Keith Olbermann Says It All On RFK Assassination and Hillary
Sometimes there is simply nothing one can say. Words simply fail me. Luckily they don't fail Olbermann.
PS. Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson told The Post, "She was talking about the length of the race and using the '68 election as an example of how long the races in the past have gone -- she used her husband's race in the same vein."
Not true. Until 1996, the California primary was always at the end of the process so things kept going until June. All the big California primaries were capstones at the end of the race. That is why Bobby was in California in June. And that is why Bill Clinton was there in June. There were hundreds of delegates still to be won.
But this year California voted in February and as June begins only Puerto Rico, South Dakota and Montana are still to be heard from. The analogy is ridiculous.
HILLARY RAISES ASSASSINATION ISSUE
DEFENDS LONG RUNNING CAMPAIGN
May 23, 2008 --
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," she said, dismissing calls to drop out.
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."
Obama, the first African-American to advance so far in the race for the White House, has faced threats, sources have said.
Robert Kennedy, the younger brother of President John F. Kennedy, was gunned down in 1968 after winning the California primary. He had been a hero on the left for his civil rights agenda and calls to end the war in Vietnam.
Barack Obama, who leads Clinton by nearly 200 delegates and has already secured a majority of pledged delegates, has been the subject of threats. Early in the campaign, the Secret Service gave him a security detail at the request of Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Illinois).
Clinton criticized an "urgency" to end the campaign prematurely, saying, "Historically, that makes no sense."
Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson told The Post, "She was talking about the length of the race and using the '68 election as an example of how long the races in the past have gone -- she used her husband's race in the same vein."
except all that BS about her husbadn not winning till june is crap. technically, he didn't get enough delgates till june, but he was the only candidate left after new hampshire or something like that. so its not exactly a fair comparison.
and as far as assasination thing goes, she really wants to make the case to stay in because obama might get shot?!
what a horrible human being hillary clinton is. seriously. thats a disgusting tactic from a disgusting politician who will say or do anything to retain her power and stave off the realization that she is becoming more and more irrelevant every single day.
May 23, 2008 4:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
HEIL HITLER
HEIL HITLER
HEIL HITLER
HEIL HITLER
HEIL HITLER
May 25, 2008 11:22 AM | Reply | Permalink
The fucking BALLS on this woman. Of course, nowhere in Greg Sargent's post on the interview did this get a mention. I thought I couldn't be surprised by anything she says anymore, but this ... what a horrible, horrible excuse for a human being she is.
May 23, 2008 4:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
I agree. She should be banished from the human race. What a horrible, filthy monster she's turned out to be.
May 23, 2008 5:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
How date she discuss political history! I mean to mention that two campaigns went into June! How horrible. Get me the smelling salts please. Of course we need to parse her words in the worst possible way, what else are we to do between now and Denver.
May 23, 2008 5:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
Don't be a complete moron, OK? Why in the FUCK would she bring up the Kennedy assassination? Why would she even mention it?
May 23, 2008 6:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh but it worked so well in SC. Remember JJ won there twice! And we took that out of context, so we must be taking this out of context too right????
No FREAKING WAY. RFK was assasinated, that is why she is staying in. Putting it in the nicest way possible "Hey this guy just might get assasinated, then where would we be? I have to stay in for the good of the party."
She is a freaking disgusting, and I am sorry to say it, call me sexist if you want (I am a woman), BITCH!!!!!
May 23, 2008 6:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
The sin that Olbermann has committed is
contributing toward dividing the democratic party,
for the sake of ratings.
He is hate mongering to pander to his blog base.
The blogs are full of operatives whipping up hate
to manipulate young people in the direction corporate
wants them to go in.
Olbermann knows this, and accommodates out of
opportunism.
I have gone from being a fan, to thinking he should
be out on his ass. The sooner the better.
May 24, 2008 3:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Lute, you are so right. I am so glad that you brought this up. On a daily basis he feeds into the hatred of people. He and most of the others on MSNBC have almost singlehandedly created this huge division the American people are feeling. Day after day they ridicule and insult Hillary Clinton and fan the flames to keep the misery going. His ridiculous diatribes night after night are hateful and unprofessional. He absolutely won't be happy until he has completely destroyed Clinton. Why is he so afraid to let the process continue. If all of these so-called journalists would have just let things play out without all of the sensationalism maybe voters would have been more open to voting for the democratic nominee, no matter who he or she is. All they have done is cause voters to dig in their heels and refuse to budge. Why not at least play nice for the last ten days of the process. But I guess he has forgotten or never knew how to be fair and balanced. What a shame for the American people.
May 24, 2008 6:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
For many Americans, myself included, that day in June was a milestone. A sad milestone that I will always remember in June. That is what it has to do with June.
Isnt it time you went back to your facebook page? Sheesh... Your comments are reprehensible these days.
May 23, 2008 7:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ah yes, the old ad hominem dodge.
May 23, 2008 7:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, but she wasn't talking about June. She was talking about why she should stay in the race. And the implication was that part of the reason she's staying in the race is because Obama might be shot. And that's not only a filthy, vile thing to say, it's a stupid thing to say, because she just blew her chance at the VP slot.
May 24, 2008 1:10 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yes, she was. talking about June, bunnybrain. She specifically said "June" twice.
May 24, 2008 4:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well as you always seem to point out the "new" generation of voters is for Obama so they don't have a clue of 1968 or Bobby Kennedy for that matter. Your making up a probelem where there was none.
May 23, 2008 7:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
That's some pretty lame spin you're trying out there, louie.
May 23, 2008 7:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
New voters; young voters doesn't mean ignorant voters. My high school and college kids know all about JFK and RFK, and they are Obama supporters.
Now when Hillary screams about her West VA and Kentucky demographic...THEN we're talkin' about those who will vote for a white woman over a black man any day. Of course in the general, they'll also vote for a white guy over a white woman. I'm not saying they're IGNORANT, but they are sure set in their ways, and don't let reality affect their voting habits.
May 23, 2008 8:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
She bought up Robnert Kenedy as an example of a candidate going all the way to June and she was probably thinking subconsciously that he had not gone further because he was assasinated.
But you psychotic Obamanoids are certain she was "sending a message to Obama" that he will be assasinated. You need help.
May 27, 2008 12:46 AM | Reply | Permalink
Her remarks were in extremely poor taste.
Remember that Huckabee had recently made comments about Barack dodging a bullet. Also on a sad note, a few days earlier, we learned thatSen. Ted Kennedy had a brain tumor.
Hillary Clinton was indescribable to make such callous, racist, and narcisstic remarks. She is destroying the Party with her attitude. Each day that Sen. Clinton remains in the race, she loses more crediblility.
May 29, 2008 2:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
Are we seeing the evolution of a Clinton/Huckabeee ticket?
May 23, 2008 9:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Fan those flames, MJ. Either you're ignorant of about 1968, or you are being inflammatory on purpose.
Had he lived, Bobby would have gone into the convention facing an overwhelming deficit in delegates. Hubert Humphrey, who did not campaign in the few primaries that were held in 1968, had amassed a lead in delegates through caucuses and state conventions run by Party bosses like Richard Daley.
So get your facts straight, or just keep quiet. If anyone is the RFK of this campaign, it's Clinton herself.
And, as other, cooler heads are beginning to point out, there is nothing in it for Clinton to argue that Bobby's death and not his fight for the nomination is a reason for her to stay in. Whether she stays in or gets out, her situation would be exactly the same if anything were to happen to Obama.
May 23, 2008 9:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Though I usually strongly disagree with you, you make a valid point here. I wish she had said that in her apology.
May 23, 2008 11:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sorry to hear you usually disagree with me.
May 24, 2008 1:07 AM | Reply | Permalink
"get your facts straight, or just keep quiet."
so, the steel cracks...
and another poorly made sword loses its temper...
What will Billy do from now on?
Please, everyone who is trying to spin this with stuttering excuses, STOP.
Take your own advice Billy, just keep quiet.
Or just stfu, take your pick, you don't have a monopoly on frustration here.
Some of us are sincerely sad about this, not just bitter that we somehow finally, conclusively lost our self-appointed pundit credibility...
For those of you who think the rest of us, because we support Obama for President, don't feel compassion and sympathy for Hillary right now, go find a lonely room and brood in it.
This has been a long, hard day for everyone, and no one I know is rejoicing but Rush Limbaugh and the dittoheads.
If these campaigns weren't converted into such high-stakes poker matches, people like Hillary wouldn't be pigeonholed into exhausting and mind-numbing media traps like the one she stumbled into today.
And people like "Billy" wouldn't be losing "his" temper and belittling people out of personal disappointment.
May 23, 2008 11:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
Please don't characterize my mood. The fact is that Rosenberg is inciting people like you who are far too easy to incite. He's good at it.
May 24, 2008 1:06 AM | Reply | Permalink
I am excited about a fresh, young generaton and a sea-change in our political future.
It was you diehards who incited this whole mess.
May 24, 2008 1:13 AM | Reply | Permalink
There's nothing in it for her to mention Bobby Kennedy's death, but what does that prove? There was nothing in it for her to lie about being shot at by snipers either, but she said it anyway. Is she just nuts? I mean, why would she say this? The problem is, there's been very little in it for her to say many of the things she's said, but she keeps doing it. What the hell is her problem?
May 24, 2008 1:15 AM | Reply | Permalink
To all Clinton supporters,
It’s time to consider that your candidate has crossed the line with her remarks alluding to the assassination of RFK as a reason for staying in the race. Please don’t try to rationalize this even though it is tempting out your compassion for your candidate. As her supporters, you have asked the rest of us to excuse her on many fronts and we have tried to do just that. Her list of misstatements lies and racist innuendo is too long to repeat here. Either you are blind and completely naïve or extremely in denial to have not seen or heard of her many transgressions. That being said, you need to accept that there is a limit to her behavior. You cannot expect the rest of us to continue patiently tolerating her nonsense when it turns insensitive at best and deadly and morbid at worst. Hillary has lost all sense of decorum and decency and drifted into a kind of madness reserved for the certifiably insane. Please, out of respect for the rest of us who can see this situation for what it is, please don’t insult our intelligence by rationalizing her despicable words.
May 24, 2008 9:02 AM | Reply | Permalink
I agree.
I was appalled with Sen. Clinton's comments. She should be forced to resign.
May 29, 2008 1:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is beyond.
It's one thing to defend ones words as being politically "canny," or showing that you're "tough," or excusing them because you're "sleep deprived." And maaaaaybe you could even defend the context around remarks like "hard-working white people" and "obliterate Iran," - but this? And just days after Ted Kennedy's health announcement?
There are things elected leaders do not say, ever. This is beyond bad judgement. Or being sleep-deprived. Or being politically tough.
This is a revelation of a character flaw so serious, in this individual, that it cannot be explained or apologized away. Part of who this person is, is simply.... not right. Certainly for the position she pursues, with its responsibilities.
May 23, 2008 4:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
There would so many pre-conditions Hillary Clinton would have to meet prior to being INVITED on the VP ticket. Here's a few: She would have to sign a political pre-nupital and if she breaks that contract (like she did with signing off on punishing Florida and Michigan against Party rules), she IS banned from the Democratic Party (like a Sen. Joe Liebermann). The contractual agreement would include things like - promising not to upstage, backstab or undermine Obama himself and his administration; promise not to conspire a 'mutiny on the political bounty' of sorts; promise not to push Obama off a proverbial cliff; promise not to take advantage of any mishap as a result in the lapse of Presidential security, which would then open the door for a Clinton Presidency following the nation’s loss of President Obama; promise to relegate husband Bill Clinton to the way, way back of the White House office, and lastly, (at Clinton’s own personal expense) a promise to chaperon Bill Clinton’s activities whenever around women half his age.
May 23, 2008 4:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
So much for the VP slot, and so much for being considered for the Supreme Court (which I heard being kicked around of late).
Wow. Just...WOW.
May 23, 2008 4:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
For many of us, the assassinations of Bobby and Jack is still an open wound. This is breathtaking for someone who pretends to have the temperment to lead the party, let alone the nation.
May 23, 2008 4:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
And you can't leave the 1968 assassination of MLK out of the picture either.
May 23, 2008 6:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
I was an idealistic teenager in 1968. I remember hearing the news of the King assassination, and seeing the cities of America burn. And the RFK assassination - I was up late, watching some mindless late night movie, when the local station broke in with the news. I woke my family to tell them.
I often wonder how things might have been different if those tragedies had not occurred. What sort of alternate future my country may have had.
And to hear Hillary Clinton cite the potential of Obama's assassination as a rationalization for staying in staggers my imagination. She is truly contemptible. She must be excluded from any consideration for VP, SCOTUS, the Cabinet, anything. There is no room in my Democratic Party for anyone who makes such implications about another candidate.
Give it up, Hillary. You will never be President. Never. I personally would now vote for literally anyone over you. Spongebob. Ralph Wiggum. Charlie Sheen, even.
May 23, 2008 7:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sad. She just can't seem to give an interview lately without making a major gaffe. I don't believe for a moment that she would ever wish for harm to come to anyone as it did to RFK. However, her sudden inability to articulate seems troublesome. If I wanted to play pop psychologist, I'd say that maybe she wants out of this herself.
Anyway, this comment strikes me as a gaffe, worrisome only in that it is one of a string of gaffes that might indicate some problem that could impede her ability to communicate effectively as president. However, Clinton's latest communication problems are nothing when set in comparison to the incredibly inane and troublesome remarks McCain seems to be in the habit of making every day. There's no comparison.
And this is just a communication issue -- Clinton has a sharp mind; I have no doubt about her abilities.
The reason I have not supported her as a candidate is because of the things that she has thought out, said, and meant as a matter of policy -- things like, "I would obliterate Iran." That's the kind of thing I worry about.
(But at least she doesn't sing about it . . . Oy! As an aside, have we really sunk so low as a country that we can have a presidential candidate who sang about the destruction of another country? It's beyond understanding; maybe that's why we don't necessarily get the horror of it.)
Clinton's statement is stupid. It may be hurtful to the Kennedy's -- I don't know how I would take a light remark about the murder of my family member. However, in the larger schema it is relatively unimportant. Her statement that she would "obliterate Iran" is terrifying.
May 23, 2008 5:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
Agreed. But I would say it was less a gaffe and more a Freudian slip.
May 23, 2008 5:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
I agree. But a Freudian slip is an expression of a repressed desire. Not easily dismissed, don't you think?
May 23, 2008 10:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
It may be a "gaffe," but what people say when under pressure - especially when they follow a stream of other "gaffes" - REVEALS something. A pattern. And you don't have to be a Freudian to decipher that pattern. Beneath the controlled politicians' statements, her words are increasingly extreme, and often, actually violent. "Obliterate" Iran, as you mentioned, being one which was only passed over because it's a "foreign" place.
Above all.... this person is not WELL. And the bloody superdelegates, waiting for the "game" to play itself out, so they don't risk their precious political careers, are at this point risking their OWN good names. Would you sit by and say you hadn't "seen enough" - after this? How much would you have to see, BEYOND this? For everyone's good, and for the good even of her own name, they should act, en masse, NOW, to put an end to this "game."
Some game. My God.
May 23, 2008 5:11 PM | Reply | Permalink