“You see, today, Hillary Clinton brought up the June 1968 assassination of Robert Kennedy, ostensibly as a justification for her staying in the race this long. She apparently said this before the editorial board of a newspaper in South Dakota. It was disgraceful. Her words were something to the effect that, Robert (Bobby) Kennedy was assasinated in "June" that year. In other words:shit happens; and it can happen very late in the race. She needs to withdraw from the race immediately. The obvious implications of her statements are that Obama could be assassinated before the nomination is finalized at the August convention. This is shocking and beats all the disgraceful things she has already said and done in this campaign. This is indefensible. Once again she has messed with something that is sacred (and taboo) in American politics; and just like her Martin Luther King/ Lyndon B. Johnson remarks: she will pay a big price. Politically speaking: this woman is mortally wounded. She has finally assasinated herself. Desperation and hunger for power can do that.”
Rock Hackshaw on Room 8
HRC: People have been trying to push me out of this ever since Iowa.
Q: Why?
HRC: I don't know. I don't know. I find it curious. Because it is unprecedented in history. I don’t understand it. Between my opponent and his camp and some in the media there has been this urgency to end this. And historically, that makes no sense. So I find it a bit of a mystery.
Q: So you don't buy the party unity argument?
HRC: I don’t because again I've been around long enough.
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. There's lots of speculation about why it is.
Q: What is your speculation?
I don't know. I find it curious. And I don't want to attribute motives or strategies to people because I don't really know, but it's a historical curiosity to me.
From Senator Hillary Clinton’s interview with the Sioux City Argus-Leader's Editorial Board
It’s time to salute Rock Hackshaw, who will be joining me in Denver this August as part of the “Room’s 8” roadshow version of “Beavis and Butthead”.
When Rock started out on “Room 8”, he was, right or wrong, a specialist in deviation from the Conventional Wisdom. Conventional Wisdom is neither invariably right or invariably wrong; but it is often a shorthand subsitutue for real thought.
Without Conventional Wisdom, we might be playing tennis without a net, but Conventional Wisdom often simplifies the truth to the point where it is transformed into a different creature, acting not as it should as a foundation for discussion, but as a barrier to it. As such, attacking the Conventional Wisdom is arguably a worthy endeavor, even when it is right and the attack is wrong. Even when Rock Hackshaw’s been wrong (often), he’s torn down those barriers and given a steroid boost to lively disputation.
But, for months I’ve suspected that Rock’s real ambition was not to explode Conventional Wisdom, but to make it himself. Well, to some extent, he’s now achieved that dubious distinction. Where once Rock was a Lone Wolf, he is now the Leader of the Pack.
When Rock emailed me his column on the campaign’s latest gaffe controversy, I was in shock. Could Hillary Clinton have really implied that she is staying in the race because Barack Obama could be assassinated before the nomination is finalized at the August convention? I immediately attempted to find out, and learned, unsurprisingly, that her words in full context did not bear out this interpretation.
I was ready to unload upon Rock like a ton of bricks. But then, I discovered something shocking: Rock was not a lone voice in the wilderness, he was the embodiment of the Conventional Wisdom. Everyone agreed with Rock’s interpretation.
In fact, Rock’s comments were far more defensible than most, since it was clear he’d never actually read or heard Senator Clinton’s statement (or am I being too charitable?). No such excuse was available to Keith Olbermann and dozens of others. The Wolf Pack reported the story as follows: “Today in response to a question about why she’s staying in the presidential race, Senator Hillary Clinton said ‘We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California.’”
Well as they say, hard cases make for bad law, and incomplete quotations make for bad journalism. This reminds me of the campaign where Mo Udall’s opponent ran a commericial where Mo explained “I am a Socialist because…”, when in actuality he was saying “They say I am a Socialist because…” before he went on to refute the allegation.
Normally, when a public figure says they were quoted out of context, they are lying. When Louis Farrakhan called Judaism a gutter religion, there really wasn’t any context that could explain it. “Well, in my childhood memories, the gutter was a fun place; it was where we played ‘curve ball’ and ‘Johnny on a Pony’—those in Philly call it ‘buck buck’, it had great resonance upon my formative years, much as Judaism has had such resonance upon Islam, in other words, getting to it’s very gut…hence the term ‘gutter’ religion”.
But sometimes, words are really taken out of context. Read the Senator’s remarks.
Before the mention of Kennedy, she says it’s unprecedented in history to end the nomination fight now, and that doing so make no sense historically, citing (not quite accurately) the example of her husband not wrapping up the nomination until June.
After the mention of Kennedy, she says that calls for her to concede defeat are an historical curiosity to her.
Pertinent historical fact perhaps unknown to many articulating the Conventional Wisdom: The night Robert Kennedy died, he had just won a come from behind victory against Gene McCarthy in the California primary. With more contests to go, including New York’s, the nomination was still unsettled and looked likely to go to the convention floor.
Or, as she stated more artfully in March, "Primary contests used to last a lot longer. We all remember the great tragedy of Bobby Kennedy being assassinated in June in L.A. My husband didn't wrap up the nomination in 1992 until June. Having a primary contest go through June is nothing particularly unusual."
I apologize for my insensitivity to the taboo of a candidate mentioning the Bobby Kennedy assassination in the same week it's been recalled in about 187,000 newspaper articles in recognition of both the upcoming 40th anniversary of RFK's death (already immortalized on the cover of the June "Vanity Fair") and the news of his brother's mortal illness. However, it’s clear that Senator Clinton mentioned the events of June 1968 in the context of an argument not that lightning could strike, but that the ball game wasn’t over.
I remember many times in my youth watching the Throneberry/Stengel era Mets playing out every last lousy game until the ninth inning, not because they harbored the hope that the opposition team might die, but because they were under the mistaken impression that the game wasn’t over.
If there’s one thing we’ve learned about Hillary Clinton, it's that she plays by the old rules; trapped in a corner, down to her king and a couple of loyal pawns (Terry McAuliffe among them), she’s not going to forfeit. It’s 20-3 in the bottom of the ninth with two outs and two strikes, and Hillary is still trying to knock one out of the park so that the game can go into extra innings, and Bill can stop arguing with the umpire and get back on the mound and throw a few spitballs, until eventually they scratch together a victory by stealing home.
Yes, I do believe that Hillary is hoping for, thinks herself worthy of, and actually expects, some form of divine intervention on her behalf. I do not believe she is praying for an Obama assassination, but I also think that, like any good Calvinist, she believes that that is ultimately the Lord’s choice and not hers. However, I do not think she would cite that as a reason for her staying in the race.
There’s a simple reason for that. If perchance there was an assassination, or some other disaster which removed Barack Obama from contention, no one would then say “Sorry Hillary, but you can’t be the nominee, you’ve already quit the race”. Under such a circumstance, she would almost certainly be the front runner. And, in fact, in such a turn of events, she would probably be a far more likely nominee if she had already quit the race and publicly buried the hatchet.
To believe otherwise would be absurd. By that sort of logic, if actuarial tables suddenly caught up with John McCain tommorow, the Republicans would have no choice but to hand the nomination to the one other person still left in the race: Ron Paul.
Rock is right about a few things. This is just like the MLK/LBJ imbroglio; right down to the Obama campaign calling another completely inoffensive factual statement “unfortunate” (which I guess is true; the remarks have certainly been unfortunate for Hillary). In both cases, Hillary Clinton stated an indisputable historical fact. In the first case, that it took the carefully rehearsed (see the telephone transcripts) good cop/bad cop act of LBJ and MLK to pass the Civil Rights Laws. In this case, that it is not historically anomolous for presidential nomination fights to go into June.
Of course, while it’s clearly not anaomolous, it is probably anachronistic. A lot has changed since 1968. Which brings us to the other point Rock is right about: Hillary really should get out of this race. However, phony controversies like this do not make a graceful exit any easier.
I suppose, in a way, the actual truth about Hillary's remarks, or anything else, is not that important. About ten years ago, I was in love. We began and ended everyday on the phone to each other, and talked several times during each day. Our lives revolved around each other. But something was missing.
In frustration, one afternoon she yelled, "you are the most demanding person I've ever gone out with!"
I responded, "We're going out? Thanks for letting me know; it's been six months and we've not yet been to bed, but I'm still here. I'm not the most demanding person you've ever gone out with; I'm the least demanding person you've ever gone out with!"
"You may be factually correct", she answered, "but if I feel differently, what does it matter?"
Of course, she was right.