Friday, May 23, 2008
Game-changer?Will Hillary Clinton's remark about campaigns running into June, like when Robert Kennedy was assassinated, have legs? Will it still be in the air a week from now (May 31) when Michigan and Florida delegate representation is decided? It's awful optics on a number of levels: Teddy Kennedy is ill. Robert Kennedy was a serious candidate when he was gunned down. It's historically irrelevant (California and other states don't have primaries in June anymore). UPDATE: This is an issue of competence. A seasoned pol isn't going to talk in front of the press about Robert Kennedy's assissination, if they are a candidate for president in an election year, a few days before the anniversary of the event, while discussing reasons for staying in the race. It's stupid. UPDATE2: The good news for Hillary is that this broke on a Friday before the Memorial Day weekend. A lot of big-name pundits are off on vacation and the public is focusing on barbeques and Indy racing. The topic may fade.
posted by Quiddity at 5/23/2008 02:30:00 PM
6 comments
As one who remembers vividly Robert's and John's and Martin's assassinations, I'm expecting Hillary to be treated justifiably harshly for this. And inevitably she and her followers will wallow in victimhood over the horrible injustice of the media coverage.
How long will Hillary supporters like Geraldine Ferraro stay away from the cameras before they put on persecution pageants about how hurt they are?
Bill Clinton himself has wallowed in persecution over the uproar about the race card in the South Carolina Primary, telling us how hurt he is that people attacked him for it. Bill will be back, I predict, wounded over the reaction to Hillary's RFK assassination reference.
Who can stand watching more of this?
I was 6 years old in 1968, so my memories of that election don't involve any personal emotional connections. To refresh my limited history-education I went to Wikipedia for a milk carton level reminder today. ( "United States presidential election, 1968" )
Wow. I'd forgotten that Humphrey and Kennedy and McCarthy and Wallace were all fighting for the votes of the democrats. And the 1968 media was much less able to package our world into tidy narratives for consumers to choose from (and associate with) at every level. It's a useful refresher for anyone who's forgotten a bit or wasn't around much back then. We live in a different sort of world now.
I think that we have 4 months of new thrilling adventures and scandals to look forward to, no matter who's runnning or not running. Some of these Narratives will be based on current events. Some will be based on fears and nightmares from the past. But our current culture's appetite for Narrative will not be satisfied with policy papers and 'agree to disagree'. We want excitement and thrills and truth that's stranger than fiction all the way to the big showdown. Or at least until the surprise ending on October 23rd, when Ross Perot shows up in New York City with a handcuffed Osama bin Laden.
Can't see what the flare up is about the remark other than what the Obamaniacs and the media who hate her say and twist.
I'm sure you also can't wait to see what her magnificent acceptance speech will be like on the day after he's gunned down in Dallas by the KKK as she accepts the Democratic nomination.
Clinton's supporters are just like that family. Cruel, inhuman, conniving, power grubbing. Evil incarnate.
The original "Manchurian Candidate" was a terrific movie, but it was make-believe. To believe in a real life Queen of Hearts is infantile.
The future is unwritten.
William Henry Harrison took ill and died less than a month after he became president. Pope John Paul I died tragically 33 days after his election. Fate can be cruel and merciless and sudden and 5 months is a very long time to go without insurance when there is so much at stake for the good of the world.
An Obama assassination would lead to a McCain administration. The right-wing squawking heads would convince Americans that the Democrats represent chaos and instability, while the GOP would preserve law and order.
And George Bush would get a symbolic third term. A term America might not survive.
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