Liz Trotta of Fox News slips up. Hillary Clinton offered the permission slip. Others are using it.
Below is the entire segment on Fox News:
BONUS UPDATE:
Howard Wolfson, Hillary Clinton’s chief strategist, this morning on CBS’s Face The Nation circling the wagons:
This morning Hillary Clinton has an op-ed in the Daily News. In it she remains unapologetic about her RFK assassination comments. Instead she says that those who were offended took her "entirely out of context". She is "dismayed and disturbed" that we would misconstrue her comments. In other words, she stands by what she said and regrets that we have twisted her words. If people were holding their breath for an apology for her ghoulish behavior this is not it:
This past Friday, during a meeting with a newspaper editorial board, I was asked about whether I was going to continue in the presidential race.
I made clear that I was – and that I thought the urgency to end the 2008 primary process was unprecedented. I pointed out, as I have before, that both my husband’s primary campaign, and Sen. Robert Kennedy’s, had continued into June.
Almost immediately, some took my comments entirely out of context and interpreted them to mean something completely different – and completely unthinkable.
I want to set the record straight: I was making the simple point that given our history, the length of this year’s primary contest is nothing unusual. Both the executive editor of the newspaper where I made the remarks, and Sen. Kennedy’s son, Bobby Kennedy Jr., put out statements confirming that this was the clear meaning of my remarks. Bobby stated, "I understand how highly charged the atmosphere is, but I think it is a mistake for people to take offense."
I realize that any reference to that traumatic moment for our nation can be deeply painful – particularly for members of the Kennedy family, who have been in my heart and prayers over this past week. And I expressed regret right away for any pain I caused.
But I was deeply dismayed and disturbed that my comment would be construed in a way that flies in the face of everything I stand for – and everything I am fighting for in this election.
She has no concept of why her comments were offensive. Simply delusional behavior.
She goes on to list reasons for her to stay in the race, apparently in addition to her hope that someone shoots the presumptive Democratic nominee. Among her reasons is this absolutely absurd claim:
I am running because I believe staying in this race will help unite the Democratic Party. I believe that if Sen. Obama and I both make our case – and all Democrats have the chance to make their voices heard – in the end, everyone will be more likely to rally around the nominee.
Is she nuts? By running and taking shots at the presumptive nominee, insulting his supporters, raising the race card, musing out loud that he may be assassinated, comparing Florida and Michigan sanctions to the 2000 election and fraudulent election in Zimbabwe, she is uniting the party? Simply delusional.
Then she says, in spite of losing in the actual vote, that math is "complicated":
I am running because I believe I’m the strongest candidate to stand toe-to-toe with Sen. McCain. Delegate math might be complicated – but electoral math is not. Our campaign is winning the popular vote – and we’ve been winning the swing states we need to get 270 electoral votes and take back the White House: Pennsylvania, Ohio, Arkansas, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada, Michigan, Florida and West Virginia.
The only "complication" in the delegate math is that she can’t win the delegate count. Having lost the Democratic primaries, she is making up metrics that feed her delusion at the expense of the American people.
I am now convinced this failed candidate is out to destroy the presumptive Democratic nominee and the Democratic party. We are watching a temper tantrum on a national stage. This failed candidate is delusional. She will use any argument, however destructive, to feed her delusion.
Pathetic. Pathetic. Pathetic.
UPDATE: The cross-posted diary on Daily Kos has reached the recommended list and there is a lively discussion ongoing.
Hillary Clinton has a habit of planting suggestions into the political landscape. Today she suggested that Barack Obama might be assassinated, with her waiting in the wings to take up the Democratic nomination. She invoked Robert F. Kennedy’s assassination in June 1968 during the Democratic primaries as a reason for her to stay in the race – you know, just in case.
I think there is little doubt that we have reached a new low in American political discourse. Here is a transcript of her discussion with the Argus Leader editorial board:
This is the most important job in the world. It’s the toughest job in the world. You should be willing to campaign for every vote. You should be willing to debate anytime, anywhere. I think it’s an interesting juxtaposition where we find ourselves and you know, I have been willing to do all of that during the entire process and people have been trying to push me out of this ever since Iowa and I find it¬¬-
EB: Why? Why?
I don’t know I don’t know I find it curious because it is unprecedented in history. I don’t understand it and between my opponent and his camp and some in the media, there has been this urgency to end this and you know historically that makes no sense, so I find it a bit of a mystery.
EB: You don’t buy the party unity argument?
I don’t, because again, I’ve been around long enough. You know my husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere around the middle of June
EB: June
We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. Um you know I just I don’t understand it. There’s lots of speculation about why it is.
Later she apologized in a non-apology if her comments offended anyone.
This is the evolution of Hillary Clinton’s original argument that Republicans will attack Obama therefore it was ok for her to do so. At some point that argument matured into "hardworking white people" would not vote for Obama so she was more "electable". Her actions were always crouched as a response to what others supposedly would do, could do, or might do. Now, with no chance to win the Democratic nomination she is going for the Hail Mary. It’s not that she wishes that Obama were assassinated, its just that in case he is killed she would be doing a public service by being available to take up the vacancy. This is called a permission slip.
Hillary Clinton is putting the idea of an Obama assassination into the mainstream. This will generate a lot of press and a lot of discussion about the possibility of the first African American presidential nominee being assassinated. This will give that little push and the explicit rationale a nutjob needs to move thoughts into action. After all, a presidential candidate has mused out loud the possibility of an assassination altering the race. This is a permission slip of the most macabre kind. In my opinion, one doesn’t hand out permission slips like this without knowing exactly what one is doing.
Given the seriousness of her comments, and apparently this wasn’t the first time she has rolled in this muck, she needs to do more than provide the kind of non-apology she has provided. She needs to go further – she needs to apologize more fully and take affirmative steps to revoke the permission slip. And she better pray that Barack Obama remains safe.
Barack Obama needs approximately 15 super delegates to win the Democratic nomination. With today’s results in Kentucky and Oregon Barack Obama has 1961 total delegates according to DemConWatch. There are still 17 more delegates outstanding from Oregon according to CNN’s count. Obama will probably get 10 of those when all the counting is done. He then needs another 54 delegates to reach 2025 delegates required to become the nominee.
There are 86 remaining pledged delegates to distribute in the upcoming three primaries: 55 in Puerto Rico, 16 in Montana, and 15 in South Dakota. Obama will likely pick up 22 delegates in Puerto Rico, 9 delegates in Montana, and 8 delegates in South Dakota. That will leave him 15 delegates shy of the nomination. Those 15 will come from remaining super delegates.
Lately Obama has been picking up up to 5 super delegates a day. At that rate he would need a little over 3 days to get the 15 super delegates. However, since he has acquired the majority of pledged delegates today, it is not unreasonable to expect that super delegates who have been waiting for him to get the pledged delegate majority will now quickly move to Obama’s corner. There is no reason now for the undeclared super delegates to not declare their support tomorrow.
So, watch to see which super delegates make up these last 15 super delegates whose votes will really matter. Those who continue to wait on the sidelines will likely find their influence diminished. So, which super delegates will step up and be counted tomorrow?
This is truly distressing news:
U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy has a malignant brain tumor, doctors treating him at Massachusetts General Hospital said Tuesday.
Kennedy, 76, was hospitalized Saturday morning after suffering a seizure at his family’s compound at Hyannisport, Massachusetts.
"Preliminary results from a biopsy of the brain identified the cause of the seizure as a malignant glioma in the left parietal lobe," according to a statement from Massachusetts General Hospital.
Malignant glioma is the most common primary brain tumor, accounting for more than half of the 18,000 primary malignant brain tumors diagnosed each year in the United States, according to the National Cancer Institute.
A tumor in that area of the brain could affect Kennedy’s ability to speak and understand speech, as well as the strength on the right side of his body, CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta said.
