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I just watched the relevant part of the video where Hillary references RFK's assassination.

Now, if everyone could stop hyperventilating - for a moment - and watch the interview, there's a nugget of context there. The context is simply this:

Hillary was making the point that the democratic nomination in past election cycles was sometimes still not wrapped up until June. She referenced two Democratic campaigns where the things really weren't decided until the June time frame... Bill Clinton's in 92 and Robert Kennedy's in 1968. Of course, RFK's campaign ended horribly, in June, in his assassination, leaving Hubert Humphrey to ultimately go up against (and lose) to Richard Nixon.

What's Hillary's central point here? Other primaries went into June... Bill Clinton's did, and so did RFK's. In fact, it's particularly easy to remember that for RFK because of the impact his assassination had on the nation. And for her, it's only May, so there's time for her to figure out her next steps. That's about it.

In watching Hillary's interview it's clear to me that:

She was most certainly not covertly suggesting anyone should vote for her over Obama because Obama might somehow be more likely to be a victim of assassination.

She wasn't comparing herself to Robert Kennedy.

She was in no way dis-respecting the family or the memory of Robert Kennedy.

... and she absolutely should not have to apologize to anyone for the comment.

Really - this is all just silly and smacks of the "gotcha" style of politics that has soooo watered down the discourse in this country. We as Americans really ought to be outraged by this. We really should. Don't we hate it when we ask a question of our leaders in Washington and all we get is a talking-points, focus-group, committee-prepared response? I do.

So how on earth do we expect candidates to open up and speak freely and articulately (am I allowed to suggest Hillary was articulate on this point?) when people start freakin' out over a non-issue like this? I am just astounded. Hillary even tried to apologize to anyone who might have been offended and did everything she could to make it clear she wasn't trying to offend anyone - but our friends (her friends?) at the NY Times weren't having that either.

Really Folks - we can all do better than this.

We saw this nonsense (from Hillary herself, ironically) when Obama stated that he believed that "Ronald Reagan was a transformative political figure..." Whatever your opinion of Ronald Reagan, of his policies, of his presidency, etc., he was transformational, and Obama was only pointing that out as part of a response to a question in a radio interview. But somehow we got a lotta folks hyperventilating that Obama was somehow comparing himself to Ronald Reagan, Obama was somehow not conservative enough to do that, or not truly liberal if he was comparing himself to Reagan, blah blah blah.

So, please, everyone - take a deep breath. Go back and watch the video (again). Search for the actual context and remember:

Context is everything.

Tags: Assassination, campaign, clinton, Hillary, Robert Kennedy

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