I like Keith Olbermann. I really do but his trumping this remark into a ‘hint hint’ is ridiculous. In fact it’s pathetic. Is it really that hard to see that she was referencing her husband in 1992 and Bobby kennedy in 1968 as historical examples of the nominating contests going well into the summer?
I like Hillary and I think she would make a good president but lately she’s been faultering. She does need to step down to help the party. But to assume she meant something dark by that comment is really stupid.
I agree with the OP. It was really tactless of her on multiple levels, really thoughtless, and does not speak well of her judgment at all, but it was not intended to suggest a hope that Obama will be assassinated. It’s comparable to Obama’s “clinging to guns” comment.
Olbermann said he did not believe for a second that Hillary was hoping for an assassination. His rant was that it was tasteless to brring it up (especially in light of Teddy’s recent diagnosis).
I think he went over the top with it but he didn’t accuse her of wanting Obama to get offed.
Obviously, Hillary didn’t mean anything by this at all…she’s just trying to justify her own prolonging of the campaign. But does anyone else feel like she’s at the brink of saying something really, really ill-advised? It seems like she’s not thinking before she talks and the desperation is really starting to show. I actually kind of hope she doesn’t have some crazy meltdown and can go out with a little dignity, but I don’t think it looks good.
– Experienced Attorney: Check
– Career politician/political wife with over 30 years of experience in the public eye: Check
– Widely believed to carefully tailor every position and speech to whatever demographic she’s speaking to: Check
The Clintons have spent decades carefully vetting and considering every single public word they say. Oh, but this time (well, OK, these last several times) it was just an honest (if inflammatory and pandering to the baser instincts of the electorate) slip of the lip that she unfortunately let fly. She was nervous – she’s not used to being interviewed. The pressure and the cameras and that mean ol’ Keith Olbermann made her say something she really didn’t mean.
Yeah, right.
But you know what? Let’s give her the benefit of the doubt. Let’s assume she didn’t mean to say exactly what she said. What do her (staggeringly inappropriate) words indicate about her a) inner nature and b) ability to act and react under pressure?
I’m not defending her remark. As a politician she should have known better. I didn’t say it wasn’t stupid, I just don’t believe she had a darker motive.
Like you, Sarahfeena, I would like to see her go out with a little grace. Good money is on a melt-down I’m guessing.
I’ve said it already in GD but damn I’m so pissed off by this that I need to say it again.
Olbermann may have made the points a bit large but he is spot on. This was not an off the cuff comment but a well rehearsed and repeated talking point made on multiple occasions. She was not just making a point about primaries going on into June. If that was her point then there were many others to choose when the race was still actually on in June - Mondale v Hart; Carter v Teddy Kennedy; so on (as Airblairxxx points out in GD). No, instead she opts to make a regular talking point to bring up two contrasting images: a June in which a Clinton wins and becomes President; and a June in which a young charismatic leader is murdered.
No, it is not an overt request for someone to off Obama for her, although some may hear that in what she said (fortunately though she is no Jodie Foster) but it is a willful premeditated and crass use of fearful imagery as a propaganda device and it is despicable.
I have no objection to her playing the Huckabee and stretching her campaign out until even her most ardent supporters question why she’s still here, but this sort of shit cannot be tolerated.
I should also mention that this seems, in many ways, to be a contest between the Kennedy wing of the Dems and the Clinton wing. Obama has grown from nothing to be their new Anointed One.
Teddy just gave him the hugest big slobbery kiss on both cheeks he could, when he asked Obama to give the commencement speech at Wellesley when he could not, as I see it.
Hill has to be real pissed at the Kennedys for not lying down for her. She won Mass, but that was when she knew she was in for a fight.
Regardless of her intentions or her lack of tact, it’s a stupid argument. Sure, maybe the 1968 nominating campaign lasted longer because RFK was assassinated. So what? Nobody running for president has died recently[sup]*[/sup], so how does that help justify her staying in the race? Besides, Obama could just as easily die after being nominated. Maybe she’d like to hang around until Inauguration Day? Maybe Mike Huckabee should come back just in case, too.
[sub]*there’s a Zombie McCain joke in here somewhere, but I’m too sleepy to find it[/sub]
I have reviewed that clip about 6 times, and there is just nothing there to even remotely justify the shitstorm over this. She was clearly underlining the fact that there is nothing unusual in a nomination campaign going into June. Which is true, but ignores that fact that it started so much earlier than any of the rest.
We are all pretty much sick of this, and we haven’t even gotten to the really ugly part. To steal from Lenny, election season is a shit sandwhich, and each day is a little less mayonnaise.
Having thought about it slightly past the edit window… obviously the campaign was already lasting into June when RFK died… it didn’t go into June because of the assassination. ::smack::. So campaigns lasting this long aren’t unprecedented. Which is all she needed to say.
You just reminded me of a piece of right-wing e-mail glurge Dad sent me a couple of weeks ago. It was a fictional letter from Senator Clinton to John Hinckley, in which she expresses her support for Hinckley’s being given a day pass from St. Elizabeth’s (IIRC, he’d petitioned the court for modification of his sentence a while back; smart of the glurge to refer to that). Pretty much your standard politican’s letter of encouragement – except for the postscript, which reads:
“By the way, Barack Obama is fucking Jodie Foster.”
Of course, I deleted it immediately after reading it; however, it shows that the meme of Senator Clinton wanting something bad to happen to Senator Obama
has been out there a while; it may not have come from the Clintons, but they’d almost certainly be made aware of it at some point.
There are enough concerns about Obama’s security (and Hillary’s) that the word “assassination” is like the third rail of political speech. There are enough whack jobs out there that would need no more encouragement than this to go out and try to be the new Oswald. To bring it up and do so repeatedly shows a lack of discipline at best and at worst a window into a very dark mind. This is a woman who exploited John Kerry’s “stuck in Iraq” joke for political gain. This is a woman who exploited Obama’s “bitter” comment for political gain. She has played the race card, the gender card, the sympathy card, etc. repeatedly through the campaign. She coyly left open the possibility (which she knows full well to be false) of Obama’s being a Muslim: "He’s not a Muslim, as far as I know." She played the Jeremiah Wright controversy like a cheap fiddle. She condemned Obama’s association with a Weatherman (who was never found guilty of anything 40 years ago) although her own husband pardoned two of them. She has stopped at nothing in her quest for what she believes she is entitled to. Now we’re supposed to give her the benefit of the doubt? When she wouldn’t give it to Kerry? When she wouldn’t give it to Obama? When her “apology” was the sort where you say “Gee, I’m sorry that you’re stupid enough to get offended by what I said.”?
Enough is enough. This campaign needs to be put out of its misery. She has been given the benefit of too many doubts. She is unfit for the office she seeks, and probably for the office she holds. If her loyal supporters won’t come on board for Obama, he’ll have to win without them. There is no need to placate her, no need to have her on the ticket. She just needs to get off the stage that she has polluted far too long with her slimy presence.
Calls to C-Span this morning ran 5 to 1 against her, including one woman who said she has supported Hillary through the whole campaign but can no longer do so. Others called for her to resign her (Robert Kennedy) Senate seat. She’s made a mess.
You have to fell a little sorry for her … usually bringing up martyred Dems is a helpful tactic.
I for one am a little relieved that if the dreadful A-word did occur, it would be blamed on her instead of the Republicans. Or is that just wishful thinking (the blame part not the action)?
We’ve disagreed about things in the past, DSeid, but I’m cosigning with you like crazy about this.
I’ve given Hillary passes throughout this contest, but I’m not doing that anymore. Even if this was an innocent gaffe–which I firmly believe it wasn’t–the idea that her lizard brain is so preoccupied with RFK’s assassination that it leads her to make bizarre references to it bothers me. And I say “references” because this isn’t the first time she has reminded us of RFK’s adventures in 1968.
Not only was RFK killed that year so but so was MLK. Obama has been compared to both (well, he’s been compared to JFK…but you know what I mean.)
I don’t think she wants Obama to be killed. But do I think she wants to use the public’s fear of that to her advantage? Hell to the yes. This is why she keeps bringing up RFK. It’s a fear tactic.
That’s exactly what I was thinking. I wouldn’t put it past her for a minute to try to exploit the death of Bobby Kennedy. That’s exactly the kind of thing she would do, and she’s just full enough of herself to not realize that it might backfire on her.
And it possible, though I think more remote, that she was trying to put a scare into Obama (“you never know what might happen, with all these bigoted right-wing crazies running around…”), but it’s too late for that…if he hasn’t been scared off by the blogosphere and the spam e-mails, he’s not scareable.
When I said above that she didn’t mean anything by it, I meant that she wasn’t hinting that it would be a great idea if it happened. Even Hillary’s not that crass. Or dumb.