects anything else is so filled with hate it is TOXIC

and it must suck to be them

[NanceGreggs]

27. If "June was the point" ...

... why did she bring up RFK's assassination? Why not say something positive, e.g. "The Party rallied around my husband's nomination late in the season, and elected him president, not once but twice."

This was NOT the first time she has referenced assassination during this campaign. So there goes the "unintended gaffe" excuse.

And now her latest excuse is that she's had the Kennedys on her mind of late. Did she honestly think that bringing up RFK's death would "cheer them up" after the bad news they received this week about Ted?

Jesus H. Christ. The idea that anyone would make excuses for this behaviour is almost as sickening as the behaviour itself.

[Barack_America]

64. If you look at when she has mentioned RFK's assassination.

It tends to coincide with when she needs superdelegates to freeze.

She also mentioned this in the early March issue of TIME.

"So there goes the "unintended gaffe" excuse"

Indeed.

[Window]

81. Absolutely. Simply, "there have been other contests that weren't

decided until June," would have sufficed.

[Ichingcarpenter]

30. Hillary's Boat........ Obama's Super Delegates? ....Any Questions?

[DeschutesRiver]

32. If the reference had only been to June, as in length of time,

and that were in fact the point, then any reference to the reason WHY various campaigns ended in June would of course be irrelevant. Because under that scenerio, she would be making a point of contest "lengths", and of course the reason why wouldn't matter - makes no difference if they end by someone resigning, someone gaining an insurmountable lead, or someone being assassinated.

She brought up that she was staying in, and one of the reasons was that Kennedy's ended in an assassination, so you never know what event could happen and that is why she doesn't understand those urging her to drop out. She was the one who gave reasons, and strayed from this "I was only talking about length of run, not reason why" excuse.

[neverforget]

33. Right it's not like she wants to be President or anything......

:eyes:

[Riverman]

35. BS! It's Clinton Code Again

Remind people that something may happen to her opponent, because he's not getting the hard-working white male votes, and, you know, shhhhh - not too loud - they won't vote for a Black man, hell they might even _ _ _ _ _ him. Oh no, I'm not saying for a moment that something might happen, but you never know. Look what happened to Bobbie Kennedy. So, I'm staying in the race, just in case! That's all. Right Bill?

[NotThisTime]

36. Could have said the '88 race as well, but no... we go to RFK and assassinations...

[anigbrowl]

37. She tried, and failed very, very badly. .nt

[ProSense]

46. It's amazing that people can freak out about "sweetie," and then turn around and defend

casual references to an assassination.

[Carolina]

39. BULLSHIT!

Then she could have stopped after she said her husband didn't get the nomination until after California in June.

But no, that was not enough. She was channeling her wishes.

She's vile and despicable, and you Hilbots absurd to excuse this latest outrage.

[Arkansas Granny]

41. You know that, I know that, even they know that. They look for any excuse

to get all up in arms and this was the excuse d'jour. There is nothing Clinton can say that Obama's most ardent supporters won't twist to make it sound hateful or threatening.

[Carolina]

75. And Granny you need some Aricept

because you're the demented one trying to spin and twist HRC's comments.

In her quest for power by whatever means, Shrillary has shown her inner evil. She knew damn well what she was saying and indeed, was channeling her wishes... maybe one of those hard-working working white bigots in her Appalachian constituency will get the hint!

[genna]

42. Seriously, even a Hillary supporter would have to admit that this was highly INAPPROPRIATE and

WRONG.

June?

If your significant other goes to the store, takes 4 hours to come back and has lipstick on their face/freshly showered/wearing different clothes, DO YOU THINK THEY MIGHT HAVE FORGOTTEN TO TELL YOU SOMETHING?


GET A CLUE.

[intaglio]

43. Free Publicity

trouble is she'll have to pay for it one day - and the sooner the better

[pdxmom]

45. She was asked why she was staying in the race. She responded

that, in part, it was because Kennedy was assassinated in June. We've heard for at least 2 weeks all of her surrogates talking about how "something could happen". It's been commented on around here several times, and now, I guess we know what they've all been alluding to.

[Yael]

47. Pity her subliminal took over

[Skidmore]

50. It is the third time she's said something like this.

This woman has such poor judgment.

[Warren Stupidity]

52. Reasons to stay in race: RFK killed in month of June.

OK.

[ChimpersMcSmirkers]

53. No excuse...by staying in "just in case" means that's what she's counting on

[my3boyz]

55. Mmmmmhmmmm...yeah right! nt

[Occam Bandage]

57. There are plenty of ways to say June without saying assassination.

[Barack_America]

59. Then she could have left out the assassination.

The fact that the primaries went to June was sufficient. Why has she never mentioned the '84 and '80 June primaries?

Sorry, but that dog ain't gonna hunt.

[Jed Dilligan]

60. So why wasn't it "RFK wasn't nominated until June"?

Why was it "RFK was assassinated in June"?

Being nominated for POTUS by a major party and being shot to death are both equally memorable events. Why did she go with the negative instead of the positive?

[alwysdrunk]

62. But she didn't have to say "assassinated" though

She could have talked about the guy who was the nominee or just said that nomination wasn't decided until June. She said RFK, the front-runner, didn't win because he was assassinated.

[theboss]

63. I just think she is far too careful a candidate to mention RFK without a purpose

She has not gone off script since 1982. There was a reason for mentioning RFK.

[Phx_Dem]

69. If she was only making a point about June,

why didn't she simply use her husband's nomination as an example? Not to mention the point is mute anyway because the order and length of the contest is different than it was in 1992 and 1968. In 1968, they didn't even start holding primary elections until mid-March.

This is not the first time she's made reference to assassinations in relation to Obama.

She's a pig. Admit it.

:puke:

[Carolina]

71. excellent point, in fact

in 1968, RFK didn't even throw his hat in the ring until March, and some were mad because they felt he waited until he saw Gene Mccarthy's success in New Hampshire.

HRC knew exactly what she was saying and she was channeling her wishes. So you are absolutely right, HRC is a pig. No, actually that's an insult to pigs. She's lower than whale shit.

[NashVegas]

72. I'm Not So Sure They Know This

They don't seem to have a very good sense of history, in spite of their BAs. Blame it on specialized education.

[slinkerwink]

76. IT WAS THE FUCKING WRONG HISTORICAL REFERENCE!

She's said it twice before.

[wanpete]

78. I'm by no means perpetually outraged, and I do not believe that her reference was just to highlight

the month of June. There are too many other ways she could have referenced it without talking about an assasinated popular politician.

[WA98070]

79. She's hoping we ignore the fact that there were meaningful primaries after June 3.

[Yotun]

80. What does it matter? I actually believe her- but the narrative in the media will be different

and this will get some airtime for a while, and will make her look bad. At least it will draw attention out of the popular argument pseudo-argument.

I certainly don't think senator Clinton is stupid enough to publicly argue that a good reason for staying in the race is the possible assasination of Barack Obama, and no matter how I dislike her, I don't think she's evil enough to actually wish for it, and don't believe its one of her reasons to be in the race. But at the end of the day- so what? She tried to make a falso argument that it doesn't matter if you stay till June, ignoring the fact that the timescales in those campaigns were different, and like divine punishment, she got in trouble for her dishonesty. And who actually 'cares' that she's been taken out of context? When Obama, Michelle and Wright were attacked with the most ridiculous manufactured controveries, the context of their actions was never presented by the media, only the 'controversy'. Hillary is getting to feel what she's been happy to attack Obama with all this time. So enjoy the treatment. And really, for such an old politician as her, she should know when to keep her mouth shut, and to think before she speaks. Really, when mentioning some really big events, you have to think a bit how they'll be portrayed. Some criticise Obama because he stutters when speaking on his feet. Thinking about what you say isn't such a bad think.

I almost feel sorry for her. Sad- if she HADN'T engaged in the tactics and politics she did, I might not have a problem with her on the ticket. No I just can't accept, and its not just personal. Her tactics have driven her negatives so high as to make her unconsideralbe.

[redsoxrudy]

82. As it has been said as nauseum

she just have said that sometimes nominations don't get wrapped up until June there is no reason to bring assassinations into the conversation. And I am sorry but I would give her the benefit of the doubt if this was the first time she had mentioned it but it is not.