RJK Jr. re Hill re RJK
Hill backer Robert, on the other side of the 2008 presidential endorsement Kennedy schism: “I understand how highly charged the atmosphere is, but I think it is a mistake for people to take offense.” He’s spending the weekend with Obama-backing Uncle Teddy.
Meanwhile, the Herald’s Margerie Eagan on Hill:
Here’s the real problem for Hillary Clinton: not gender, not the supposed sexists at MSNBC. No, the problem is half the country can’t stand her or trust a word she says.
Was the tearing up in New Hampshire real or fake? Did she somehow come to believe there’d been sniper fire in Bosnia, or did she just tell the same whopper over and over again? Are all these gaffes accidental or calculated, sincere or strategized, focus-grouped and poll-driven, like every move made - right down to summer vacation locales - by that aw-shucks, lip-biting, silky-smooth-operator husband of hers, Bill?
So on Friday in South Dakota, Hillary, before a newspaper editorial board, defended staying in the race by pointing out, “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.”
OK, after wincing, I watched the video a painful dozen times more. She did look exhausted. The “assassinated” remark seemed spontaneous, not planned. It just slipped out, though in an oddly matter-of-fact fashion, as if she were wearily correcting some mis-reported detail of her health care plan, as if she completely didn’t get how “Oh-no!!!!”-inducing her remark was.
And not to the Kennedys (to whom she later apologized), but to Obama and all those who’ve worried about his safety quietly, among friends, but never out loud, certainly never to a newspaper editorial board to be broadcast coast to coast.
Still, I could have bought her line - that this was just another late-in-the-day mistake.
But when you look closer at her excuse, it doesn’t wash. They never quite do. The familiar pattern emerges: deception on deception.
The great thing about the Democratic race is it’s a win-win. Deception on top of deception no matter which way they break. Not clear to me though why the media is so anxious to end a trainwreck that could keep selling papers and drawing viewers through August.
Meanwhile, via Reuters, Superdelegate Jimmy is not yet announcing publicly, says Hill has every right to go on, but he doesn’t know what she’s accomplishing and he expects her to get croaked quick* after June 3, when the gutless ranks no longer have an excuse.
Gotta love a gaffe that prompts Al Sharpton to lecture Hill: “Watch what you say.”
* Gaffe! Unfortunate choice of metaphor! “Croaked quick” in a figurative, political, non-assassinatory way.
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 7:44 am on Sunday, May 25, 2008
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