Hillary, O.J. and R.F.K.

As I watched the non-stop weekend coverage of Hillary Clinton's recent comments referencing the RFK assassination I couldn't help being reminded of the O.J. Simpson verdict. Just as those notorious split screens on every single television network in 1995 argued that there were two vantage points in America: one through which Black Americans viewed American justice and one through which White Americans did, Assassination-gate appeared to unveil two different vantage points as well. Only these were not split strictly along racial lines. Instead they were split between those who have come to expect the very worst from the Clinton campaign and those who are still willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.

As numerous commentators noted, one feels compelled to believe that Senator Clinton was merely referencing a timeline with her remarks, because believing the alternative would be so horrific that it is almost unthinkable. But yet there are plenty of people who do think it. No not that the Senator actually goes to bed each night praying that something horrible happens to Obama (at least not to his health) but that she may actually go to bed each night thinking what every single one of us has on occasion: "If only 'she' wasn't standing in my way, he'd be taking me to prom instead" or "If only 'he' wasn't standing in my way I'd be valedictorian."

Or president.

But as Sen. Clinton learned the hard way it's a very fine line between coming across as the humorously persistent Tracy Flick from the film Election and the terrifyingly obsessed Glenn Close from "Fatal Attraction." A few months ago there was enough goodwill left that more people would have been likely to assume the former. But thanks to a few questionable missteps and misstatements on the campaign trail (including the infamous "hard-working white Americans" comment), to quote my marketing professor: "the brand simply doesn't have enough goodwill left in the bank to make an emergency withdrawal."

Which brings me back to O.J.

As uncomfortable as it is to admit, race does play a role, albeit a much more subtle one, in how these remarks were heard and interpreted. I had some white friends -- who do not consider themselves Clinton cheerleaders -- who simply heard "another stupid Clinton comment" but not much beyond that. Then I had a black friend who has been a Clinton loyalist who described the comments as "heartbreaking."

The reality is if Barack Obama were not a black candidate, it is possible that the comments might not have sparked such a firestorm, but he is a black candidate -- the most high profile in our nation's history and as such the increased threat to his safety is a very real reality Americans must contend with. Though not a subject discussed at length, it is public knowledge that Obama was granted secret service protection earlier than any presidential candidate in our nation's history. And though we don't like to dwell on some of the ugly truths of our country's past, there is good reason to worry. We all know the horrible fates that befell Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, but largely forgotten are the dangers faced by lesser-known African-Americans in leadership positions.

Vernon Jordan, best known for being one of former president Clinton's closest confidantes, was the victim of a shooting at the hands of a racist spree killer who targeted minorities, while he served as head of the National Urban League. He survived. Al Sharpton, self-proclaimed activist and former presidential candidate was the victim of a stabbing that was believed to be racially motivated as well. He survived.

With all due respect to Sharpton and Jordan, their power and national profiles, while arguably significant, are not on par with that of a president. This means if their lives have been in danger, being overly sensitive to the potential dangers facing Barack Obama does not make one overly sensitive at all. It makes one a realist, and this more than anything is what prompted the highly charged reaction to Clinton's comments. She also probably wasn't helped by the timing of her remarks, which came on the heels of an equally ill-advised "joke" by former GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee about Obama ducking from gunfire. Not to mention a cover published by the Roswell Beacon depicting Obama as a sniper target that sparked such outrage that the paper ultimately removed it from its site.

I wish I could say that everyone overreacted to Sen. Clinton's remarks. I wish I could say that we live in a world in which it was silly to hear her comments and immediately assume the worst. But the fact that just last night I sat on a television panel with a pundit so ill-informed about the realities of our nation's history that he actually alleged that Obama's security detail is possibly "just for show," tells me otherwise. The motives behind Senator Clinton's comments may not have been ugly. But they force us to consider some ugly possibilities about our country. That is why they struck such a chord.

Comments

[THEhillbilly]

It's good that the predictable and lame attempts to manufacture outrage over Clinton's mendacious, vainglorious wife's insalubrious remark have largely failed, but still, that was a good reminder of the fact that it's sad that she was the best candidate the democrats could come up with this year.

Kicking Hillary while she's down is just silly at this point. She is only hanging on, and rightly so, in the hope that the next revelation of grandiloquent, done-nothing rookie senator Obama's affinity for unsavory associations will jolt enough Obama thralls out of their stupor to give her the greatest comeback since Jesus Christ.

[RadicalRuss]

Where did I leave my thesaurus?

[nypoet22]

i think someone swallowed it.

[hokulele]

So, Keli, your "If only he/she weren't in my way" thing reveals a lot about who you are, or hopefully were. All that thinking is due to a self-image issue. Sorry you feel people are in the way of getting what you want. Have you been taking lessons from Hillary?

That things are filtered by duality is just a bit too simplistic for me. It's not just because Obama is black. The threat is there for any public figure. And yes, especially for people of color in America.

Then, off you go into the race thing. Hey, wake up, it's all about that and more. Say something new..... please. Obama wins regardless of his race, color, creed, etc. The Clintons lose because they are numero uno game players and liars. Huckabee was not "advised" to say what he said, it just came blurting out. Racism is so wrong and so still with us.

Your article was vacuous at best. Don't quit your day job.

[savethecountry]

Was new ground trod with Keli's article? No. Was it valuable for the nation to be reminded of why the reaction for some was so negative? You bet. People like Clinton and Huckabee are supposed to be politically astute. They should have known better, particularly Clinton, who has said before how proud she is of her record on civil rights and relations with the black community.

The discussions that have occurred in many black homes and gathering places about Obama's safety aren't often discussed in the MSM. Keli shined some light on those discussions. That is of value in this campaign. Indeed, it is of value in any worthwhile discussion about race in this nation. If you think no new ground was trod, hokulele, then read something else.

But I'll thank Keli for reminding this nation about its past and why that matters today.

[BlueTongue]

In the last weeks, Hillary Clinton has had trouble getting her campaign "quality time" in the spotlight. The Clintons thrive on drama, the daily "soap-opera". Imagine the feeling for them as the lights dim, the curtain is closing, the audience leaving. Hillary"s comments of the last weeks, the "hard-working white people" who she claims won"t vote for Obama, and the possible assassination of her opponent in June, may have just been stupid political gaffes, or comments calculated to keep the stage lights trained on her for just a few more moments:

Hillary is kneeling on the stage, arms upward, beseeching¦
Curtain drops.

[Zelda01]

The following words are not mine, but I found them compelling . . .

"Hillary Clinton"s comments about assassination in the context of the race for the nomination for president brings to mind the kind of public discussion that was circulating in Birmingham, Alabama, in September, 1963. I was beginning high school in Birmingham"s segregated school system that month. Opening of the schools was delayed as Governor George Wallace and Mayor Albert Boutwell maneuvered to try to prevent the court ordered desegregation of two Birmingham high schools. Public discussion was whipped into a frenzy by the ambitious politicians who talked about violence that might occur if the schools were desegregated. On Friday, September 13, Wallace announced his plan to run for president.

Two days later, the violence the world will never forget came to Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. The church is across the street from Kelly Ingram Park and was the staging grounds for major civil rights activities, such as the protests led 4 months earlier by Martin Luther King, Jr., and Fred Shuttlesworth, which had resulted in the use of water cannons and police dogs against peacefully protesting children.

During the break between Sunday School and church service, the bomb exploded at Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, killing Denise McNair, Cynthia Wesley, Addie Mae Collins and Carole Robertson, ages 11-14, and injuring others.

George Wallace, who Martin Luther King, Jr., said had "created an atmosphere of violence," had the rewards of his self-fulfilling prophecy.

Hillary, no thank you. "

[Spesabsquemetu]

It has become virtually impossible to imagine that a former first lady, with a Yale Law School degree doesn't understand the ramifications of speech uttered from her own tongue, when referencing "why" she does not exit the primary - while exclaiming that "anything could happen", and then referencing, the assassination attempt on RFK, in June.

It"s difficult to imagine yet another new explanation for the repeated patterns of destruction from the Clinton campaign.

What has become equally clear is what these patterns of behavior tell us about who the Clintons are - concerning some of the most deplorable conduct ever witnessed in any presidential campaign.

We cannot bury the revolting assaults directed at Sen. Obama by using repeated Clinton-RNC litanies of guttural excuses for shameful conduct. To excuse this perverse conduct is to bury the light of truth in revealing - exactly what it does reveal about those from whom such vitriol has emanated, and what it suggests about their inner core.

Such irresponsible commentary communicates a disregard for our secret service (all they risk every day, which Clinton is fully aware of), no less their having to now contend with publicly made incendiary remarks that intimate the assassination of a presidential candidate. Consider the oath taken by the secret service, in the face of Sen. Clinton"s remarks.

The lack of judgment demonstrated is staggering to comprehend as are the patterns between the guttural conduct from the Clinton campaign that seems to accompany the RNC"s assaultive attacks on Sen. Obama.

[Buddy McCue]

I agree with most of the points in this well-written article. But I don't really think that the question of whether Senator Clinton's remarks were of concern or not is something that can be viewed through two lenses.

Considering how often prominent African-Americans are killed in this country by bigots, there is every reason for concern when Clinton makes remarks like these. To say otherwise is only possible for those who either consciously or unconsciously deny the existence of extreme racist views in this country.

Or if there must be a "two lenses" model to look at these facts, then one of those lenses must be completely opaque.

I might also add that I am a working-class white male, born and raised in the South, and no one needed to tell me to be offended by the suggestion of assassination. No "orchestrated response" from the Obama campaign informed my reaction, as others on this thread have implied. No, it was offensive on the face of it.

[chaoticfat]

You people are amazing! So Hillary is having to suffer a bit because of something she said that may or may not have been taken our of context, so what; deal with it. I seem to remember Hillary practically using the "Bitter" comment almost as a campaign slogan. They rode that horse all the way to the Kentucky Derby.

She could take a lesson from Barack; show some class and dignity. She could have apologized even if she didn't think she did anything wrong and moved the hell on; instead she chose to once again disrespect him because the Clinton campaign can't get over the fact that this freshmen senator from Illinois...Oh let me rephrase that this Black freshman senator from Illinois is cleaning her clock in this campaign. The Clinton's have been out Clintoned.

Be well, CF

[wwsword]

The impression of blacks during the OJ Simpson trial has nothing much to do with whether OJ Simpson actually killed his wife and her boyfriend. That's not why blacks were cheering the not guilty verdict. It has to do with seeing a black man get off for murdering a white woman when so many black men were lynched for just looking at a white woman. It was a symbolic tilting of the scales of justice towards people who share the same skin color and history.

With history fading, skin color has become even more important in the recognition of identity among the oppressed (hence Obama becomes a symbol in the black community even though his heritage is not African American). The notion of an Obama presidency is appealing to the black community because the idea that a black man could sit at the desk of the most powerful office in the world when for most of history blacks have been denied the right to vote, let alone hold public office, represents a symbolic tilting.

Given history, this privileging of symbol over substance is understandable. The question is, does that make it right?

[gulopartisan]

They were cheering because a black man got away with killing a white woman? I have a pretty low opinion of human beings, but you've got me beat. If that's what they were cheering for, then our capacity for monstrousness is greater than I ever realized.

[seawolf77]

Exactly. And people write this stuff with a straight face and a pure heart. THAT is what is truly scary. We, all of us, have become a people who can justify anything. We have lost our humanity. I sadly include myself in that camp. No one cares about anything anymore. Truth, justice, and the American way has never rung so hollow.

[standforpeace]

When my best friend called me and read Hillary's comment to me. I stopped breathing for just a moment. As an African American woman and a student of history and politics, I know that the unstated history of the 1960s is that one of the forces that brought the current of change that was sweeping the country to a standstill and ultimately gave us the Reagan Revolution is the assassinations. Now when we have a candidate who embodies a challenge to racist assumptions about the proper place of African Americans, now when we have a candidate who has inspired over 1.5 million Americans to open their wallets and take back the political funding process from the bigwigs, it is especially disconcerting to hear the other remaining candidate even mention the word "assassination" in the context of her justification for continuing a doomed campaign.

[Daddio1]

If Hillary were arrested for shoplifting, she would argue that the law discriminates against people without money.

[alleykat]

HRC is a very calculated person who says and does just what she means. She knows from experience that all will be forgiven and forgotten. The democratic party should have put an end to her campaigning that very day! HRC invited every nut job in this country to do a job for her and I don't care what anyone says about it! Her supporters can wait for the spaceship and drink kool-aide all day and nothing will change. They are supporting a sociopath!

[RonNYC]

Quite correct. Do you expect us to believe that someone who has been in politics for 35 years (as she keeps reminding us) did not know what she was saying. She is a total Narcissist and her husband is worse. With the George Patton sized flag behind him when he speaks. I do not want that ugly couple back in the White House!

[robeson]

Since Hillary made assassination references at least three times and the right wing has now taken up the cause, it appears there is a coordinated effort to make assassination a legitimate political topic. This smells of Lanny Davis and Karl Rove.

[mom2sons]

Unbelievable! Clinton supporters continue to make excuses for her. Even if she just made or used unfortunate words, she should have known better. The outcry from Hillary supporters about "bittergate" was way overblown, and we accepted that he made a mistake and didn't try to "spin" them away. Not so with Clintin supporters. You can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen! She has not been a flawless candidate and she has run a train wreck of a campaign. That's why she's losing. Stop making excuses for her. What's good for the goose, is good for the gander. She doesn't like it when the shoe is on the other foot. I saw hardball yesterday and Joan Walsh is one angry woman.

[Cramus]

The "experienced one" Hillary, should know what should and shouldn't be said. After all she doesn't sucumb to fatigue. Remember she is up in make-up and dressed working hard for us at 3 am.

Unfortunately, I have learned when there is a continuous smoke, (the many things she has said over and over, Bosnia, RFK, white folk comments) there is usually fire. It is her fire that should be paid attention to and not the excuses. I'm not going to give her the benefit of the doubt anymore.

The Clinton family is a dysfunctional one. The Bush family is a dysfunctional one. No more of these crazy people running the country. The Bush administration and the Clintons have been given way too much slack. No more slack and giving them the benefit of the doubt.

[TRex86]

What is our fatal attraction to crazy families?
The Bush clan are crypto-Nazis who aligned themselves with oil interests--no matter how many hijackers they sent over on 9/11. Daddy watched 9/11 in with a Bin Ladin and sonnyboy let 50 or so Saudis leave within 2 days. They married their way into the aristocracy and remain politically effective because they have one focus: putting money into their pockets or those of their friends. It's a remarkable accomplishment considering the meager intellectual talent in the Bush bloodlines.
The Clintons are American Gothic, an enmeshment of a sex addict and a narcissistic personality. They just love drama. The proof is their disconnect from reality. A dysfunctional family redefines itself to suit the needs of the moment. When Bill was in the foreground their psychopathology was hidden as traditional husband:wife dynamic (notwithstanding Bill's acting out). Hillary was obviously the schemer. She knew how to manage Bill and work around his indiscretions (as she had done throughout their marriage).
Now that she's in the foreground it doesn't work. I suspect he is unconsciously sabotaging her candidacy with his finger-wagging tirades. He certainly has tarnished his own image. What's left is a paternalistic drive to "protect" Hillary from her persecutors. This too is the affliction of much of her supporters who describe a violent fantasy of hatred, anger and vitriol heaped on her from which she needs protection. That her own mouth is the source of such poison goes unacknowledged.

[adavis08]

Thanks Kelli for a good post. Yesterday on Chris Mathews there was a white woman and black man debating the Hillary remarks. The white woman said that here was no way that Hillary meant what she said in a mean spirited way. The black man however said that he felt she did. Blacks do have different perspectives because of the violence they have suffered at the hands of white America. This is a wound that hasn't healed yet, and Obama's candidacy is a very sensitive subject. Hillay Clinton if she were aware of this sensivity that blacks feel, would have never used the words assassination. To use this as a reason for staying in the race is cold and clinical. Her comments were uncalled for.

[itsbushstupid]

and obama will bring the black perspective to the white house.
doesn't that mean that he will pardon oj?
the whites in america will now learn what black justice is.

and, i'm not racist.