Speaking today with the Argus Leader editorial board, Senator Clinton made the following remarks to explain why she is remaining in the Democratic race:
EB: You don’t buy the party unity argument?
I don’t, because again, I’ve been around long enough. You know my husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere around the middle of June
EB: June
We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. Um you know I just I don’t understand it. There’s lots of speculation about why it is.
Well, that made the national news! It was obviously an enforced error, as the Senator has since felt compelled to issue an apology. But why, exactly?
Anna at Dakota Women, responding to Jon Schaff, comes to Senator Clinton's defense:
The point she was trying to make, Jon, was that primary contests have often gone through June in the past. Nothing more, nothing less.
No. Jon was certainly right than an argument was implied: I should stick around in case something happens to the front runner. See Jon's post for reasons that the argument is weak. Anna points out that Senator Clinton made this argument before, and seems to think that the fact that it went unremarked upon then is proof that it was unobjectionable; hence the current attention is politically motivated. Maybe, but the fact that she has said virtually the same thing twice reinforces the idea that she had something specific in mind. She wasn't just speaking off the cuff.
However, a weak, inexplicit argument does not amount to a gaffe. Charles Krauthamer put his finger on why Senator Clinton's remark was suspect: it is simply very bad form to mention assassination in this context. My friend and esteem Keloland colleague Todd Epp points this out, and then goes off the deep end himself:
I am absolutely shocked and disgusted by even a hint that assassination is on the table or a possibility in this campaign. Not only that, but she obviously feels entitled to the nomination should some idiot actually shoot and kill Sen. Obama.
So what if someone shoots Obama? Seems to me the first place the investigation should start would be the Clinton Campaign.
That last part doesn't exactly help the situation.
There is good reason why good taste does not allow that kind of comment, or Senator Clinton's mention of the possibility of assassination: a lot of bad things happen just because someone put a pernicious idea in the head of some unstable person. Maintaining some level of decorum is not just a matter of avoiding offense. It is much more serious than that. But then the Clinton's have never had the slightest respect for decorum.
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