Hillary Clinton's Dangerous Assassination Talk

"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 remarks were made at an editorial board meeting with a South Dakota newspaper on May 23, 2008. This outrage has been widely reported. It was the cover story on The New York Post on May 24, and it was the lead topic of conversation among a six-member panel on "Meet The Press" on May 25. A full-context clip which includes Hillary uttering these words is available on You Tube.

This isn't the first time Hillary Clinton has put this filth on display. During a March 6, 2008 interview with Time Magazine, in response to an almost identical question about whether she would ever consider dropping out, Mrs. Clinton said, "We all remember the great tragedy of Bobby Kennedy being assassinated in June in L.A. My husband didn't wrap up the nomination in 1992 until June, also in California. "

After the political firestorm that followed her May 23 statement, Mrs. Clinton issued this non-apology: "I regret that if my referencing that moment of trauma for our entire nation, and particularly for the Kennedy family, was in any way offensive."

You don't have to be a deep thinker to know why the subject of assassination has always been taboo on the campaign trail. While I don't know the origin of the word "assassination," I suspect that it has something to do with the repetition of its first three letters. The world is full of loons, and it only takes one to do the dastardly deed. A high-profile mention of the topic makes it more likely.

This issue is especially sensitive in the Obama campaign because, as the May 24 Post article points out, Barack Obama has faced an elevated physical threat throughout this political season. According to the article, Mr. Obama received Secret Service protection earlier than any other presidential candidate and always travels with a heavy security contingent. A front-page New York Times article on February 25, 2008 discussed reluctance among African Americans to vote for Mr. Obama because they feared that he might be killed.

The timing of Mrs. Clinton's statement is particularly distressing. It came shortly after the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and shortly before the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. Dr. King was shot on April 4, 1968, Robert Kennedy on June 5, 1968.

The conventional wisdom is that Hillary Clinton did not mean to suggest that she hopes that Barack Obama will leave this earth. On the May 25 edition of "Meet The Press," Washington Post editorial writer Ruth Marcus offered a vigorous and elaborate defense of Hillary. Ms. Marcus posed the theory that Mrs. Clinton's remark was the result of sleep deprivation and self-pity. According to Ms. Marcus, Hillary Clinton could not possibly have meant to imply something so nefarious because "it is not in her interest."

The sleep deprivation excuse is getting tired. Clinton apologists have used it to defend Hillary for repeatedly telling the whopper that she braved sniper fire while visiting Bosnia as First Lady in 1996. It was also employed as a partial explanation for her diner tears on the eve of the New Hampshire primary. The latter incident was widely credited with keeping Mrs. Clinton's campaign alive.

The excuse was lame in those days, and it is not credible now. Mr. McCain and Mr. Obama have also suffered sleep deprivation. Even their worst off-the-cuff gaffes do not begin to compare with Mrs. Clinton's horrific words. If Hillary was exhausted in South Dakota, was she also wiped out for Time Magazine? The REM-deficit defense has long overstayed its welcome.

However, if you do buy the sleep deprivation argument, then you can logically conclude that Hillary's fatigue functioned as truth serum. Exhaustion weakens one's defenses. For Hillary, that would be obfuscation of the truth. She's more likely to say something candid when she's exhausted than when she's well-rested.

In any case, Hillary is clearly hoping that Mr. Obama fails in some manner. Given her reptilian reputation, she probably doesn't care how Obama fails, as long as he fails.

There is indeed self-pity in Mrs. Clinton's Robert Kennedy assassination statement. It is also true that it was not in her interest to utter something so contemptible. However, Mrs. Clinton has repeatedly indulged in self-pity and inflicted damage upon herself during this campaign.

Hillary wallowed in self-pity with her risible accusations of sexism during contentious debates with Mr. Obama and Mr. Edwards earlier this year. During those engagements, Mrs. Clinton was attacked because of her front-runner status, not her sex.

Anyone the least bit familiar with Mrs. Clinton's Machiavellian MO knows that she always tries to act in self-interest. Whether or not she succeeds is irrelevant. While the sniper fire and RFK remarks obviously damaged Mrs. Clinton, they were attempts to respectively bolster her foreign policy credentials and justify her continuing quest for the Democratic presidential nod.

While viscerally offending people of good will, Hillary insulted voters yet again by making false insinuations. Mrs. Clinton's remarks suggest that two previous primary seasons were just as long and contentious as the current one. That is untrue. Neither Robert Kennedy nor Bill Clinton ran primary campaigns anywhere near the length of the current Clinton-Obama slugfest. According to a May 25, 2008 New York Post article, Robert Kennedy was shot less than three months after he declared his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination. Nor was Bill Clinton in a close primary contest until June of 1992. Mr. Clinton's nomination was secure by March 20 of that year, when he had a 7-to-1 delegate advantage over his only remaining challenger, Jerry Brown, according to The Post. This information was repeated on "Meet The Press" on May 25.

As repugnant as her comments are, I have to give Mrs. Clinton credit for sheer audaciousness. If the queen had cojones, she'd be king; if Barack had cojones, he'd be more like Hillary.

Politics, like litigation, is a sublimated form of battle. It is much more akin to the World Series than the Roman Coliseum. It is about life, not death. To suggest otherwise is to return to the brutality of bygone eras. The greatness of American government lies in its freedom and stability. Every four years, we have national elections with the goal of peacefully choosing a new crop of candidates for high office. That goal is usually met. There have been few assassinations in American history, a result for which we should be thankful.

Does Hillary Clinton wish Barack Obama dead? I can't get inside the woman's head. To do that, I would need expertise comparable to that of a crack Sovietologist. It is, however, undeniable that the Clintons are hanging around hoping that Obama will either make a huge mistake or some catastrophe will befall him. A catastrophe can be anything from another Rev. Wright-like scandal to physical demise. The concept is sufficiently broad to enable Mrs. Clinton to plausibly deny any malicious intent. Is she a forward in the NBA finals bucking for a four-point play at the buzzer, or is she a Roman senator stalking Julius Caesar? You decide.

I have written many columns about the Clintons and have grown disgusted with them. This amoral power couple should have been ushered off the political stage long ago. That they have endured bodes ill for the future. I don't know about you, but I'm moving on.