THE COPYCAT EFFECT: HRC Spreads Assassination Meme

[Segami]

I am still lost for words as to why such a sharp legal/political tactician as Hillary could possibly justify her weaving the word " assassination " into ANY of her speeches given the sensitive nature of the current political toxic environment beginning with Huckabee's tasteless remarks while speaking - his program was wrapping up, the room was interrupted by a loud noise. “ That was Barack Obama,” he said. “He just tripped off a chair. He was getting ready to speak and someone pointed a gun at him and he dove for the floor.”

Thats like insulting someone with a weight problem by calling them fatty or something to that effect and turning around and saying ' Ooops, sorry, I didn't mean to say that or it slipped out of my mouth......' Once the tooth paste is out of the tube, its pretty hard trying to get it back in....I would say practically impossible. I'm sure many are aware that Obama's meteoric rise has worried many who continue to see people of color as lesser than them and with that mentality, a dangerous environment is born. The tactic of using key-word stimulus to trigger deeper beliefs and mean-streak passions has been around for the longest of times. This is why it baffles me as to why such a bright person like Hillary decided to cross these very sensitive boundaries through her word association. Changing events around us are quite fluid and more complicated than just another slip of the tongue.


Excerpt


" Hillary Rodham Clinton let the political assassination meme out of the bottle! She unconsciously or consciously said she is staying in the presidential race just in case something happens. The copycat factor is a reality underlying assassinations, and she did the unthinkable.

As Michael Goodwin of the New York Daily News straightforwardly wrote: "Hillary Clinton is staying in the race in the event some nut kills Barack Obama....We have seen an X-ray of a very dark soul."

Asked if her continuing fight for the nomination against Senator Obama hurts the Democratic party, Sen. Hillary Clinton replied to a newspaper editorial board,


I don't. Because again, I've been around long enough. You know, 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 don't understand it. You know, there's lots of speculation about why it is.

Hillary Clinton, May 23, 2008.


The power of words, the power of the media, and the power of graphic imagery cannot be underestimated in this political year, or any year. The fact that the vulnerable homicidal-suicidal mind of an assassin can and has been influenced by behavior contagion and the copycat effect cannot be disputed by anyone who is a student of assassinations.

Indeed, what was Hillary Clinton thinking?

Her non-apology "apology" only has made this worse, and I predict will fester like an unhealed wound until she steps aside. Despite what she said in her "apology," she has not honored RFK's New York Senate seat with her actions of late. She little realizes the power of her own words if she allows this to continue, and sit there, waiting to further infect the nation, as we move closer to the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy.


cont'


http://copycateffect.blogspot.com/2008/05/hrc-spreads-assassination-meme.html

[McCamy Taylor]

1. Nonsense. If this is true then the press is to blame for repeating it 10000 times.

She can not compel anyone to do anything---including compel the press to print a word so dangerous that it will drive people into a homicidal frenzy. The press just wants to talk about scary stuff like death and this gives them a good opportunity.

It is the same as when she wore an open neck blouse and they seized the opportunity to talk about her tits for a week.

If someone was offering murder for hire, would the press be obligated to publish the story and let people know how to contact the killer to arrange for his services because it is "news"? No way. The above story is bullshit.

[TLM]

15. Yeah she can't compel the people interviewing her to broadcast her words or anything.

Hillary is pushing a meme to the media, that assassination is a possibility in a primary. She's not asking for one of her crazy racist Appalachian supporters to take Obama out... she's just saying she'll stay in the race in case it does happen, since we all remember it happened before.


And you apparently support that as a campaign tactic.

[StevieM]

2. Hillary's message was the exact opposite. She was staying in because she felt she could

win if she won the popular vote. Admittedly, it's unlikely, and there is wide disagreement about what constitutes the popular vote, but that was her train of thought. That and letting every state participate. These attacks on her are high McCarthyism.

Steve

[Big Blue Marble]

3. No the attacks on her are not McCarthyism, high or low.

If she were any other candidate she would have been forced out of this race by the media and the lack
of money to continue. Because she is who she is she has been given a pass. She has used
that pass to dig herself deeper and deeper into a hole that has little means of escape at least
with grace.

Sadly her story is playing out on the public stage with pathos and personal tragedy. Her own
hubris has vanquished her not the attacks of others.

[StevieM]

9. They could never have gotten away with savaging a candidate this way with anyone OTHER then

Hillary Clinton. She would not have been forced out of the race--nobody had the right or the ability to kick her off the ballot. She stayed in because the voters kept voting for her. The people of Ohio, Texas, Pennsylvania and Indiana had the ability to end this race and they chose not to.

The hole you imagine is a fictional one. There is no great personal tragedy. Hillary has done nothing wrong and has no need of redemption. She has run a campaign she can be proud of. There is no shame in falling victim to McCarthyism. What has been done to Hillary will be properly recorded in history as a national disgrace.

In three years Hillary Clinton will be Senate Majority leader and Barack Obama will be an irrelevant junior senator stuggling to overcome the legacy of his landslide defeat.

Steve

[Big Blue Marble]

10. You are heavily into denial.

Barack Obama will be the next President of these United States. And Hillary Clinton will mostly likely retire early
from her New York senate seat to return to private life.

And yes hers is a great tragedy because she has seeds of greatness within her character and personality that
were superseded by hubris and dysfunction that ultimately caused her to stumble.

[StevieM]

11. Oh my....you really believe all that, don't you?

First of all, we don't yet know who will win the 2008 presidential election--right now the polls show a close race.

Second, I don't even know where you are getting this early retirement stuff from. Are you saying that she faces expulsion or censure in the Senate? I have heard nothing about that from anyone other then pro-Obama bloggers. In the Senate this talk is all considered pure idiocy. Nobody sees the "reprehensible" campaign that you Obama people talk about.

And where is the tragedy? She ran for president and probably won't win. End of story. There is no evidence that she won't win re-election in NY in 2012--just hateful Obamite wishful thinking.

She didn't stumble, she was lynched. There is no shame for the person who behaves nobly and is smeared by the McCarthyites. I have never been more proud of Hillary Clinton then I am right now.

Steve

[Big Blue Marble]

12. Hillary is in serious trouble with the AA community in NY.

She has alienated many of her colleagues in the Senate. She became a senator
to run for the presidency. She will not be asked to leave the Senate nor would
she be censored. She most likely will lose her interest in proceeding with her career
there whether she retires early or at the end of this term.

You ask where is the tragedy. Perhaps you are not a student of Greek Tragedies.
The tragedy dear one is within herself. She could have been so much more.
But as they stay no one is as blind as those who will not see. That would apply
to you SteveM as well as to HRC.

[StevieM]

13. You have no evidence to support your claim that she has alienated many of her collegues

in the Senate. You have simply declared it to be so by fiat. I have not heard of any prominent--or even lesser--Senators rebuking her. You see this campaign, and Hillary, through your own prism. You chose to believe that everyone thinks the way you do. But that just isn't the case. Hillary is well-liked by her fellow senators. I expect that in two to three years she will be Senate Majority leader while Obama is an irrelevant junior senator.

And if Obama gets to the White House it will only be with Hillary's help. He isn't as popular as you would like him to be and Hillary has more supporters then you would like her to have. He is totally dependent on her to win. Without her he doesn't have a shot in hell.

Steve

[Big Blue Marble]

14. Here are two articles that might give you pause.

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-clintonblacks25-2008may25,0,2206514.story">Trouble brewing in N.Y. for Clinton

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/26/us/politics/26clinton.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin">Clinton Could Face Uneasy Return to Senate

Your partisanship appears to overwhelm your rationality. I did not say she has been or will be openly rebuked. If she graciously concedes the
race in the next two weeks and that is now an open question, I think she will find initial support from her colleagues. She will be on very
shaky ground if she continues to fight this out beyond that point. She will at that point be putting the party and the country at risk.

As the article above explains re-finding her place in the Senate will tricky at best. I have read additional articles in the last month that
suggest even more than this article that she has made enemies within both Houses of Congress. These are people who were intimidated
by her possible return to the White House. These people will no longer be restrained by this fear.

We shall see. I assure you whatever HRC's future brings, Barack Obama will never be an irrelevant senator. Even in defeat, Kennedy, Gore,
and Kerry are men of greatness. Barack Obama is destined for greatness as well. Your filters have strangely filled you with contempt.
Your certainty that he will lose is stranger still.

[StevieM]

19. I read the articles. The first one seems to contradict what you are saying

They are saying she will be welcomed back and recognized as someone with a substantial constituency. This McGovernite arrogance is the hallmark of a losing GE campaign. But that's OK...when he loses by 20 points you will just turn around and blame Hillary.

I never said I was certain he would lose, obviously we can never know for sure until November 4. But I do think it is very likely.

Oh, and the second article is just weird. Hillary should apologize for not clarifying she won't run for governor of NY in 2010? Please...she never said she would. She is focused on the presidential race right now. And, of course, if she answers the question then people just turn around and scream "see! She's admitting the 08 race is over! Why doesn't she drop out then?!" It's ridiculous. Besides, I doubt Patterson is seeking a second term, and I assume that Cuomo will run to replace him.

Noone was ever "restrained by fear" of the Clintons....that makes no sense. Presidents need congress to get legislation passed. Members of congress are not so easily intimidated. And I see no enemies of Hillary in the Senate, nor have we heard anything substantive in that regards. That claim is just the arrogant sense of righteousness that typifies the Obama campaign and its supporters.

Steve

[TLM]

17. Very well said....

I find myself wondering if she was always like this and I never saw it, or if she has changed.

After the CA debates, every time I saw her she lowered my opinion of her... and every time I saw obama he raised my opinion of him.

Was this something always just below the surface of her?

Could she have done this another way?

[smiley_glad_hands]

16. So you are proud that she uses repug frames to bash dems? eom

[Segami]

4. Hillary is a skilled lawyer who knows how to shape a single thought 10 different ways & expressions

I'm sure she knew exactly where she was going when she entertained using the word " assassination " in her comments.....No different than when she used the term' white people ' alongside with hard working people.

[GoesTo11]

5. True. Even for a non-politician like you or me, it's not hard.

You don't tell a bride and groom that 50% of marriages end in divorce.
You don't tell expectant parents that at their age their child is prone to birth defects.
You don't tell your parents that you might be receiving an inheritance from them soon.
You don't tell a traveler that their airplane might crash.

It's not that hard. First, we all know that these are possibilities. We try not to think too much about them, because otherwise life is hard to get through. Most of us go through life without making such "gaffes". We may know a weird cousin or two who intentionally blurts these things out. That cousin is hurtful, rude, and completely self-centered. Hillary.

[McCamy Taylor]

6. No one tells the press what to print except their editors. If the word is dangerous, blame the press

I do not see what is so hard to understand about that.

If the word "assassinate" can get someone killed, who is printing it 1000 times and saying it on the air 1000 times? The nation's corporate media. Therefore, the nation's corporate media is inciting to violence,

And every time the press compared him to Jack Kennedy they did it too, because we all know what happened to Jack Kennedy. And OMG! Teddy Kennedy did it too! Because the very first thing that everyone thinks about JFK is assassination.

Remember when Obama was in Dallas? All his supporters at DU were posting their assassination fears. So they were inciting? And the Dallas police department was inciting when they went to the press and mentioned that he had no metal detectors at the door (tipping off assassins?)

And if Michelle worries about it, she is inciting?

If someone prints Clinton in the cross hairs of a rifle scope which they have been doing since the 1990s is that inciting? She should be dead about a million times by now.

What the press would love to see right now is someone take a shot at either Democrat and then have the spouse of the dead one accuse the living one of being responsible on national TV, so that the Democrats do not have a viable candidate. That would be better than 1968. The journalists would have a field day.

[TLM]

18. It isn't her fault for saying it.... it is the press' fault for reporting it...

Wasn't that Bush's defense for OKing sex torture at gitmo?

[izzie]

7. I do not know why she just did not say the Bill /Kennedy did not

have it locked up until June. That would have been the way to think about it. The other sounds like thinking going on in her mind, about things happening. It just felt wrong to me. Maybe that was in back of my mind that she would be around if that happened and she sort of pushed it in my face when I heard that. I did not even like what I was thinking about her then or that it had got onto my mind. I am for Obama and it is scary to think of the nuts around.

[Yael]

8. You mean when she said it in March, or when she said it on Friday?