Okay, she probably didn’t mean it that way—at least not consciously—but it doesn’t matter. Hillary Clinton raised the specter of Bobby Kennedy’s assassination while answering a question about why she’s still in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. That’s a live wire you can’t touch and expect to survive. Especially when the man you are running against is challenging the unspoken fears of many of his supporters that the audacity of seeking to be the first African-American president could get him killed.
And it was a dumb argument in the first place. She was saying that people should not be in such a hurry to see her shut down her campaign when historically several campaigns have run into June including in 1968, when Kennedy was shot the night he won the California primary. Kennedy, however, did not even declare himself to be a candidate that year until mid-February. Traditionally California, the state with the most votes, has held its primary last, in June, and it was winner-take-all, unlike this year’s proportional allocation of delegates. So it made sense that in a close race the winner would not be decided until the cusp of summer.
In those same old days (before this election) the New York primary was in April; “Super Tuesday,” an ‘80s invention, was in March; New Hampshire was in February. This year everything on the calendar got pushed up. There were more primaries than ever and they were earlier than ever, starting in January, which is why this campaign has lasted longer than usual. It was a change clearly designed to benefit the candidate who arrived at the starting line with the greatest name recognition, the most money raised, the most experienced campaign organization. In December 2007 that person was Hillary Clinton, who said then that she fully expected the primary campaign to be over in February. Oops. In other words, her wait-a-minute plea isn’t so much to let the process play out (how much attention would she have paid then to her precious friends in West Virginia?) as it is to let her get back in front where she believes she belongs. Whatever it takes.
Many of her critics, while chastising her for her insensitive comments, are giving her the benefit of the doubt. She hasn’t earned it. Barack Obama was exceedingly gracious in his we-all-make-mistakes public response. Yet where was her compassion when he spoke “inartfully” about small-town folks “clinging to their guns and religion” in times of political stress? He was actually trying to cut them a break. Asked why certain groups weren’t supporting him, he wrapped prejudice in a soft blanket and described bitterness as a natural response to a loss of faith in the government. Clinton knew that. But instead of giving him the kind of pass he just gave her, she jumped all over the remark, branded Obama an “elitist” and went on to create a whole new campaign persona as a gun-totin’ fighter for the little feller.
That hasn’t worked out so well. So now she is forced to say out loud words that suggest she is hanging around in case one of her “hard-working white American” supporters decides to shoot the other guy. Hey, you never know.
This is beyond desperate. It is frightening and insulting and appalling. It shows that she has neither the common sense, the integrity nor the simple human decency to occupy the office she seeks. And it wasn’t even 3 a.m.
Delphine Davis
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