WP: Hillary Clinton Raises the Specter of the Unspeakable (she spoke a double taboo)

[Pirate Smile]

Essay
Hillary Clinton Raises the Specter of the Unspeakable

By Libby Copeland
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, May 24, 2008; Page C01

Smart candidates don't invoke the possibility of their opponents being killed. This seems so obvious it shouldn't need to be said, but apparently, it needs to be said.

-snip-
The nation's political science students, our future strategists and campaign managers, would do well to pay attention to this moment. There are taboos in presidential politics, and this is one of the biggest. To raise the specter of a rival's assassination, even unintentionally, is to make a truly terrible thing real. It sounds like one might be waiting for a terrible thing to happen, even if one isn't. It sounds almost like wishful thinking.

If there were any doubt about the taboo nature of discussing such a thing, witness the reaction Barack Obama's campaign put out, which carefully avoided any repetition of what Clinton had actually said. To repeat it would be to repeat the possibility of the terrible thing.
"Senator Clinton's statement before the Argus Leader editorial board was unfortunate and has no place in this campaign," spokesman Bill Burton e-mailed. (A reporter checking his BlackBerry after an overlong smoke break would have no inkling of what was so unfortunate.)

-snip-
The fear of a president or a presidential candidate being shot or assassinated is horrifying precisely because recent history teaches us that it can happen. We don't need anybody to remind us, and we certainly don't need anybody to remind whatever suggestible wackos might be lurking in the shadows.

In the context of Obama, Clinton's words broke a double taboo, because since the beginning of his candidacy, some of Obama's supporters have feared that his race made him more of a target than other presidential hopefuls. Obama was placed under Secret Service protection early, a full year ago. To be unaware that one's words tap into a monumental fear that exists in a portion of the electorate -- a fear that Obama's race could get him killed -- is an unusual mistake for a serious and highly disciplined presidential candidate.

It's surprising, too, because something very similar just happened last week, when Mike Huckabee made a joke at an NRA convention about somebody aiming a gun at Obama. He later apologized and called his remarks "offensive." He also could have called them "instructive" for any politician paying attention.
If they didn't already know.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/23/AR2008052302789.html?tid=informbox

[ccharles000]

1. ...

She did not invoke the possibility of Obama being killed. It is truly disgusting for someone to think that.

[stevedeshazer]

2. What, then was she saying?

[ccharles000]

3. ...

She was just providing examples of past campaigns that lasted until early summer. It was nothing more than that. She should have used a different example but there was no wrong.

[ErinBerin84]

5. I don't think that she meant that she's staying in

just in case Obama gets assasinated, because bad things happen. But it was a gaffe. Honestly, the comparison of Florida to Zimbabwe offended me more than this. Her historical analogies make me wonder why she always gets so much praise for her political savvy.

[ashrob123]

8. I agree with this

When I heard the Zimbabwe analogy I thought she was referring to herself as Mugabe because to me that's who she is, the old guard trying to resist the new guard. But to align herself with the position party is ludicrous and an inaccurate analogy.

[Leopolds Ghost]

27. She was obviously referring to herself as RFK winning late in June. Clearly she has a martyr complex

What, to believe she meant Obama?!?

That would ascribe the most ghoulish connotations to her remark! :shrug:

[Leopolds Ghost]

28. I am being facetious, of course: she meant a game-changing event (and not to her)

Why stay in the race just in case something unexpectedly bad happens to
YOU or one of the other also-rans?

[Medusa]

40. She IS a ghoul. She's like a vulture, hoping for a carcass to feed off of

that she couldn't even offer Obama a direct apology, instead she apologized to the Kennedys and then had RFK Jr. trot out a statement to try and put a band-aid on the entire situation. This is a woman who does not utter a syllable that isn't triangulated and focus grouped to within an inch of its life. This was no misstatement. This was no slip of the tongue. She meant what she said and she said what she meant. She's a ghoul of the worst kind. And she has stepped over a line that you do not cross if you want to be your party's leader. She doesn't even deserve to be in our party any more.

[intaglio]

36. You are probably correct about what she meant

but the problem is that many, many people heard what she actually said and interpreted it as a reference to assassination. Obama supporters heard it that way, some Hillary supporters heard it that way, many journalists heard it that way and, I have no doubt, many lunatics heard it that way. If you think that none of these lunatics are supporters of Hillary then I suggest you read the comments in Hillary is 44 about Obama.

It was a massive error - a campaign destroying error. Even if you remove the assassination subtext it does the following
1) Equates Obama with RFK - something she has been at pains to avoid
2) Removes her stance that she would be ready to answer the 3am call, because so many have tried to excuse the comment with the long campaign and tired excuse
3) Destroys her stance that she is experienced, because this sort of error is one made by a rookie
4) Destroys her stance that she will be ready on day one - because even now, after months of campaigning, she is still not ready.

[Snarkoleptic]

4. Many a mullet-head heard the dog whistle.

For that she sucks.

Hillary sucks...new and improved!!

[ashrob123]

6. It was truly disgusting

that she would insinuate this. And that is what it is. She didn't say it flat out but she did infer it. Just like a few weeks ago with the hard-working, white Americans statements. Clinton is very careful with her words. She says very little accidentally. I am not stupid and neither are you. Please do not let your blind allegiance to Senator Clinton suspend your rational thought. You know what she was trying to illicit. Call it for what it is and still support her if you want. But to act like people are just overreacting demeans you and your candidate.

[slinkerwink]

7. Obama has been likened to RFK, JFK, and MLK

and it's about context. You NEVER raise an reference to an assassination when you explain why the race has gone on for so long. It's monumentally stupid to do so. How would you feel if Obama used a reference to the assassination of a female politician in his remarks about the length of the primary season?

[Raejeanowl]

21. Why Would It Have To Be A Female Reference?

A boy and his father are involved in a horrible car crash on the way home from a fishing trip.

Short version:

The dad dies on the way to the hospital. The boy is wheeled in, mutilated and near death.

The surgeon enters the triage area and collapses over the boy, crying, "Oh, my God; my son, my son!"

I have never, ever told that riddle and had my question "Who is the surgeon?" answered correctly on the first try, by male or female.

[ima_sinnic]

30. NO ONE can guess that the surgeon is his mother?

are you telling the joke to 4th graders? sheesh.

[ampad]

9. This is really upsetting you huh Charles?

Imagine how the Obama family feels tonight. There is a reason this is unacceptable and I'm just sorry that you cannot see it because you are a really nice person whom I admire on this board. No hard feeling towards you but I think you are totally wrong on this one.

[ccharles000]

I respect your opinion.

[ccharles000]

11. I respect your opinion.

[msallied]

12. Yeah, because if something bad happened when Hillary withdrew from the race

there is no WAY she'd be able to get back in, right?

Jesus.

[ginnyinWI]

13. doesn't matter.

She brought up the idea of somebodypossibly coming to harm. Even if she only meant her own self, it was wrong and a mistake to say the words out loud. Any novice politician should know this.

Because she said it, she shows plainly that she doesn't have enough sense to watch her words. No, we don't need another bumbling mis-speaker to follow the last bumbling mis-speaker. It's not the only time she's done it, either.

Another thing that strikes me: if she were a man, would she have gotten away with so many mistakes? I think there is a kind of reverse sexism going on here. It's as if she doesn't need to be as responsible or accountable for what she says. She gets to offer excuse after excuse--what man would get away with as much?

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

15. exactly - her actions and the excuse making are bad for women in general

If she is put up there as the best we have to offer, we look horrible.

Lots of excuses being made for her undemocratic actions.

[JVS]

31. Yes she did.

She probably meant no harm by it, but she still invoked it.

[Cha]

10. It seems a few in the press

have taken offense to what hilary refers to as to "why would I drop out?":silly:

It's not just Obama supporters on DU..and I know that doesn't include all of them..hilary's apologists abound.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

14. she's blowing the dog whistle to her more unhinged supporters

hopefully since we have advance warning we can prevent it.

[ccharles000]

16. I can't comprehend why people think Hillary has it in her to want...

Obama to be killed.

[Raejeanowl]

19. Ditto

Or where the presumption that it would be a "batshit Clinton supporter" to do it came from.

[ginnyinWI]

20. I really don't believe that she does.

But I do believe she is straining to think of every possible justification for staying in the race. And she said one of them out loud and shouldn't have. It was very irresponsible to do that. What made her think she could get away with saying the word, or evoking an image like that about anyone? There is a limit, and she's crossed it and needed to be called out on it as a clear violation. And she was. She is simply a disgrace.

It's like Bush saying, "Bring it on." Stupid, stupid, stupid.

I'd love to see the rest of the superdelegates make their final decisions tomorrow morning, or Monday at the latest, and end this thing.

[AllentownJake]

17. She will never be the nominee in that situation

If the unthinkable happens.

[Leopolds Ghost]

29. No wonder Obama didn't go into Eastern Kentucky where he got 5%

[Hardrada]

18. Possible historical precedent: "Will no one rid me of that meddlesome priest?"

Henry II, England, 12th Century AD.

[TheZug]

24. Sadly--infuriatingly--yes.

[ebdarcy]

38. Damn, I hadn't even thought of that. nt

[bhikkhu]

22. She has no clue what it means to be a leader

and demonstrates it once again. Suggesting that she would benefit from the assassination of her competition is almost pathological.

[Terran]

26. Agreed

I don't think she wants Obama dead, but for her to say something like that, it shows a complete lack of leadership ability. It puts her on the same level as Bush, IMO.

[global1]

23. There Is No Way She Can Be Barack's VP Now.........

she just sealed the deal and probably her hopes for 2012 or 2016.

[SoCalDem]

34. Would Clinton have chosen Gore, if HE had said what Hillary said?

I doubt it..

No one will fault him for NOT choosing her now... He needs someone he can TRUST..

[kenny blankenship]

25. That "warn't" no mistake. In neither Huckabilly's case nor Clinton's

It's called wishing out loud.

[Raine]

32. What kind of leader with a motor mouth like

that make. I can just imagine the stupid asinine statements both her and Bill would be making to world leaders, GAWD. :puke:

[VotesForWomen]

33. yawn.

[SeattleGirl]

35. So, you think it's okay to invoke the assassination of a Presidential

candidate as your justification to stay in?

Shameless, that's what you are.

And that's what Clinton is.

[Skwmom]

37. "Suggestive wackos lurking in the shadows." This is why Bill Clinton's

comments that Obama thinks he's better then other people was STUPID.

[ebdarcy]

39. The thing is, I don't think it was a mistake.

I don't think she wants the worst to happen to him. But I think it has crossed her mind, and I bet her camp has discussed it. And she is obviously looking at it as one possible way to get the nomination. It gives a new perspective to all the times when she tells SD that he can't win. Now, I wonder exactly what she has said to them.

I am so sick and upset about this. I was 13 when she became first lady. And I admired her so much. She was such a change from Babs. She was intelligent and outspoken. I thought she was just amazing. It has not been fun watching the truth come out.

In the end, if she did make a "mistake", I think it was because she said aloud what her camp has already discussed in private. There is no defense for what she said. And her "apology" just made it worst.

[Medusa]

41. See my statement above.

Turns out this wasn't the first time she'd said something like this. And there were many, many more examples she could have used about campaigns running into June without invoking 1968. She chose that particular statement because she knew exactly what she was saying and she meant to say it. This is not a woman who makes misstatements. She runs everything past her focus groups, etc. And then she didn't even have the brains or the class to apologize directly to Obama. I'm done with her. I truly hope the good people of NY State will show her the door when she runs for the Senate again. And she can forget about a run in 2012, with that one statement, she blew her chances to ever represent our party.

[ebdarcy]

42. Yeah, sadly, I think you're right.

She's got to get out of the race. She's gone way beyond kneecapping Obama. The supers need to come out and end this.

I don't want her to have any type of position of authority within the party. I don't want her anywhere near the senate majority leader job. I don't want her near the cabinet. And when her senate primary rolls around, I plan on donating money to her opponent. She's quickly approaching Lieberman territory, if she's not already there.