Hillary Clinton today brought up the assassination of Sen. Robert Kennedy while defending her decision to stay in the race against Barack Obama. "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"
Obama's camp immediately fired back. "Sen. Clinton's statement before the Argus Leader editorial board was unfortunate and has no place in this campaign," Obama campaign spokesman said in a statement.
Clinton made her comments at a meeting with the Sioux Falls Argus-Leader's editorial board while campaigning in South Dakota, where she complained that, "People have been trying to push me out of this ever since Iowa."
2 comments:
Kimba, I confess I haven't been keeping up with your "world," so forgive me if someone has already brought this up. Today's comments aside, what do you think about Hillary running as an independent if she doesn't get the nomination? Ordinarily, I'd say this would be a bad idea, since it would guarantee a McCain victory, but I think that's what we're going to get anyway, so she might as well run. And heck, according to yesterday's Quinnipiac University poll (if I'm reading it correctly), Clinton would actually do better than McCain in the swing states of Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania if the general election were held today. So it seems there's nothing to lose and only history to be made. And to anyone who is worried about "discord in the party," excuse me but I say f*** the party. Should we care more about preserving the Democratic Party than we do about the people in it?
Hi, Jen
The latest polling actually does show that Clinton polls much stronger against McCain than Obama does, and much stronger against McCain than against Obama.
The calls for "party unity" aside, the presumption that Clinton supporters will finally come around to any Democrat, including Obama, may be inaccurate to say the least. There is a definate, and quantifiable fallout of Clinton supporters who would either support McCain, who is a centrist at heart, or not show up at the polls at all in protest.
As to the November elections, these Clinton supporters will be greatly dissapointed in McCain's near certain choice of a very conservative VP choice to asuage the concerns of the true conservatives and evangelicals. This will bode well for Clinton as a third party candidate.
Unfortunately, should she decide on a third party run, she will not have the political machine required, and will expose her inability to draw enough money to stage an effective campaign.
I am with you in your hope for a Clinton presidency, but it is such a critical time in our history to risk splitting the vote and risking four more years of Bush policy. Our economy is weak, our standing in the world is at an all time low, and our military, not to mention our infrastructure is decaying rapidly. Add to this the advancing years of at least two of the Supreme Court justices, who almost certainly will come up for retirement / replacement in the next four to eight years (conservative Stevens is 88, and libs O'Connor is 78 and Ginsberg is 75), and you can see this is a very critical stage in our history.
I cannot see Clinton breaking party ranks, as detrimental as our current two party system is. The notion of a quality VP choice to break party ranks is even farther fetched.
Somewhere within the negotiations of her backing away might have been consideration of a cabinet post, or majority leader position, however, I think those times have slipped away. She has to be very careful now....if Obama gets the nomination, which a near certainty, and loses in the general to McCain, she would certainly be the scapegoat, much worse that we blamed Nader for pulling votes away in previous elections.
As distasteful as it may be, she is going to have to not only get behind Barack in a big way, but deliver her supporters votes on his doorstep (which we know was secured by Chicago corruption Kingpin Tony Rezko, by the way).
I am with you, Jennifer. I see bad things happening for us with a McCain / Obama campaign. I think there are many, many negative Obama cards the NeoCons can play that Clinton dared not expose. It will be fairly easy to "swift boat" Obama, while Hillary, for good and bad, is fully exposed and vetted.
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