Saturday, May 24, 2008
Clinton crosses the final line?: "[RFK] was assassinated in June in California."
A statement by Hillary Clinton to an editorial board sent the press (rightfully) into a feeding frenzy on Friday. The South Dakota newspaper the Argus Leader asked The Senator why she didn’t believe the party was fracturing due to the protracted contest. Clinton said “my husband didn’t wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June.”
“We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California,” she continued. If you've been a reader of All This Is That for any time at all, you probably know that she is treading on sacred ground here. She has fiddled with, and shamelessly exploited, our worst fears by invoking the name of a great Democratic hero who was struck down as he was on the very precipice of greatness. Correction: he had finally achieved greatness, we were just slow to catch up to it. To me, at least, the death of RFK was far more tragic than even the assassination of his brother because it was not just a President, but hope itself that was extinguished that bleak June day in 1968. Not just because it paved the way to the Nixon Presidency, but because the end of the Vietnam War, the granting of true Civil Rights, and the escalation of the war on poverty ended that night. How dare Senator Clinton even obliquely bring this up in reference to Senator Obama! Her feeble and disingenuous "apology" cuts no ice with anyone. As far as I am concerned, she doesn't deserve to be elected the dogcatcher of Camden, New Jersey. She shouldn't be allowed to even attend the Democratic Convention in Denver.
After the New York Post story made the rounds of the press corps on blogs, text messages, and the Drudge Report, reporters here at Clinton’s town hall meeting abandoned any pretense of listening to the event, searching out the first Clinton flak-catcher they could find for a response.
Campaign spokesman Mo Elleithee gave reporters what they were looking for. “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,” he said. This is a steaming cauldron of ca-ca, and Hillary Clinton has once again crossed the line. I wouldn't be at all surprised if this isn't the final deal-breaker on the burgeoning "Draft Hill for Veep" movement. It probably should be...
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