Hillary's gaffe

I'm sure you've all heard about the Clinton/Obama/RFK kerfuffle by now, but I figured I should weigh in on it, at least briefly. Y'all know I am the furthest thing from a Hillary fan, but I think it's pretty obvious that she wasn't intending in any way to suggest that she's staying in the race just in case Obama gets assassinated. Her words were, needless to say, incredibly poorly chosen, and her "apology" only made things worse -- but nevertheless, this is, at its core, a phony controversy.

I mean, come on, people. Hillary will say and do almost anything to win, but she's not secretly hoping Obama gets shot, for heaven's sake. And even if she were, a) it wouldn't make any sense for her to say so in advance, and b) such a disgusting "hope," even if she actually held it, wouldn't provide a rationale for staying in the race anyway! (Indeed, I would say she'd have a better chance of being nominated in Obama's place, in the event of such a tragedy, if she had endorsed him beforehand.) So the uncharitable interpretation of Hillary's words just doesn't make any logical sense. Nor is it supported by the actual words she used, or the context that surrounded them.

I'm apparently in the minority on this, but in my mind, the idea that she intentionally invoked the assassination in order to suggest that "hey, you never know, Obama might get shot," isn't just wrong, it's obviously wrong.

By contrast, the "charitable" interpretation -- i.e., that she was making the factually incorrect argument that the 1992 and 1968 campaigns provide a historical parallel for her staying in the race this long -- makes perfect sense, given the Clinton campaign's consistent use of mendacious spin that has no basis in fact. Ann Althouse misses this key point when she cites the utter inaccuracy of Hillary's analysis of the '92 and '68 primary calendars as evidence that perhaps we shouldn't buy her explanation of what she meant. But there's nothing unbelievable, or even surprising, about the notion that Hillary Clinton meant to say something that is utterly inaccurate. Her campaign has been built on such complete nonsense -- from its analysis of the delegate counts and the "popular vote," to its gas-tax proposal, to its explanation of the Bosnia sniper controversy, etc. etc. This is just standard-issue Clintonian bulls***.

But "an X-ray of a very dark soul"? Um, no. There are other things that cast Clinton's soul, or at least her integrity and intellectual honesty, in a rather dark light, such as her assertion that if she isn't awarded the phony delegates from two fake primaries that didn't count, it'll be an affront to democracy on par with what's happening in Zimbabwe, not to mention segregation, slavery and so forth. However, Keith Olbermann to the contrary, simply using the word "assassination" in a very dumb way, in the course of an unremarkable attempt to invoke a (factually invalid) historical parallel, doesn't threaten her immortal soul. This was a gaffe, not a sin.

Saying this makes me feel a bit like the time I defended John Kerry, whom I despise almost as much as Hillary, over his "stuck in Iraq" comments, which were likewise nothing but a very unfortunate gaffe. I feel almost dirty defending these slimebags. But truth is truth, and the truth is that Hillary doesn't deserve the intensity of the flack she's getting over this.

That said, I don't exactly feel bad for her. When you build a career, and more immediately a campaign, on a foundation of lies, deceit, and a willingness to say & do anything for power, people aren't going to give you the benefit of the doubt on something like this. That doesn't make it right for them to reach the implausible conclusion that she was deliberately suggesting Obama might get shot, but at some level, she made this bed for herself, and now she has to lie in it. As such, I certainly do not weep for Hillary -- and just as I was pleased with the end result of the "botched joke" kerfuffle (Kerry's withdrawal from the 2008 presidential race), I'll be thrilled if the furor over this incident finally forces Hillary out of the race and/or prevents her from becoming Obama's veep. This isn't the thing that ought to bring about those end results -- but there have been many other things that should have, yet didn't, and I'm not going to split hairs over the exact cause of her political demise. She needs to get out of the damn picture, and if this phony controversy is what it takes, then so be it.

Comments

[CayleyGraph]

I feel almost dirty defending these slimebags. But truth is truth, and the truth is that Hillary doesn't deserve the intensity of the flack she's getting.

Props for you. Defending people we disagree with is insanely difficult, but I believe it to be entirely necessary. If we call their sensible actions wicked, we'll be criminalizing the very virtues we complain about them lacking.

Good lord, I can sound really pretentious when I put my mind to it, can't I?

[Jim]

I couldn't agree more.

The media should be focusing on the fact that her argument is poor, not that the events she used to support the poor argument were poorly chosen.

[Joe Loy]

No, not "really pretentious" at all, CayleyGraph. How you sound is, Exactly Right.

Brendan, in giving Hillary the benefit of the doubt on This one you ~ like CayleyGraph, and Me, and possibly a few Others ~ are Essentially in agreement not Only with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. but Also with Barack Obama:

"I have learned that when you are campaigning for as many months as Senator Clinton and I have been campaigning, sometimes you get careless in terms of the statements that you make and I think that is what happened here," Obama said in an interview with Radio Isla Puerto Rico during a campaign visit to the Caribbean Island and U.S. territory.

["Puerrr-TOE Rico / you LOVely island..." / woops, a Tangent... / nevermind... :]

AAAND, while we're discussing MSM whackcontracts Put out on People they don't much Care for, let us note that ~

Jewish allies of the Rev. John Hagee rushed to his defense yesterday to say the Texas evangelist is not anti-Semitic despite Sen. John McCain campaign's repudiation Thursday of the evangelist's endorsement.

...Orthodox Rabbi Aryeh Scheinberg, of Congregation Rodfei Sholom in San Antonio, appeared at an afternoon press conference yesterday to say Mr. Hagee's "words were twisted and used to attack him for being anti-Semitic."

In actuality, Mr. Hagee "interpreted a biblical verse in a way not very different from several legitimate Jewish authorities," the rabbi said.

"Viewing Hitler as acting completely outside of God's plan is to suggest that God was powerless to stop the Holocaust, a position quite unacceptable to any religious Jew or Christian," the rabbi said.

..."I have devoted most of my adult life to ensuring that there will never be a second Holocaust," Mr. Hagee told reporters. "I have worked tirelessly to eliminate the sin of anti-Semitism from the Christian world and to ensure the survival of the state of Israel."

Now that latter paragraph, at least, is factually True. / Its basis in Hagee's version of Tanakh/Revelations/Armageddon theology may be Crackpottery ~ certainly I think it is ~ but whatever you may think of his exegesis, it is hardly the HitlerSanctification or HolocaustApproval so shallowly suggested by so much of the Official reportage. For what Jew-hating Hitlerite would likely say, that ~

There is a new Hitler in the Middle East --President Ahmadinejad of Iran -- who has threatened to wipe out Israel and America and is rapidly acquiring the nuclear technology to make good on his threat. If we learned anything from the Holocaust, it is that when a madman threatens genocide we must take him seriously.

* * * * * * * * * *
Yes, some of my beloved Cablenewsies need to learn how to Better deal with the Nuances. :>

[Maggie]

I agree with you right down the line. Though I'd add that I get a weird satisfaction out of the karmic justice involved. Hillary had no compunction *at all* in slamming Obama for his 'bitter' comments, though she had to have known perfectly well that he did not mean what people were taking him to mean. So now she gets a taste of her own medicine -- though to Obama's credit, not from Obama himself. And that generates no small amount of Schadenfreude from me.

As you say, she has committed plenty of outrageous things. I still remain mystified that she wasn't publicly shamed and booted from the public square over her shameless effort to seat MI and FL in the name of 'democracy' despite the fact that neither contest was could remotely be termed an exercise in actual democracy. I'm not sure how I feel about a shaming by proxy like what's happening now. It's not unlike Bosnia -- a 'lie' which was of itself much ado about nothing, but which turned out to be a serviceable proxy for her general mendacity about her experience and so on.

Part of me wants to say that this is how political theater works, and since the scales ultimately have gotten balanced it's as good as it gets in the public square. And a part of me wants to say that I wish the public could punish a candidate for her actual transgressions and not for proxies. But while my head is conflicted, my heart is pretty glad about seeing the karmic scales balanced, and all of me is quite relieved that this puts an end to her gambit for veep.

[Sandy Underpants]

I'm really sorry to read this apologism on this blog, in all candor. The issue isn't that Hillary hopes Obama gets murdered. There is absolutely no chance that Hillary can win the nomination UNLESS Obama is murdered, and she points that out.

This is the lowest, most disgusting and reprehensible campaign statement I've seen from an alsoran candidate, ever. She can say it, but she deserves the censure she's getting for saying such a depolorable thing.

Maybe Huckabee and Romney should Re-Activate on the same premise, at least they can cite the possibilityn of death by natural causes.

[John B.]

Logically, Brendan, you're absolutely right. But I don't think we dealing on the level of logic or rationality here. Increasingly Hill has put her Superego in the back seat and let her Id have the run of the road. Remember her comment about "hard-working white voters?" Politicians just don't say things like that anymore!

I personally don't think she has to apologize. We should all be grateful that finally we have a politician who says what she really thinks, who parades her deranged subconscious naked and unashamed for all the world to see.

[Leanna Loomer]

Given the amount of animosity she generates, Hillary was foolhardy to even mention the word assassination.

[The Other Ed]

Speaking as a long-time Democratic Party member:

Two of the most important constituent groups in the Democratic party are supporting history making nominees and unfortunately, only one will win and the other’s backers will be disappointed. Neither group has the “right” to the nomination, they competed under the same rules.

Only one way of winning is fair and that’s by obtaining the most delegates since that is the method that the nomination is awarded.

Once 2,026 delegates are won (and we have to go by that number since the holder of that number of delegates will be in control of the credentials committee and be able to apportion the delegations of the penalized states of MI & FL) it is over. That’s the process that is in place for this year. If you want to change it to Popular Vote or Electoral Vote or All Caucus or All Primaries or All Super Delegates, you can…next election cycle. Anything else is just an attempt to sabotage the existing nomination process and obtain the nomination by coup.

If you are interested in electing a Democrat, in stopping 4 more years of Bush and interested in preventing more right-wing appointments to the Supreme Court, the loser and their backers must to accept that this was close but they lost.

This applies equally to both the Clinton and Obama campaigns.

Let’s get on with it and with winning in November.

[Marvino Guardino]

It may be too that even Hillary, mistress of mis-attribution, is surprised by the speed and intensity of her own party's reaction to what I agree is a very dumb, but hardly reprehensible gaffe. Usually it's those other guys across the aisle that such tactics are used against. She seems genuinely (a bad word to use with the Clintons) surprised by this "friendly" fire. But come on, she's still nuts to have said it.

[Mad Max, Esquire]

The problem Hillary has is her "real reasons" for staying in the race are so preposterous that it makes more sense she would stay in just in case something happened to Obama.

[Joe Mama]

Keith Olber-suck doesn't disappoint with his customary moronic POV.

[V.Ananda Murti]

Bill Clinton is reported to have suggested to his wife that vice-presidency is the best route for her becoming the president some day, if she fails to get the nomination. consider the assassination pronouncement (not gaffe) of Hillary in the background of Bill's suggestion. Their evil hope of physical elimination of Obama is clear. I voted Bill Clinton not knowing his evil mind. I sincerely hope Obama will have the circumspection not to accept Hillary as his veep.

[V.Ananda Murti]

Bill Clinton is reported to have suggested to his wife that vice-presidency is the best route for her becoming the president some day, if she fails to get the nomination. consider the assassination pronouncement (not gaffe) of Hillary in the background of Bill's suggestion. Their evil hope of physical elimination of Obama is clear. I voted Bill Clinton not knowing his evil mind. I sincerely hope Obama will have the circumspection not to accept Hillary as his veep.

[Kudzu Fire]

Be afraid. Be very afraid. Hillary Clinton is running for president.