Friday, May 23, 2008

Ddoesn't happen easy, choice words for the pay phone...

So, I'm assuming you all heard by now, Hillary's comment about RFK. For those who haven't, it's all over the news, and YouTube, you can go look it up yourself. The long and short of it is that she gave an interview with a newspaper where they asked her why she was still in the race.

She gave a somewhat rambling (I thought) answer where she said Bill Clinton didn't get the nomination wrapped up until California in June of 1992 (even though that's not really accurate), and we all remember that Bobby Kennedy was shot after winning the California primary in June 1968.

Having seen the whole clip, it seems pretty obvious to me that what she meant was that both her husband and RFK were both still in the race through June, so it's no big deal for her to get out before June. That's what, I believe, she MEANT to say.

What she actually said though, does make it sound as if she's stayin in the race in case something bad, say Obama's assassination, takes place, and then she get the nomination that way.

I do not for a second beleive that's what she meant, or even what she thinks. But damn, it was a very unfortunate choice of words. And I think this is gonna haunt her. I mean, could she picked a worse analogy? Maybe JFK's assassination? Maybe Martin Luther King Jr's? Maybe used a Nazi reference? Those all would have been worse. But that's about it. This one is pretty bad.

I don't know where she goes from here. I mean it's GOT to be obvious, even to her most ardent supporter, that she's not gonna win the nomination. I could understand, and had no problem with, her hobbling on through the last remaining primaries, just so long as she didn't say or do anything that hurt the eventual nominee (Obama). But clearly, her campaign was over. I was just waiting for her to make a dignified exit.

I'm not sure she can make a dignified exit right now. It's such a poor choice of words, such bad, unforunate thing to say. And with her campaign all over but the crying anyway, maybe she ought to just pack it in after this. I know she doesn't want to end it on this, a horrible comment. She'd rather try to get back up and leave ascendent, but I'm not sure she CAN come back from this.

I've read some Obama bloggers crowing about this. I just watchign Keith Olbermann's Special Comment raking her over the coals for this. I don't feel glee or anger over this. All I truly fell is sadness. This was such a promising campaign, and to watch it stumble and trip and stagger on all through the primary season is a shame, honestly. And to see it so close to wrapping up have something like this happen...well, as I said, all I feel is sadness. Sadness for her. Sadness for what she MIGHT have accomplaish, if only she had done this or that different.

It's just all very sad.

POLT Listening to "You Learn" by Alanis Morisette

Being gay is the best excuse you'll ever have in your life for no being boring! - Edwina, Absolutely Fabulous

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Yeah, I mean that was a completely weird thing for her to throw in -- it came off almost as a nonsequitor.

But to be honest, I was more put off by the edge of whiny-ness that her response had rather than the strangeness of the RFK comment.

Personally, I think she needs to bow out and allow things to move forward, regardless of this little controversy.