"It is clear from the context that Hillary was invoking a familiar political circumstance in order to support her decision to stay in the race through June. I have heard her make this reference before, also citing her husband's 1992 race, both of which were hard fought through June. I understand how highly charged the atmosphere is, but I think it is a mistake for people to take offense."
Anglachel
17 comments:
While I suspect this will blow over without incident as have all the other Clinton statements the OFB were certain would bring her campaign to an end, this one has the aural wash of a crescendo. Where do they go after accusing her of dogwhistling Obama's assassination?
I find this drama disturbing in light of the sheer volume of commentary about and around Clinton that uses violent imagery against her or compares her to violent characters. Olberman's comment about taking her in the room and only the man coming back out. Whoever said they would knee cap her. The comparison between her and Glenn Close' character in Fatal Attraction. I know the list goes on and on. I see an arc that I find scary. The fan base of her opponent relentlessly discusses violence against her, and now is calling her a sociopath and claiming that she's encouraging assassination of her opponent. It doesn't take Freud to see that this is a trajectory healthy people would avoid.
I'm starting to think the entire OFB is just batshit crazy and mean to boot. I've been hearing this unity talk but I'm back to square one - I could never vote for a candidate whose supporters are this creepy and pathological.
lori,
Yes, my reaction is "Project much?"
As the only person in the blogosphere who called Keith Olbermann's death wish for what it was, I find the current hissy fit distinctly unamusing.
The Obama campaign has been quietly pushing a meme about how The Precious is in danger of assassination as a cheap attempt to associate himself with the true martyrs of the 60s. I have been reading this since January. It pops up whenever he is having some poll or news problem. I firmly believe *every* major political figure is a potential target of some whack job with a gun, but the purposeful, cynical use of assassination to boost support is as pathetic as it is despicable.
Anglachel
I take Clinton at face value on her commitment to withdraw one brigade a month from Iraq. Should she win the presidency, how long before the blogosphere opposes leaving Iraq? Or how will they stand against universal access to healthcare?
I was thinking about her comment at the DK convention about how she wished she would have had the blogosphere in 1993. Well, maybe she does...,.
lori: I am so flummoxed by Obama supporters who are so pro-UHC, especially since they are now writing their Reps about HR 676 (single payer healthcare-medicare for all). I just can't understand why then they wouldn't support the only candidate advocating UHC.
/sidetrack
Lori,
I agree with almost everything you said in all your comments.
But I have a minor quibble. The few bloggers willing to stand up for Hillary have benefited her greatly. Initially it was money, then it was analysis, and now (frankly) it's the leading edge of her slogans.
(Anglachel's essays gave them the "map, not math" (if not with that alliteration). Lambert coined the best fighting slogan in a long time WTSBJQ (or letters to that effect). River has built an amazingly effective group of people over at Confluence. Taylor, Hillary is 44, and No Quarter have provided gathering for folks who usually go to radio/TV. Sugar stands as an inspiration to us all and provides a unique insight.
Yes, Hillary and her campaign have captured the states one by one. But the friendly blogosphere has carried that fight across states and provided a powerful counter narrative.
Even if all her bloggers end up doing is documenting the atrocities, that will be enough. However, they are also likely laying the framework for the next incarnation of the democratic (with small d) party.
I think this has to be considered in terms of how it poses a potential threat to Hillary's life (from enraged Obamaphiles).
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Begin] Somebody deliberately unleashed this tsunami of hate on Senator Clinton today. I want to know who first twisted her simple RFK comment into a threat on Obama's life. Who?
Who could not foresee that we now have hundreds of thousands of enraged Obama supporters who think Senator Clinton is responsible for planting an idea about assassinating Obama? Could anybody not foresee that Senator Clinton would become the direct object of that rage?
Does anybody doubt how at-risk Hillary must feel tonight? Not for her political future, but for her life itself.
Where is the outrage about the threat that Senator Clinton will continue to face throughout this nomination process, on through the election, and beyond? Would any one of us want to be in her shoes at her next public rally? I think not.
Somebody spun this unspeakable thing. We need to take a very long look here at who was the intended victim and who was the intended beneficiary. The question answers itself. Yet that answer will not be forthcoming from the likes of Kos or TPM or the MSM pundits. No, they'll put Hillary on the receiving end of an Orwellian, full-bore hate week.
The only person who can put a stop to this madness is BARACK OBAMA and it needs to happen, definitively and unequivocally, before the sun sets on another day. He has to make the case that this sociopathic misrepresentation of Senator Clinton's remarks puts her life at more risk than his. [End]
------------------------------------------------------------------------------=
Thanks for reading.
Something told me to check out KO last evening - a vile program I have studiously avoided.
Bathtub boy strikes again.
I was just in time for his rant or what he calls a comment, this time, you guessed it, completely misstating what HRC said without any context.
For shear vileness, he must have taken his muse from the blogger boyz.
And this is the putz that just a few days ago was putting out a hit on Hillary. "...take her into a room and only he comes out."
This rant sure to inflame BO-bots and cause physical harm to her.
Thank you, Barack Obama.
I'm a slow learner, but you've taught me a lesson that's been a long time coming (though it's Anglachel who's given me a framework to understand it).
I'm a Stevensonian Democrat by upbringing, raised to it by two fine Southern-born people who were being chased through North Carolina cornfields by people with shotguns, in the cause of equal rights and economic justice for black farmers, 14 years before Sen. Obama saw the light of day. Now it seems that Obama would rather have me standing with those shotgun owners than with him.
I supported Eugene McCarthy in 1968 and naively scorned Robert Kennedy for waiting to declare his candidacy until McCarthy had tested the waters. Now a candidate who I could have supported gladly a year ago has cynically misrepresented good-faith remembrances of Kennedy's work to smear his opponent.
I have led a privileged life. It used to be that I could understand how people must feel when they are disrespected. Now, thanks to you, I know how it feels to be disrespected.
I am bitter, but I am clinging to what Bill Clinton said at a rally in Pittsburgh last month: "I enjoy a good political fight as well as the next person, but this decision ought to be based on the big things, not the little things."
Today, the big things still seem like diplomacy before war, better access to health insurance, and an end to the tax holiday for the wealthy.
Tomorrow, my anger and disgust might be bigger than those things. By November, Obama might have to kiss my saggin' ass to get my vote.
Talk to me, Anglers, I'm hurtin.
gob...'fraid I can't help you much.
I visited my normal set of blogs this AM and continued to read such hate over at MyDD that I turned the computer off.
I have to define my hurt as entirely for Hillary. I could cry when I think of the things that this woman has gone and is going through. People who I formerly respected have gone over the edge to such a degree that I, too, am concerned for Senator Clinton's safety.
It would have taken a lot to get me to consider voting for Obama in November. I know that nowt I can never be convinced. I am actually on the verge of campaigning against him - which is an entirely different proposition that just not voting for him.
Did Olberman really do a "special comment" on Hillary last night? What a dispicable scumbag.
shainzona - yes - dispicable scumbag indeed.
I'm sure the pukes have it up on u-tube by now and other places.
I'm also very concerned about Sen. Clinton's life. The degree to which some of these Obamabots are coming unhinged is frightening. And the fact that they are being egged on by the likes of Olbermann and the hyena blog boyz is pretty obvious. Joseph Cannon had a post about this on his blog Cannonfire this morning, and here is a short excerpt that really concerns me:
No, I'm not kidding. Moulitsas even published calls for Hillary to be killed.
(Update: I contacted a Secret Service field office and read off the death threat against Hillary published on Daily Kos. The person I spoke to seemed to take the matter seriously, and he has promised an investigation.)
The fact that people are actually putting death threats in comments is scary. I hope that anyone else who happens to see something like this will also call the Secret Service. This isn't something to ignore.
[I'm going to shoe horn into this thread a comment I made elsewhere because I want to make sure everyone knows certain details about the RFK's 1968 primary campaign.]
In no way was Sen. Clinton suggesting that the specter of assassination in some way makes her candidacy viable. This is a preposterous interpretation that people who know better are selling their prey, i.e. folks who neither study presidential campaign history nor spend a lot of time analyzing candidate statements.
Clinton was referring to the fact that Democratic icon Robert F. Kennedy had continued his 1968 primary campaign past late May into June. Sen. Kennedy concluded his June 4, 1968 California Primary victory speech with the last words he ever spoke into a microphone, "My thanks to all of you, and now, it's on to Chicago, and let's win there!"
Notice, at that point, Kennedy made no mention of the upcoming June 18 New York Primary. Kennedy stated unequivocally he was taking his fight to the Democratic National Convention which was scheduled to begin in Chicago on August 26.
Here's what most people might not realize. Even after winning the California primary, RFK faced an uphill climb to the nomination. He trailed Hubert Humphrey, the eventual nominee, in committed delegates and the passionate supporters of Sen. Eugene McCarthy resented that Kennedy was running at all. McCarthy, who was the only candidate to mount a challenge against President Johnson in the New Hampshire Primary, had just beaten Kennedy in the Oregon Primary. RFK was not the front runner for the 1968 Democratic presidential nomination. Yet Kennedy did not withdraw from the race, rather he was assassinated.
Again, Hillary Clinton was making no suggestion that tragic happenstance might determine the outcome of this year's nomination battle. Clinton's point was that previous Democratic presidential primary battles had continued past May. And I'm sure the likes of Josh Marshall and Keith Olbermann know that.
Over at Corrente one of the commenters sees this for what it is: This is the Dean scream all over again and the rubes [are expected to] fall for it every time.
Latest from electoral-vote.com
Obama has finally pulled ahead of McCain, although Clinton retains a bigger lead:
O 266, Mc 248, Tied 24 [IN and VA]
C 314, Mc 207, Tied 17 [MI]
I never thought I'd see the day when I'd worry about a Democrat winning the White House, or that I'd be grateful for the existence of the GOP political attack machine. I now fear a McCain Presidency less than I fear an Obama Presidency.
Me, too, IvoryBill...BO truly scares me to death.
I'd like some advice, please: Anglachel's and others' writing here has stimulated me to think hard about things and write it all down - about 900 words worth. That's a pretty long comment from a newbie and I don't want to violate etiquette. But I sure would like some reactions. (All my family and friends are for Obama, I'm lonely!)
Should I post it as a comment here, or just go get my own blog, which no one will read :-) ?
Advice, please?
tx
Your own blog, please, gob. 900 words is too much for the comments.
Anglachel
Gob: But make sure you share the link with us!!
Post a Comment