Author
|
Topic: Clinton’s Reference to Slaying of Robert Kennedy Stirs Uproar (Read 916 times) |
|
Walter Watts
Archon
Gender: 
Posts: 1571
Reputation: 8.68
Rate Walter Watts
Just when I thought I was out-they pull me back in
  
|
 |
Clinton’s Reference to Slaying of Robert Kennedy Stirs Uproar
« on: 2008-05-23 23:06:39 » |
 |
Would the last uncommitted Democratic super-delegate PLEASE call the guys with the big, clown-looking butterfly nets to clear the stage.
There's this ONE fetid candidate left that needs, well, err.............
--Walter
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The New York Times
May 24, 2008
Clinton’s Reference to Slaying of Robert Kennedy Stirs Uproar
By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE
BRANDON, S.D. — Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton defended staying in the Democratic nominating contest on Friday by pointing out that her husband had not wrapped up the nomination until June 1992, adding, “We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California.”
Her remarks were met with quick criticism from the campaign of Senator Barack Obama, and within hours of making them Mrs. Clinton expressed regret, saying, “The Kennedys have been much on my mind the last days because of Senator Kennedy,” referring to the recent diagnosis of Senator Edward M. Kennedy’s brain tumor. She added, “And I regret that if my referencing that moment of trauma for our entire nation and in particular the Kennedy family was in any way offensive.”
Still, the comments touched on one of the most sensitive aspects of the current presidential campaign — concern for Mr. Obama’s safety. And they come as Democrats have been talking increasingly of an Obama/Clinton ticket, with friends of the Clintons saying that Bill Clinton is musing about the possibility that the vice presidency might be his wife’s best path to the presidency if she loses the nomination.
It was in the context of discussions about her political future that Mrs. Clinton made the remarks on Friday to the editorial board of The Sioux Falls Argus Leader. She had said that some people whom she did not name were trying to push her out of the race, but she noted that historically many races had gone on longer than hers.
“My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right?” she said. “We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California.”
Bill Burton, a spokesman for the Obama campaign, which has refrained from engaging Mrs. Clinton in recent days, said her statement “was unfortunate and has no place in this campaign.”
Privately, aides to Mr. Obama were furious about the remark.
Concerns about Mr. Obama’s safety led the Secret Service to give him protection last May, before it was afforded to any other presidential candidate, although Mrs. Clinton had protection, too, in her capacity as a former first lady. Mr. Obama’s wife, Michelle, voiced concerns about his safety before he was elected to the Senate, and some black voters have even said such fears weighed on their decision of whether to vote for him.
It was against that backdrop that Mrs. Clinton’s mentioning the Kennedy assassination in the same breath as her own political fate struck some as going too far. Representative James E. Clyburn of South Carolina, an uncommitted superdelegate, said through a spokeswoman that the comments were “beyond the pale.”
The speed at which the remarks were transmitted and reacted to illustrated the new reality candidates are grappling with in this year’s campaign, in which Mr. Obama’s own remarks about “bitter” small-town voters ricocheted around the Internet.
Mrs. Clinton’s remarks were initially reported online by The New York Post, whose reporters were not traveling with the Clinton campaign but were instead watching a live video feed of the meeting with newspaper editors. Its report quickly jumped to the Drudge Report, then whipped around the Internet and on television, with outraged comments piling up on Web sites.
Campaign aides were taken aback by the quick reaction to her remarks, but then quickly realized that Mrs. Clinton had to backpedal. She then spoke to the traveling press corps for the first time in more than a week, at a supermarket here.
“Earlier today I was discussing the Democratic primary history and in the course of that discussion mentioned the campaigns that both my husband and Senator Kennedy waged in California in June, in 1992 and 1968,” she said. “And I was referencing those to make the point that we have had nomination primary contests that go into June. That’s a historic fact.”
The remarks overshadowed a campaign trip to South Dakota in which Mrs. Clinton has increasingly been dealing with a new thematic landscape: a campaign that is more consumed by questions about its own future, rather than by Mrs. Clinton talking about issues like health care.
During the editorial board meeting Friday, Mrs. Clinton also denied reports of any contact with the Obama camp regarding an exit strategy for her. “It’s flatly, completely untrue,” she said.
Mrs. Clinton has cited her husband’s 1992 nominating battle in discussing her decision to stay in the race. While she said that he only wrapped up the nomination in June of that year, he was viewed as having secured it in March, when his last serious opponent dropped out.
Friday was not the first time Mrs. Clinton referred to the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy in such a context. In March, she told Time magazine: “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.”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has endorsed Mrs. Clinton, defended her remarks in a telephone interview on Friday evening.
“I’ve heard her make that argument before,” Mr. Kennedy said, speaking on his cellphone as he drove to the family compound in Hyannis Port, Mass. “It sounds like she was invoking a familiar historical circumstance in support of her argument for continuing her campaign.”
Julie Bosman contributed reporting from New York, and Jeff Zeleny from Miami.
Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
|
Walter Watts
Tulsa Network Solutions, Inc.
No one gets to see the Wizard! Not nobody! Not no how!
|
|
|
Fritz
Archon
Gender:
Posts: 1746
Reputation: 8.52
Rate Fritz
|
|
Re:Clinton’s Reference to Slaying of Robert Kennedy Stirs Uproar
« Reply #1 on: 2008-05-23 23:37:25 » |
|
Yikes ..... with gaffs like that; could it really go pear shaped for the democrats, to the extend that the McCainster might swagger into the oval office 
Fritz
(now also looking for viable cover....
|
Where there is the necessary technical skill to move mountains, there is no need for the faith that moves mountains -anon-
|
|
|
MoEnzyme
Anarch
Gender:
Posts: 2256
Reputation: 3.53
Rate MoEnzyme
infidel lab animal
|
|
Re:Clinton’s Reference to Slaying of Robert Kennedy Stirs Uproar
« Reply #2 on: 2008-05-24 00:10:21 » |
|
Quote from: Fritz on 2008-05-23 23:37:25 Yikes ..... with gaffs like that; could it really go pear shaped for the democrats, to the extend that the McCainster might swagger into the oval office
Fritz
(now also looking for viable cover....
|
Well, its not an unreasonable concern that Obama might get popped off by some nutcake. Perhaps its rude to point it out, but it's always a possibility in America; and haven't we rigged the system in favor of such a possibility anyway? I mean if everyone really has a right to an assault rifle under the second amendment, isn't the real meaning of such a policy played out in the possibility that if there is one racist nutcake with a gun, he can always relieve us of such ethnic possibilities. I mean you can be sure we will invent conspiracy theories for generations to come, but isn't the simplest conspiracy in Amerika alive and well . . . one man; one finger; one trigger; one gun; what more conspiracy does any fanatic nutjob need? Only in Amerika. it worked in 1968 so why not now? Its a sad a wacky reality to deal with, so I'm only pointing out the obvious.
-Mo
|
I will fight your gods for food,
Mo Enzyme
(consolidation of handles: Jake Sapiens; memelab; logicnazi; Loki; Every1Hz; and Shadow)
|
|
|
Fritz
Archon
Gender:
Posts: 1746
Reputation: 8.52
Rate Fritz
|
|
Re:Clinton’s Reference to Slaying of Robert Kennedy Stirs Uproar
« Reply #3 on: 2008-05-27 21:56:12 » |
|
Quote:| [MoEnzyme]one man; one finger; one trigger; one gun; what more conspiracy does any fanatic nutjob need? Only in Amerika. it worked in 1968 so why not now? Its a sad a wacky reality to deal with, so I'm only pointing out the obvious. |
I'm always amazed how easy it is for me to slip into 'Pollyanna' mode. Your point is well taken and after reading more, subsequent to the media's twisting of Clinton's remarks, it does strike what you have suggested is a predictable out come, as any these days.
It does leave me wondering if a memetically and/or genetically engineered loving, caring, liberal assassin to could be a reasonable desire; possibly a mother. Kind of an 'Equalizers'.
"Puts rosy coloured glasses back on to face another day ......"
Fritz
|
Where there is the necessary technical skill to move mountains, there is no need for the faith that moves mountains -anon-
|
|
|
|
Logged
