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Olbermann agrees : Hillary Clinton is unfit to be President of the United States

Yesterday I wrote the following about Hillary Rodham Clinton :

Shameless.

Despicable.

Unfit to be President of the United States.

My words hit the front pages of both Daily Kos and The Moderate Voice. By evening Keith Olbermann had the following to say about Hillary Clinton's latest "gaffe" :


The most important part of the transcript is after the jump :

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.

"I was discussing the Democratic primary history, and in the course of that discussion mentioned the campaigns both my husband and Senator Kennedy waged California in June in 1992 and 1968," she said in Brandon, South Dakota. "I was referencing those to make the point that we have had nomination primary contests that go into June. That's a historic fact.

"The Kennedys have been much on my mind the last days because of Senator Kennedy. I regret that if my referencing that moment of trauma for our entire nation, particularly for the Kennedy family was in any way offensive, I certainly had no intention of that whatsoever."

"My view is that we have to look to the past and to our leaders who have inspired us and give us a lot to live up to and I'm honored to hold Senator Kennedy's seat in the United States Senate in the state of New York and have the highest regard for the entire Kennedy family. Thanks. Not a word about the inappropriateness of referencing assassination.

Not a word about the inappropriateness of implying - whether it was intended or not - that she was hanging around waiting for somebody to try something terrible.

Not a word about Senator Obama.

Not a word about Senator McCain.

Not: I'm sorry...

Not: I apologize...

Not: I blew it...

Not: please forgive me.

God knows, Senator, in this campaign, this nation has had to forgive you, early and often...

And despite your now traditional position of the offended victim, the nation has forgiven you.

We have forgiven you your insistence that there have been widespread calls for you to end your campaign, when such calls had been few. We have forgiven you your misspeaking about Martin Luther King's relative importance to the Civil Rights movement.

We have forgiven you your misspeaking about your under-fire landing in Bosnia.

We have forgiven you insisting Michigan's vote wouldn't count and then claiming those who would not count it were Un-Democratic.

We have forgiven you pledging to not campaign in Florida and thus disenfranchise voters there, and then claim those who stuck to those rules were as wrong as those who defended slavery or denied women the vote.

We have forgiven you the photos of Osama Bin Laden in an anti-Obama ad...

We have forgiven you fawning over the fairness of Fox News while they were still calling you a murderer.

We have forgiven you accepting Richard Mellon Scaife's endorsement and then laughing as you described his "deathbed conversion."

We have forgiven you quoting the electoral predictions of Boss Karl Rove.

We have forgiven you the 3 a.m. Phone Call commercial.

We have forgiven you President Clinton's disparaging comparison of the Obama candidacy to Jesse Jackson's.

We have forgiven you Geraldine Ferraro's national radio interview suggesting Obama would not still be in the race had he been a white man.

We have forgiven you the dozen changing metrics and the endless self-contradictions of your insistence that your nomination is mathematically probable rather than a statistical impossibility.

We have forgiven you your declaration of some primary states as counting and some as not.

We have forgiven you exploiting Jeremiah Wright in front of the editorial board of the lunatic-fringe Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

We have forgiven you exploiting William Ayers in front of the debate on ABC.

We have forgiven you for boasting of your "support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans"...

We have even forgiven you repeatedly praising Senator McCain at Senator Obama's expense, and your own expense, and the Democratic ticket's expense.

But Senator, we cannot forgive you this.

"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."

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.

Lincoln.

Garfield.

McKinley.

Kennedy.

Martin Luther King.

Robert Kennedy.

And, but for the grace of the universe or the luck of the draw, Reagan, Ford, Truman, Nixon, Andrew Jackson, both Roosevelts, even George Wallace.

The politics of this nation is steeped enough in blood, Senator Clinton, you cannot and must not invoke that imagery! Anywhere! At any time!

And to not appreciate, immediately - to still not appreciate tonight - just what you have done... is to reveal an incomprehension of the America you seek to lead.

This, Senator, is too much.

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.

Good night and good luck.

Liza Sabater's picture

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Gatemouth's picture

I Totally Disagree...

...but Rock, if anything is more vehement than either Michael or Liza

Here’s our Point/Counterpoint:

http://www.r8ny.com/blog/rock_hackshaw/hillary_bill_and_barack_the_colum...

http://www.r8ny.com/blog/gatemouth/lamour_viole_its_a_cinematic_referenc...

When reading my piece, it may help if everytime you read the word “Rock”, you substitute Bouldin instead.

Bouldin's picture

Stop spamming this crap.

And for crying out loud, learn to write stuff that's on point and not in the first person.

Gatemouth's picture

Translation: Your Post is not Helpful to La Causa

Michael: I plead guilty to the grandest crime in the "progressive world": not being helpful. Though I've twice called upon Senator Clinton to drop out of the race, I still keeping on posting things which are not inconformity with the approved "talking points".

I plead not-guilty to being off-point, unless you define on-point as an echo chamber, which from the evidence appears to be within the realm of possibility.

At least one of your regulars apparently agreed that my remarks were pertinent--albeit wrong. She's engaged my on your post concerning this matter. I've responded. We've both been entirely civil. It's quite lovely to have an intelligent argument. You might try it sometime.

JP's picture

We'll, as long as Olbermann

We'll, as long as Olbermann says so . . .

Hell, why even have a popular election? I say we lock Olbermann, Matthews, Hannity and John Gibson in a cage and have survivor declare the next President.

Seriously though, Olbermann's over-the-top outrage at the drop of a hat is getting old.

ROSALIE907's picture

Why?????

Because Olbermann speaks for those of us who can't? Time and again I have totally agreed with Olbermann's special comments and I agree with him this time.

Open letter to Hillary:
I was an early supporter of yours but then switched to Obama because I was hearing things from him that not you or anyone else was saying. I also want a complete change. McCain will be Bush's 3rd term and you and Bill had your chance, did a lot of good, but now it's time to move on. Nobody, no man or woman is OWED anything in this life. Yes, you have supporters and I know many who still support you but there are even more, like me, who have switched to another candidate.

Hillary, right now you remind me of a woman whose husband found greener pastures and is clinging on to his ankle with all her might. Have some pride, exit gracefully with your head held high and support the candidate that has beaten you. By not doing this you negate all the good you have done.

Look, I know you didn't mean for your words to come out as they did regarding the murder of Bobby Kennedy. I saw it in your face and heard it in your voice but the fact is you're now a desperate woman and have lost all sense of pride. There is no way that you will be the candidate for President and now I don't think Obama will even offer you the Vice Presidency. You blew it Hillary and it's time to look in that mirror admit it.

Dan Jacoby's picture

Not-so-special Comments

I agree with JP that Keith Olbermann's "over-the-top outrage" is a bit much. I think Olbermann would be far more effective if he were less heavy-handed. Sometimes, you get more flies with honey ... and Olbermann's chief appeal is his sense of humor. Unfortunately, he seems to lose that humor during his "Special Comments." If he kept that sense of humor (as JP does with his truly effective ironic wit above) Olbermann would be far less tiresome and far more successful in getting his points across.

That said, the fact is that the mainstream media have given Hillary Clinton far too many breaks. Seriously, the number and level of her gaffes rival that of George W. Bush when he ran in 2000 -- and Bush never, ever made a statement as hideous as Clinton's statement about Robert Kennedy's assassination. I know she's overtired but, as Olbermann pointed out during his show, she had compared her campaign going into June with her husband's and Robert Kennedy's several times without mentioning the assassination, so why would she mention it this time?

Combine that question with the number of times she has played the race card over the past few months, going back to the South Carolina primary, and the number of statements she and her campaign have made that seem to come straight from the Karl Rove playbook, and as far as I'm concerned she's finished. Not just her presidential campaign, but also her chances of getting anywhere in the Senate. Her true colors have come through, and they aren't pretty.

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