You all know I am not a Clinton supporter. Nevertheless... [View All]

[Plaid Adder]

...I do want to point out that it is entirely possible that the New York Post and everyone else who's attacking her for the RFK reference are grievously misreading it.

The context was a discussion of her decision to keep going even though everyone else wants her to drop out, and she was citing the two examples she has ready to hand of people who were still campaigning at this point in the season. Obviously she remembers Bill's June primary in California because she was there. She remembers that RFK was campaigning in June because that's when he was assassinated. That's probably the reason *most* people remember that Bobby Kennedy was still campaigning in June. That seems completely reasonable to me, and I don't see why we should all jump to the conclusion that what she REALLY meant was, "Hey, I should keep going because if Obama gets shot, we'll need a spare!"

The fact that people other than the denizens of the GD: P forum have interpreted it that way says something about the context that Clinton's recent behavior has created for that remark. It did not provoke the same reaction the first couple of times she made it, because at that point she hadn't demonstrated her personal willingness to do whatever became necessary in order to win quite as clearly. I certainly believe Clinton capable of stuff I would have thought was beneath her a couple months ago. Still, when people are not sleeping for months on end and talking in front of the media all day long, they're going to say stuff before they think about how it's going to be taken, and to me this falls into that category.

Why am I defending her, given that she pisses me off more with every day that passes? Because I'm even MORE pissed off by this ongoing media soap opera we call Out Of Context Theater. Everyone who runs for any office will say at least one thing in innocence that can be turned into a drama like this. The media and the campaigns seize on these things and exploit them without caring whether they're misrepresenting the person's real intent or not. It's dishonest and sensationalistic and manipulative and it has unfortunately become a tool whereby people who might actually do some good with the offices for which they are running get trashed and pushed out of the campaign.

Huckabee joking about someone taking a shot at Obama is a legitimate cause for outrage, outcry, and general public shaming. IMHO this is really not the same thing.

Yeesh. Yeesh, I say!

The Plaid Adder