Clinton Kennedy Assassination Reference: Raises Bobby’s Death To Explain Why She Stays In Race
Hillary Clinton’s argument for staying in the race took a disturbing turn today. While meeting with the editorial board of South Dakota’s Sioux Falls Argus-Leader, she raised the specter of assassination while discussing why she would stay in the race:
“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.
What was she thinking?? I am not even going to type out the first thing that popped into my head when I heard this. Its too terrible to even suggest out loud.
I can’t believe she did this. Nothing is ever said in these campaigns by accident, especially given that this was a taped interview.
I know she has apologized, but she got it out there first.
Unbelievable.
For responses to her comments, go here.
UPDATE: Here is Hillary clarifying her comments:
49 Comments
May 23, 2008 at 2:18 pm
The timing of this statement is also bizarre. Of course, its Friday afternoon, and, a holiday weekend..
May 23, 2008 at 2:21 pm
Perhaps she is trying to go out in a blaze of press/media glory. People will be talking about her over the weekend, and not Obama.
How cynical am I..?
May 23, 2008 at 2:21 pm
So what you’re saying, muse, is that she’s drunk already?
May 23, 2008 at 2:24 pm
Maybe not drunk.. She wasn’t slurring enough..
May 23, 2008 at 2:25 pm
Some people hide it well. Bush doesn’t slur all the time, but he sure as hell isn’t giving his policies much sober thought.
May 23, 2008 at 2:27 pm
Too much Crown Royal?
May 23, 2008 at 2:28 pm
That must be it. She can afford the good stuff.
May 23, 2008 at 2:38 pm
There can be no tolerance for what she said. Perhaps some here are not old enough to recall 1968 – in fact the chaos and turmoil of the 60’s altogether – but Hillary surely has the memories. She has often said she’d stay in the race because you “never know what could happen” or there could be an “act of god” or some other oblique comment. Today’s comment is inexcusable. These things don’t happen carelessly – she is too calculating, too carefully prepped, too experienced (her own word!) — her supporters are fanatical.
It’s time for them to calm down and face the reality.
More than that, it is time for the super delegates to get off the fence and jump on Obama’s side, making Fl and MI moot, and shut down this campaign.
Why would he ever ask her to be VP when she is already thinking he may be assassinated.
LBJ is still thought of as having ordered a hit job on JFK. They were an unlikely duo in the White House too.
May 23, 2008 at 2:45 pm
I remember it Marie. I was living in California and watched it as it happened on the television. I will never forget that moment.
May 23, 2008 at 3:08 pm
I’m beginning to wonder about her sanity, and that of her fanatical supporters. First of all, in the first clip she just blatantly lies when she says Obama has expressed “an urgency to end this”. How many times has he been publicly deferential to her and suggested she should stay in as long as she wants to? The Clintons are pathological liars, and it’s amazing to watch.
Then there is this reported by CNN:
Who the hell do these people think they are to believe that Clinton has a RIGHT to be offered the VP spot, and to decide what is “unacceptable”? She talks in the clip about it being “unprecedented in history” that the runner up candidate should have pressure to bow out – what history book is she reading? It happens every four years in both parties where there is a nominating competition. Huckabee was under pressure early to drop out, was he not?
What is historically unprecedented, I think, is for the runner-up to be ENTITLED to the VP position. WTF?
I had been thinking that Clinton as VP would be assassination insurance for Obama because the right wing hates her as much as they fear him. But now I’m thinking Clinton as VP is more dangerous still – some of her backers are seriously nuts.
May 23, 2008 at 3:15 pm
You have got to make these questions harder for me.
Answer:
NeoCon traitors. They are not democrats and do not want the change we want. They need to be run out of the country with any Bush supporters left. They are traitors and are trying to steal this election, just like they did for Bush in 2000 and 2004.
Just talk to one of these people and you will see that they are just like the trolls at TP. They want to bring this country down.
If they want a civil war inside the party, it is Clinton that is fueling it.
May 23, 2008 at 3:16 pm
Damn, it just keep’s getting worse all the time..
I have met a few grown up’s in my life, none were polatician’s….Blessings
May 23, 2008 at 3:25 pm
This was an incredibly divisive thing to do. Think about it. Of course it would inflame Obama supporters and then cause her supporters to rush to her defense to defend her. This kind of thing just has to stop.
Her clarifying her statement means nothing to me. It is consistent with all the twisted, underhanded tactics she has been using all along.
Like today: CNN reports how the Clinton camp and the Obama are in talks about the VP slot. She came out this afternoon yelling that it is 100%false, and then blames the Obama camp for putting it out there (giving the impression that it is Obama dirty tricks of some sort or other). But, CNN stands by their reporting that the story came from people within the Clinton ‘inner circle’ themselves.
http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/05/hillary_accuses_obama_campaign.php
Divisive and manipulative. I’ve had enough.
May 23, 2008 at 3:54 pm
1968. I was in Modesto and went down to the local train station to see RFK’s campaign come through. Just like every photo I’d ever seen from the decades before, the candidate came out on the platform at the rear of the train and gave a brief speech. A few days later, I was with friends in Seattle, playing cards when someone came through from another room to tell us that he’d been shot. We thought it was a joke in very poor taste, since JFK had been killed only a relatively few years before. For Clinton to suggest that she has to stay in the race on the off chance that someone shoots Obama is obscene.
May 23, 2008 at 4:08 pm
She’s lost whatever credibility she had. Yesmaam, he might get assasinated. That could happen. But that doesn’t mean that you’d become the Democratic candidate by default if that unthinkable act was committed.
No entitlement.
No royalty
And don’t you forget it.
May 23, 2008 at 5:03 pm
Keith Olbermann is doing another “Special Comment” tonight. I do believe it is on Hillary’s remarks this afternoon..
May 23, 2008 at 5:13 pm
Keith just said that any chance of Hillary being the VP just flew out the window.
I agree.
May 23, 2008 at 6:02 pm
Hillary’s toast.
That was the most angry, passionate, SCATHING Special Comment I have heard yet. Even more than the last one. If you didn’t see it, watch for his later broadcast.
I’ll post it as soon as its up.
Seriously.. TOAST!
May 23, 2008 at 6:04 pm
And that apology.. Who was she apologizing to? It certainly wasn’t Obama – you know the guy she was suggesting might be assassinated..
I didn’t realize it was third time she had brought this up.
May 23, 2008 at 6:18 pm
She was not thinking! I remember a certain November when I was walking up the steps of the Engineering Hall at Texas A&M and I heard that JFK had been shot. On learning of his death the life drained from my soul. The people who inspire the nation must not be slain because of their success. Anyone who alludes to such a notion does not deserve to serve in our nation’s government!
May 23, 2008 at 6:38 pm
That bitch just blew herself out of this race. She lies, manipulates, she makes inflammatory statements — she is done.
I hope Keith plays again tonight, I need to see that comment. I’ve been out of touch all day today.
May 23, 2008 at 6:47 pm
Zooey, you won’t believe it. I know I cry easy, but I was sobbing.
I still can’t believe any candidate could suggest what Hillary suggested today – and then to not admit your mistake or apologize to Obama. I am still sick about this.
May 23, 2008 at 6:48 pm
Z,
Do not loose sleep over Keith! It will be all over YouTube by the AM. He did not compliment her in the least. I am shutting down now. Sweet dreams and kiss your mom for me, if not all of us.
May 23, 2008 at 6:49 pm
Her “apology” was obviously forced, and she didn’t mean a word of it. And she didn’t even say anything to Obama.
Where the hell did that statement even come from? Who thinks like that?
May 23, 2008 at 6:51 pm
Zooey, she actually said it in March, then again after that but without so blatant of a suggestion of assassination. This thing today was horribly blatant and there was no mistake about what she was talking about.
She had better pull out tomorrow. She has NO shame and should NEVER step foot in the WH again. She should NOT be president of this country, and most definitely NOT VP.
May 23, 2008 at 6:52 pm
Thank you, Walt. I will.
May 23, 2008 at 6:53 pm
No muse, I don’t think Michelle Obama would allow Hillary to be a heartbeat away from the presidency.
May 23, 2008 at 6:53 pm
How’s your mom today?
May 23, 2008 at 6:55 pm
It’s almost as if she’s trying to plant a subliminal message in some kook’s brain.
If I were really paranoid, I’d think she knows something is in the works, and she’s trying to look “prophetic.”
May 23, 2008 at 6:55 pm
Isn’t this music night?
May 23, 2008 at 6:56 pm
Me, neither, muse. I did not know that this is the (at least) the third time she’s brought up the specter of assassination, and to do it at a time when Sen Kennedy is on everyone’s mind. (Best wishes for a speedy recovery, Senator. I know you’re a fan of The Zoo!
) This particular invocation was ill-timed, insenstive, and inappropriate. It was also, as Keith said (and I did to Jane two minutes before) an “apples and oranges” comparison to say that because the process had not produced a nominee as late as June in previous contests, that it an equivalent situation today, when the entire process started ridiculously early and knowcked out the better candidates too soon. Besides, her husband’s nomination was as certain as Obama’s has been for some time by the California primary, and it was only then that he technically went over the top. Senator Clinton’s mathematical chances were nil a long time ago.
May 23, 2008 at 6:57 pm
Someone else told me a few days ago that Hillary should never be his running mate because they seriously feared something bad would happen to him – that they felt she wanted the presidency to bad and didn’t want to wait.
She went a long way today to convince people that they have reason to fear that.
I think she doesn’t get JUST how horrible what she suggested was.
May 23, 2008 at 6:58 pm
I put up music..
May 23, 2008 at 6:59 pm
Her apology was not saying sorry about how inappropriate her comments were. It was an un-apology.
May 23, 2008 at 7:00 pm
Keith is on again. I’m going to go sit and watch it. I only caught bits of it earlier.
May 23, 2008 at 7:06 pm
No, muse, she doesn’t.
And since this is a public thread, I want to be honest about my feelings about this (all kidding aside.) I am a New Yorker, and she is one of my US Senators. I did not want her to run for president, and I am unhappy about the way her campaign has been run. (Words like “thoroughly despicable” and “morally deprived” come to mind, but that’s a different topic.) I want to believe that she really thinks she has something to gain other that the nomination by staying in the race, but the facts outside of her explanations paint a different picture.
That having been said, I do not believe for a moment that she was trying to plant the idea in anyone’s head to do the unthinkable, but I do believe that she was unforgivably insensitive to the ramifications of bringing up the subject of assassination, even indirectly, as she was merely stressing the time frame and not the event itself.
She needs to “suspend” her campaign due to “mounting debt” (to herself), and lay low for a while.
Please excuse me while I go check in on the Mets game with Jane. I shall return.
And don’t give up on the logic problem. Zooey, I’m looking in your direction.
You can do it!
“Think of the possibilities.”
May 23, 2008 at 7:09 pm
Wayne, I just spent 12 hours in a hospital. I have nothing left. Thanks for having so much faith in me.
May 23, 2008 at 7:13 pm
Can you sneak off for a glass of wine and put your feet up?
May 23, 2008 at 7:15 pm
I don’t believe she was trying to plant the idea in anyone’s head. But suggesting something like that happening opening the door for her to win the nomination is abominable.
May 23, 2008 at 7:16 pm
Not tonight, I left my keys in the hospital room. I’m seriously considering acquiring a stash in my room.
May 23, 2008 at 7:17 pm
No room service..?
May 23, 2008 at 7:17 pm
Oh good, Ketih is on here…
May 23, 2008 at 7:18 pm
Wish I was closer. I’d come pick you up and take you out for a glass somewhere and get something good to eat.
May 23, 2008 at 7:18 pm
No room service.
May 23, 2008 at 7:19 pm
Blass you, muse.
Start driving.
May 23, 2008 at 7:19 pm
Jesus, my spelling sucks tonight.
May 23, 2008 at 7:19 pm
Yeah, I might get there by next week..
May 23, 2008 at 7:21 pm
I’m hoping to be out of here by then.
Please, Flying Spaghetti Monster, let me get out of Illinois soon.
May 23, 2008 at 9:44 pm
Unfreakinbelievable.