The gaffe by which all gaffes may forever be judged

Back in January, I wrote that if Obama wins the Democratic Presidential nomination, you'd see many people following Doris Lessing's lead and musing about his possible assassination.

I never thought his opponent would be one of them, though...

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton quickly apologized Friday after citing the June 1968 assassination of Robert F. Kennedy in defending her decision to keep running for the Democratic presidential nomination despite increasingly long odds.

"I regret that if my referencing that moment of trauma for our entire nation and in particular the Kennedy family was in any way offensive. I certainly had no intention of that whatsoever," the former first lady said.

The episode occurred as Clinton campaigned in advance of the June 3 South Dakota primary.

Responding to a question from the Sioux Falls Argus Leader editorial board about calls for her to drop out of the race, she said: "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. You know I just, I don't understand it," she said, dismissing the idea of abandoning the race.

I can see the point Clinton was trying to make - that is, it's not too late for something unexpected to happen in the nomination race - but, my God, what a tone-deaf, ham-handed, insensitive way to make it. This is a Chretien's-face-ad-level blunder.

Never mind her 2008 campaign. This might have destroyed any chance she had of becoming President in 2012 or 2016, too. More here.

Damian P.

Posted by damian at May 23, 2008 09:30 PM