I basically agree with Greg Sargent that the press--in the absence of any real story--seems to have become completely enthralled with every little verbal screwup that a candidate makes. But the beef with Clinton's RFK remarks are only halfway about the gaffe. The fact is that part of Clinton's argument has been that Obama is a neophyte and she's a pro--"Ready On Day One," this idea inevitability etc. But she's consistently done things that have shown that she has a limited understanding of the political landscape. It's true, and unfortunate, that the press is gaffe-obsessed. But if you know that, then you adjust your game accordingly. Given that she'd repeated the RFK line at least twice, you have to wonder why someone hadn't pulled her aside and said, "Maybe you should discontinue that one."
But more than tactics, this latest contraversy goes to why Obama simply can't put her on the ticket--Hillary is evidently never wrong. It's been noted that she apologized to the Kennedy family, but not Obama. In fact, she didn't even do that--she gave this half-hearted, mealy-mouth, passive aggressive "If I've offended anyone" line that's national code for "I was in no respect wrong."Someone who believes she/he is always right is the last thing we need right now. We've had eight years of that.
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The obsession with gaffes helps no one. It lowers the discourse and distracts from issues, and frankly it's the lazy press who's getting a free pass. God forbid they report on something of substance unrelated to the election while nothing substantial is happening in the election.
But since the bar is set there for judging candidates, the only useful thing this does is show us some measure of how a candidate deals with making a mistake publicly. Obama handled his sweetie gaffe with a swift and sincere apology. Story over.
Specifically re. Clinton's assassination gaffe -- I don't actually consider it a gaffe, actually. I don't think she wishes any harm to Obama, but the truth is she is certainly including that possibility not only in her mind as she calculates why she should stay in the race, but has purposefully put it more than once out there in the public eye in order to sway the superdelegates to her.
At the least it's really tasteless and unpresidential, but I'd say what it is really is is manipulative fearmongering at a nasty level. There is no excuse for that. That is a conscious, below-the-belt tactic. The public would be right to not give her the benefit of the doubt, in my opinion.
Beyond that, TNC I agree with you about what her handling of this "gaffe" says about her. It was a Non-Apology Apology. How are we supposed to take that? It's not the mark of a leader. It was Bill's weak point as well, I thought -- his inability to just face the music and admit it when he screwed up.
Speaking it wasn't enough, she also wrote a Non-Apology Apology Op-Ed in the Daily News. Another wasted opportunity from Hillary Clinton. First Female Conterder or not, I am not going to be one iota sorry when she leaves the race.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2008/05/25/2008-05-25_hillary_why_i_continue_to_run.html?page=0
Black Obama supporter here.
This issue has been ginned up out of a bunch of pro Obama bloggers wildly overreacting to an unfortunate but factually accurate statement from HRC. To listen to these bloggers, it was if HRC was sending out a dog whistle soliciting people to assassinate Obama. That is grade A, tinfoil hat, aliens crashed at Roswell, conspiracy BS.And sensible people know this. Those bloggers should be ashamed for fomenting such nonsense.
Obama, to his credit, has called BS on these frothings of the blogosphere and has said that she did not actually say anything wrong. HRC frankly doesn't have anything to apologize for, says the Obama campaign so her non-apology apology is good enough for me.
Lets move on to actual issues now, not this made up crap.
Hillary's entire raison de guerre is supposedly that she's the seasoned one in the race. But as this exchange quite plainly demonstrates, she's not nearly as good at this game as Obama is.
W/r/t substance, she's got the whole War problem. W/r/t process, she can't seem to make the press like her. To Hillary's supporters, that's a problem with the press. To her detractors, it's a problem with Hillary. Either way, though, if you're a pol, it's your job to make people like you enough to let you implement your policies. She can't do that.
Why is it so hard to believe that Clinton would like to see Obama taken out of the race literally or figuratively? Clinton represents secular fanaticism to the max. She encourages solidarity amongst her weak-minded supporters by pretending to be persecuted and no one ever questions it. You don't allude to something 4 times and state it specifically twice without intent. Since she claims to be the superior candidate with experience there is NO EXCUSE for her choice of words. She has not apologized for them either. If the situation was reversed this would have been played on air in 15 and 30 second sound bites the entire weekend and the pundits would have said she needed to leave the campaign. Instead they are giving her a pass. It's about protecting their power and influence which will end.
Sen. Obama apologized for his "sweetie" remark yes. Did everyone get over it? No. Only the media. Sen. Clinton said absolutely nothing about Obama when referring to the fact that RFK was still in the race in June and he wasn't being pushed to pull out even though in all likelihood he would have lost. I am not a Clinton supporter, nor an Obama supporter, nor a McCain supporter, but I do think that people who continue to resist the conclusion that Sen. Clinton has been smeared with sexist, misogynist comments are delusional, perhaps purposefully. Did any of you catch Jeffery Toobin, Wolf Blitzer and Alex Castellanos (and others) discussing whether or not it was appopriate to call Sen. Clinton a "white bitch"? Ok, NOW they've found a way to insult "whitey"; just add gender hatred to the mix and no one will give a shit.
Why would Hillary apologize to Obama for that remark? I had nothing to do with him. Obama's own campaign raised the specter of his assassination.