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Posted
Tuesday, May 27, 2008 3:06 PM
| By
Christopher Beam
Hillary Clinton's ill-advised invoking of RFK's assassination might
have damaged her campaign if there were anything left to damage.
Meanwhile, Obama closes in on the current magic number of 2,026,
bringing Clinton's odds of winning the nomination to 0.5 percent.
On
the list of campaign no-nos, hinting at the possibility of your
opponent being shot is up there. Yet that's what some people thought
Hillary meant when she told the editorial board of the Sioux Falls,
S.D., Argus-Leader that Democratic nominations often extend
into June: "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. I
don't understand it."
The New York Post led the way, blaring, "Hillary Raises Assassination Issue." Drudge quickly followed. The Washington Post fronted the story, albeit less sensationally. But little consideration was given to what Clinton meant. (Watch the video and draw your own conclusions.) Never mind that she had said the same thing to Time back in March and no one noticed. Never mind that her calendar argument is misleading
in the first place: Her husband may not have mathematically secured the
nomination until June, but he was the presumptive nominee in March; RFK
was still campaigning in June because the primary calendar started so
late. The focus was on the "assassination" comparison. "We have seen an
X-ray of a very dark soul," opined the Daily News' Michael Goodwin. That or a very click-hungry media.
Read more at the Hillary Deathwatch.
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