Olbermann: Hillary "Has No Business Being. . . President of the United States"
If you think I was hard on Hillary Clinton's monumentally stupid attempt to use the possibility of a political assassination against Barack Obama as a good reason to stay in the Democratic Presidential race, well, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann (a god in my book) did me about ten times better.
Here's his Special Comment in video:
And here are some excerpts from the transcript:
Technorati Tags: Keith Olbermann, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, assassination, 2008 election, presidential election
Here's his Special Comment in video:
And here are some excerpts from the transcript:
- You actually invoked the nightmare of political assassination.
You actually invoked the specter of an inspirational leader, at the seeming moment of triumph, for himself and a battered nation yearning to breathe free, silenced forever.
You actually used the word "assassination" in the middle of a campaign with a loud undertone of racial hatred - and gender hatred - and political hatred.
You actually used the word "assassination" in a time when there is a fear, unspoken but vivid and terrible, that our again-troubled land and fractured political landscape might target a black man running for president.
- Since those awful words in Sioux Falls, and after the condescending, buck-passing statement from her spokesperson, Senator Clinton has made something akin to an apology, without any evident recognition of the true trauma she has inflicted.
- We cannot forgive you this -- not because it is crass and low and unfeeling and brutal.
This is unforgivable, because this nation's deepest shame, its most enduring horror, its most terrifying legacy, is political assassination. . .
The politics of this nation is steeped enough in blood, Senator Clinton, you cannot and must not invoke that imagery! Anywhere! At any time!
- Because a senator - a politician - a person - who can let hang in mid-air the prospect that she might just be sticking around in part, just in case the other guy gets shot - has no business being, and no capacity to be, the President of the United States.
Technorati Tags: Keith Olbermann, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, assassination, 2008 election, presidential election
Posted on Saturday, May 24, 2008
by
Todd Epp
in 2008 Election, 2008 Presidential Election
|
4 Comments

Reader Comments (4)
Olbermann is Obama's cable TV campaign manager. What did you expect? (If O'Reilly, who isn't half as nasty as Olbermann, had said: "Obama has no business being President, you would be all over it, and not in a good way.) And I'm no fan of Billary, but anyone who thinks that there was something sinister about her remark is nuts, and grasping at straws. She was talking about a timeline and long the selection of a nominee has taken in the past. End of story...except for the breathless Obama Kool-Aid drinkers who want it to continue.
If you look at the laundry list of Clinton gaffes -- the press, the public really have overlooked alot.
Olbermann actually was quite kind and reaching out to the Clinton campaign earlier with a toned down Special Comment right after Clinton's "I have experience, Sen. McCain has experience, Obama wrote a speech." tactic. Olbermann was quite conflicted about it as he respected and appreciated support from the Clinton family regarding his special comments directed at the Bush administration. Olbermann's observation and concern and his address really hit home to me as I have had a really tough time with HRC putting herself above good for the party with her tactics.
What I find amazing is that if HRC could have actually really apologized vs the usual slimy Washington politician non-apology route ... much would be avoided. She's never bothered saying "I was wrong." regarding Iraq, nor admitted error or being wrong yesterday. I can forgive clumsy phrases and wording. This gaffe, however, was more. It was Freudian ... and with a darker insight to HRC than I'd really want to see. To connect a timeline dealing with primaries and running into June ... there were other situations or candidates she could have brought into instead of making a random jump to a Bobby Kennedy's murder. It's sad.
RFK Jr., a Hillary supporter, released a statement that he understands the context and people shouldn't be offended. If RFK's son gets it, why can't you people?
It's not about her calling for an assassination, Anonymous, which is what RFK Jr. referred to. She didn't actually do that, anyone properly using their brain knew that she didn't do that, and that's not the point at hand. RFK Jr. responded to something that didn't require response, really.
The point at hand is that THAT word -- assassination -- should never have passed her lips. It's a word that is entirely too charged in this campaign, when one's opponent has the distinction of being the first presidential candidate EVER to have received a Secret Service security detail so early in the campaign, and the possibility of assassination by one of the extremist white-power movements is all too real. It was a stupid word to use, and coming from someone who repeatedly tells us that she's a better option than the current administration and the McSame camp, it was a gaff of, thus far, unrivaled proportion.
And THEN there's the whole non-apology issue. Her true colors, which are heavily shaded with incompetence and avoidance, have pointedly come to light. This was a really dumb thing to say, and she hasn't apologized for it, instead, opting for rhetoric that mimics the current administration, paraphrased as "I'm sorry somebody got offended by what I said."
She just proved that her administration would be only slightly left of McSame. We can expect the same lack of judgment from her, and the same amount of misdirection, just with slightly more centric values. That's not really an improvement, and if people consider it to be one, their tolerance for failure in leadership is quite a bit too high.
We don't need a president with breasts just because all the non-breasted presidents of the past keep getting it wrong. We need a president with professionalism and leadership. She has made it quite clear, yet again, that she is not the answer to that need.
So why can't "YOU" people understand that?