Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Clinton's assassination remark

This wasn't a knee-jerk reaction of mine, but after thinking about it, I have come to believe that Hillary Clinton should step-down and concede. Jonathan Schwarz says we should be fair and put the remarks in context. There are different opinions at the Unapologetic Mexican, this one (that really got me thinking) and now also this one.

Here's a pull quote from the NYT blog:


Mrs. Clinton had been saying that some in the Obama campaign and in the media were trying to push her out of the race and she didn’t know why.

“Historically, that makes no sense,” she said, “so I find it a bit of a mystery.”

Question: “You don’t buy the party unity argument?”

Mrs. Clinton: “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 in the middle of June, right? We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. You know, I just don’t understand it and there’s lot of speculation about why it is.”


By all rights, it shouldn't just be a very bad day, but the worst day of Clinton's political career. The day that killed it. I don't care how long she's been fighting; I don't care how much slogging against the misogynist culture, the misogynist media, against the Cult of Obama, against her advisors, against her legacy, her own ambition--whatever it is that is keeping her going--she was in no position to make such an unconscionable, base, insensitive remark. Insensitive is not strong enough a word. Etherized, cynically nihilistic, I don't know. She is a product of our age; she is pure ambition, and I would forgive her if she stepped down now. But if I am to believe in the system, if I am to believe in democracy, if I am to uphold liberal ideals, then I cannot say anything but that she has gone beyond the pale. She has lost all credibility with me; she is not fit to represent us.

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