Death Wish II: What Hillary Was Aiming at With Her Two Assassination "Gaffes"

Opinion polls are the vital political weather reports that all politicians rely on, especially during campaigns. Arguably, there has been no political couple in history more vigilantly attentive to their fluctuations than the Clinton's -- and never more so than during the stormy conditions of electoral contests. Senator Clinton's campaign has used polling data as more than a guide on how to adjust her message to the prevailing winds. It has utilized such surveys to point up potential weaknesses of the Obama brand that can be exploited, even if the ultimate beneficiaries of these efforts are the Republicans.

On March 2 an ABC/Washington Post poll showed that 59% of Americans were worried "that someone might attempt to physically harm Barack Obama if he's the Democratic nominee for president." By March 6 Hillary Clinton was reminding her interviewer, Time Managing Editor Richard Stengel, of "the great tragedy of Bobby Kennedy being assassinated in June in L.A." This was a response to a question about whether her decision to stay in a race she couldn't win would hurt her party. It only seemed like a thoughtless non sequitur.

As we have recently learned, two months later, on May 23, while discussing the same issue with the editorial board of the Argus Leader, she called upon her audience to "remember [that] Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California." When two utterances of the same "gaffe" are nearly identical, like Senator Clinton's oft-repeated Bosnian sniper "misstatements," such mistakes are likely to be motivated, either by a conscious strategy or an unconscious wish. Of course, at this distance, we cannot know which. But what do we know?

We know that Senator Clinton's determined efforts to assassinate Barack Obama's character have not killed off his chances for the Democratic nomination. We know, as I observed in my last post, that her primary strategy has been to portray him as an effeminate, elitist, and fragile ectomorph who will be weak in the face of aggression, and who will be readily done in by America's more burly antagonists. She, on the other hand, we were often told, is the only one butch enough to stick it to the baddies of the world.

We know that on March 2 it was widely published that Americans saw Obama as vulnerable to assassination. We know that it took only four days for her to remind us that he could indeed be knocked off, just like that other premature peacenik, Bobby Kennedy. What can we conclude? Perhaps her infelicitous phrasing was driven, in part, by a conscious or unconscious death wish towards Obama. After all, in her remorseless "apology" she never apologized to him, only the Kennedys. The other, perhaps more likely determinant is Clinton's by now reflexive effort to paint her opponent as a vulnerable, sweet-talking pretty boy -- more likely to find himself in the sight of another's gun, than pulling the trigger of his own.

Stephen J. Ducat, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist from the San Francisco Bay Area, an advanced candidate at the Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California, and has published widely on the psychology of politics. His most recent book is The Wimp Factor: Gender Gaps, Holy Wars, and the Politics of Anxious Masculinity.

Comments

[JustinThyme]

One point.

Clinton has lied to us continuously on a long list of occasions about a long list of topics.

Clinton denied her connection to that (Obama's Muslim past) email. Among the vociferous deniers was Ryan Callanan The Iowa County Chair For Hillary who sent it. "Obama's Mother..., a RADICAL Muslim" and "Obama ... attended a MUSLIM school" and "... joined the United Church of Christ in an attempt to downplay his Muslim background."
AND
The Canadian Embassy received a call from the Obama campaign assuring the Canadian leaders that he never intended on acting on his revisionist NAFTA comments. Canadian officials outed the "outraged" Clinton campaign as the "perpetrator of the filthy lie".
AND
She negotiated peace in Northern Ireland.
AND
That photo of Obama in African clothes that was meant to imply that he was Muslim? It was Clinton who sent it to the Drudge Report.
AND
Then we have the Bosnian lie .
AND
“My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary, somewhere in the middle of June. ” Bill in effect won the nomination April 7 in New York. She needed for it to end in June so she could invoke RFK's murder. This slip of a tongue happened four times with almost identical scripts each time.

My simple (albeit long) point here is this. If she is going to lie this much and this often to us now,what will she do when the truth really counts?

[meanguy]

okay, obamarrhoids, keep trashing someone who has nearly 50% of the popular votes and delegates, AND the support of a constituency that the dems must have in order to win the election....and when the absolute venomous froth and moonbat conspiracy theories drive the rational voters from the party, and your precious 'obamessiah' has carried IL, MA, and DC, and THAT'S IT, enjoy your pity-party...

[savagetiger]

There will be no pity-party.

Though, if there is, you can come and enjoy as well - as McCain will be president, and we'll all be screwed.

In fact, I'm fortunate enough to be a well off Obama supporter, so I won't be affected that much anyway. What do you have to lose?

Think about it.

[KillTheMessenger]

Such poor trolling... can't you do better than that? It's like using the same tea bag for the 87th time. Can you imagine how bad that tastes? Like rancid water.

[meanguy]

gaffe? you mean rfk was NOT assassinated in june of '68 in california? what is it about the recitation of a historical fact that causes the obamarrhoids to soil their diapers?

[JustinThyme]

"you mean rfk was NOT assassinated in june of '68 in california"? This fact is correct. But Bill won in April NOT June.

[Oldchef]

I too think this was not a gaffe on her part, but an expression of some of her real thinking on the matter. i think she truly feels "anything can happen" and part of that thinking is that he really is in danger of being assassinated like others who have preached his same message of tolerance and engagement with others to seek change. That she feels this a a real reason to stay in the race is telling of her psyche. i don't think she wishes for it, but it's certainly on her mind. one big reason for her to stay in is to try to collect some more money to pay off her massive campaign debt. I see that Mark Penn got his money, but some others may get stiffed, unless the party decides to help her out, or she manages to collect enough donations from her loyal followers.

[BassMent]

I admit I have not read all of the comments. But after quickly reading the majority of them, I find that this thread is ignoring the elephant in the room. If Hillary suspended her campaign and God forbid something happened to Obama, would the fact that she had suspended her campaign prevent her from stepping back in and becoming the nominee? It would not. So there is no logical connection between STAYING IN the race and BEING IN the race later in the event of some catastrophe.

It's the same utter lack of logic that underpinned her remark about Iran. She was proposing a hypothetical response to a reality that's not going to happen.

[Sali68]

I wish people STOP calling it an apology. It was far from any cry of an apology and remember Hillary is too 'strong' to apologize. Only wimps and chumps apologize. Hillary does not. She says something...words come out of her mouth but all she says is that you should be sorry for telling her she should be sorry and then she rolls her eyes....

[lbrillante]

What is amazing to me is that Senator Obama's campaign will not jump all over this and attack her with but they will 'blame' him that it has been 'misconstrued'....
The Clintons have been given more grace by the press and people in the party than anyone else would... but they still want to claim themselves 'victim's' of the media, sexism, Obama, his campaign, and his supporters.
To me that demonstrates that she is NOT ready to lead a nation on day one... or any other day. She is not stable enough to act as commander and chief of our country.
I am not glad she said those words... I know it touched off the fear and pain of dashed hopes in the past. But I do think it gives Senator Obama every reason NOT to offer Hillary the VP position now.
I am grateful to Keith Olberman. I was relieved when shortly after I heard the news of what she had said... yet again... he was speaking for me in his commentary. Senator Clinton you are not worthy of being our president.

[morenot]

I wish sometimes people would take a speaker at their word when they say what they mean by what they have said. With so many voices raised at once no semblance of sense is invulnerable to the kind of dissemblage these comments by Hillary are receiving. It is not likely she had any malevolent subtext on her mind when she made the statement that is being thrashed on here. For her it is a reality that she was considering at times and tried to say something about. The subliminal suggestion, and wish fulfillment scenarios are infotainment perversions of reality.

[savagetiger]

Well, with her the principal signer of the Northern Ireland peace accord, and her single handedly taking down snipers in Bosnia, you'll excuse me if her word (and HER) are soiled to me.

[BassMent]

The notion that Hillary actually harbors some sort of death wish for Obama is to horrible to consider. So I'm going to give her the benefit of the doubt and not consider it.

But WHERE IS HER JUDGMENT?!? This woman wants to be the leader of the free world, to hold the most powerful position on the planet, and she shows this kind of recklessness in her campaign? To even say the word "assassination" in the context of a presidential campaign is an abomination. It's such a vulgar lapse of common sense (much like her comment about obliterating Iran) that it's hard for me to believe that anyone can take her seriously as a candidate in the wake of such remarks.

Sure, she's tired. What happens when she's tired and that 3:00 AM phone call arrives? Is this the kind of judgment we'd see from her in a crisis? God help us all.

[parkateer]

using "if"in her apology is saying,
if your dumb enough to take it that way than im sorry your so dumb.
Im sorry that i raped you, but you fought it, so you made it rape. not me..(its your fault)
i think she was speaking to the crazies out their .the ones that hear voices and in fragments.
I am scared and appalled that these people exist(clintons)
anyway, obama 08-16

[rosal]

I watched her on TV campaigning happily in Puerto Rico. It seems she enjoys the hurt her comments caused to millions. I truly think she is unbalanced and in need of counseling. Her behavior is not normal. She seems so desperate, and unable to let go. Sometimes I feel pity for her. The dream of her life is slipping away. If she was as strong as she claims, she would exit with grace and dignity. As for her husband...­...another case worthy of study.

[rikoriki]

All of this presents a very dark and sinister psychological picture indeed, which I happen to agree with, but it is comforting to recognize some good that this monumental gaffe has accomplished:

She has tipped her hand in the most glaring spotlight. Now she and any possible unhinged Obamama-haters will have to think twice before proceeding in that direction.

It has effectively ruled her out as the running-mate. The reason for her exclusion will be so obvious that there should be no whining now about disrespect for poor Hillary.

It should serve as a wake-up call for the Secret Service to keep utmost vigilance. I've been worried about it lately, what with Hillary sending barely concealed signals to God knows who.

It finally allows us to complete our picture of Hillary's character structure. What a frightening, fascinating spectacle it is. Historians, psychoanalysts and playwrights will have enough material to keep them busy for the rest of the century.

[FogCityJohn]

Look, I'm a strong supporter of Senator Obama, but I find it difficult to believe that Hillary Clinton was somehow expressing a hope or wish that Obama would be assassinated. Her mistake here was choosing a very awkward and historically inapposite analogy. In addition, she ought to have known better than to raise the assassination of RFK in this context.

That said, I really don't think she has a leg to stand on with all of her complaints about how the press and bloggers are treating this incident. She herself used Obama's "bitter" remark as the basis of an attack on Obama's character. She tried to transform his verbal gaffe into evidence that he was "elitist" and "patronizing." In other words, she herself did exactly the same thing that she's complaining about now. So if it's okay for her to use a single misstatement by Obama as evidence of his supposedly defective character, why should it be off-limits when people do the same thing to her? Had she taken the high road after Obama's "bitter" comment, I think she'd be far better positioned to claim that people are going overboard about her assassination comment. As it is, it looks to me like she's now on the receiving end of the same kind of crap she was dishing out only weeks ago. And she ought to be thankful that the Obama campaign has been pretty restrained about this.

[rikoriki]

Exactly. The point is, how to account for the difference in behavior between Obama and Hillary in psychological or characterological terms? By the way, Obama's "bitter" gaffe was not sinister in the way that Hillary's was. It was simply a mistake because an unfriendly listener was nearby to tattle to Huffington something that could be used against him. It was indiscreet politically but not morally reprehensible.

[ramblingjohnny]

She been blabbing around the "A" word for month and while she only use it once in front of a camera that was the last mistake. At least the one nobody should forgive her for. She got a pass on the sniper story for a long time but she kept repeating it until somebody called her BS out. After that she should have knowns that the media and the American peoples patience for her BS was getting shorter. Yet she persisted with thing like the "White Hard Working American" and her crazy self serving ranting in Florida. By last Friday the numbers of peoples who had enough of her reached critical mass.

What they forget to tell her is that in the Internet age their is no avoiding the firestorm that she started. The media had nothing to do but report her own words! Even if some media tried to keep this from blowing up in her face it was too late. The minute the news hit the net she was finish. Hillary Clinton would had have a decent campaign by 1992 standard but this is 2008 by 2008 standard her campaign was a train wreck.

[DennyCrane]

While I'm sure there will be plenty of KKK and skinheads plotting to kill Obama, that's not a good reason to vote against him or vote for Clinton. That's like Obama saying he should stay in the race in case someone hates women and is plotting to kill Hillary. But for her to make the same gaffe twice is very telling. It can't be dismissed as a one-time thing. It's clearly something she's thought about.

[robXdion]

Lost in all of this is the effect on democracy. Not the mechanics, but the actual practice. If the US cannot be civil and elect leaders without rancor and disarray, how can we expect other countries to? Is THIS what we want to export? Leaders can't get their way so they resort to suggested or real violence? Ethnic and gender battles so bad they would materialize as slayings in a country less nuanced? Hillary has crossed the line and hinted America should become like any other developing country and assassinate whoever gets in out way. And commentators make excuses for her like she's a child.

[marijam]

I think you have been drinking too much Republican kool-aid, I really do. I think you've been listening to too much Republican propaganda about This and That death over the years being instigated by the Clintons. I think you're insane for even thinking such a thing.

If Obama cannot unite the party, then how in the hell can he expect the American public to believe that he can handle the entire world? If he cannot "handle" the Clintons, how in the hell can we expect him to handle the Iranian leader? Are you telling me that his political skills are good enough to handle the Iranian leader, but not to handle the potential of Hillary being a VP candidate? That he can't handle a race to the finish without pushing Hillary out of the race? That he has to cheat, to win?

[kimbari]

I think Obama is "handling" the Clintons very well, thank you. He's definitely taken the high road on this little gaffe.

As for kool-aid drinking, better check the color of your own tongue before you go accusing other people of being mindless followers.

[dawlishgal]

It says a lot about a country when close to half of its inhabitants continue to support a blatant racist who appeals to the slimy underbelly of the country, to support her just because she happens to be a woman.. When they continue to support a person who tries to make education seem like a bad thing when she realizes that the better-educated are tending to not support her. She could be wondering why people who used to adore her are now finding her disgusting, but even if she figured out the reason, she would be inclined not to blame HERSELF and her filthy campaign.

It is NOT Obama's fault that people cling to their prejudices and allow themselves to be inflamed by a self-serving narcissist. and he perpetual juvenile delinquent of a husband.

If Hillary's supporters vote for McCain against their own best interests because those who make the Democratic Party rules insisted on candidates following the rules, then all it tells us is that country hasn't come very far in tolerance or decency since the 1950s or l960's.

It is almost funny the way those who have swilled Hillary's Kool-Aid sit by while she inflames the racists and then demand that Obama put a stop to it, or it is somehow HIS fault for being not totally white.

[Jonni Rae]

He has handled the Clintons. He has been beating them, state by state, delegate by delegate. He has more superdelegates now and there is no way she can win, except by cheating somehow in the FL MI votes -maybe. He has never pushed her out of the race, or even alluded to it. He always says she is a formidable contender who has run a magnificent campaign. Even in this latest abomination, he said he took her at her word, that she meant no harm. Always a gentleman, he has played by the rules. Hilary supporters have to accept that he has won, fair and square. And stop whining and playing the victim. To me, she is Lady Macbeth, but that is just one opinion.

[meanguy]

he can't...he's far too 'panty-waisted' to take on mccain and the repugs head-on...expect the cries of 'racist attack' by jesse, jr, and donna brazille to reach a crescendo...

[majorteddy]

Exactly, and her talk on;y encourages the hoopleheads. Witness Liz Trotta on Fox TV actually calling for someone to shoot Obama. This is not good. Some awful things could happen in this country if one of these nut cases get wound up by some of this and see it as their life mission to hurt one of the candidates.It could happen to any of them, not just Obama. The Secret Service must be just livid.

[outnow]

Hillary is taking a long shot in case Obama stumbles and falls. There are certain Rezko issues still waiting in the wings, according to European observers. These issues could derail his chances in the GE. Hillary does not want to tip her hand. She and Bill have good information. She is a back up candidate for the present. The worst scenario would be to have her drop out now and then find out that Obama is terminally flawed due to some negative dealings. I hope that this is not the case, however. Hillary keeps sticking her foot in her mouth. The pressure is actually too much for her. She seems like she is in a hypomanic, motor mouth mode that is perhaps betraying her innermost devils. Comments about assassination are too close to our deepest fears and poorly timed in regard to the Kennedys' misfortunes. besides, who wants Hillary by default? I thought that John Edwards had put his finger on who was ripping us off. Hillary's corporate buddies on Wall Street with the Clintons' assistance have destroyed the world economy. The Clintons created a platform for the neocons. What could be worse? A delusional John McCain?

[dawlishgal]

What would make Hillary the default choice? She has plenty of stuff in her background that we DO know about. How about the Whitewater stuff locked in her lawyers' dead files that could be made public in a flash if the supreme court decided that it was not protected by attorney-client privilege?

Does she honestly think that Obamas supporters (the ones she and Krugman and her peabrained supporters have called "cultists" would willingly hand over Obama's delegates to HER....the person who ran the filthy racist campaign against her? She really ought to be more concerned right now with salvaging her own reputation. I am told that congress wants her out, but will settle for a bit of good behavior. She is costing the party not only the presidency, but many lower-level elected offices as well with her disgusting racist behavior.

How can decent people continue to support her? They claim they aren't racists, but they are disuaded by any of her racist slurs. Is there such a thing these days as somebody to whom racism is IRRELEVANT? I just don't buy it.

There are plenty of other good Democrats that Obama supporters would be more likely to support than Hillary. How about Edwards or Biden or Dodd? If they got all of most of Hillary's delegates, they could easily win. How about GORE?

[meanguy]

dawlishgal. PLEASE won't you PLEASE enumerate these 'racist slurs' you keep bringing up...how about 3-just 3! can you come up with 3? no? then how about 2...that would make it plural, and you did say 'racist slurs', did you not???? what??? can't come up with 2 measly racist slurs???? how about one???? just 1 racist slur, please, just to attempt to justify your hysterical, dishonest, and gutter-level accusation of 'her racist behavior'...i won't hold my breath waiting...you've got NOTHING!

[dawlishgal]

sorry...got carried away...meant to say 'AREN'T dissuaded by Hillary's racist slurs against HER opponent.'

I have two friends who claim that HIllary is only doing what she must to compete against men. I guess it is part of that "sexism" thing that makes her talk about "hardworking white people"...something she would never do---incite racism---if she didn't have to because she is a mere. pathetic female victim of something or other.

Couple of hours of listening to that kind of crapola, and all thoughts of editing, grammar and spelling are right out the window.

[Bootoomee]

You mean "European observers" know more about Rezko that Chicago Tribune and the Hillary campaign could find out? Can you tell us who these "European observers" are?

[Bramptonian]

This is simply appalling. I'm reading it but I can hardly believe it. How is that the Clintons are untouchable? They seem to have so much power that she can do or say anything and she's still in a presidential race? Absurd!! And then that newsanchor 'jokingly' saying that Obama and Osama should both be assassinated??? Something is wrong with this picture. This is the USA in the 21st century. How could these things be allowed???
God bless President Obama!