There's a saying that even a donkey won't fall in the same hole twice. Hillary Clinton has, for some reasons that no one couldn't really fathom, never learned from it. Her obtuse remarks about RFK assassination, twice during the past months, have been seen by many as another proof of Hillary's incapability to stand as a strong and respected contender in a Presidential election of the most powerful country in the world. Sen. Clyburn of SC has called her latest incendiary remark as "beyond pale." The media and blogospheres have been quick to show that it's not the first time for her to jibe with such a bizarre notion, making it rather uncanny to suggest that it's just another misspoken gaffe like the Bosnia's rifle one.
Yet. I think it has been abundantly clear that Hillary will never flinch from her mistakes. Never mind correcting it. In this case, her "non-apology apology," stated shortly after the media made her remark public, has since been rehashed and fundamentally changed. For example, the Hillary camp has accused the media and the Obama campaign fomenting negative reactions from the public and, therefore, according to Wolfson they are "fanning the flames."
Today, Hillary has gone even further in her "defense" written to The Daily Times, blaming the media and her opponent:
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"I want to set the record straight: I was making the simple point that given our history, the length of this year’s primary contest is nothing unusual.
"I realize that any reference to that traumatic moment for our nation can be deeply painful — particularly for members of the Kennedy family, who have been in my heart and prayers over this past week. And I expressed regret right away for any pain I caused.
"But I was deeply dismayed and disturbed that my comment would be construed in a way that flies in the face of everything I stand for — and everything I am fighting for in this election."
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What's interesting here is not that Hillary has regretted to cause pain to the Kennedy family. What's utterly stunning here is the fact that she's not in any way felt that her incendiary remarks have put the Presidential campaign at the lowest and shameful level and destroyed what's left in her political credibility. Her letter was at pains to tell the public that had her remarks not been "construed in a way that flies in the face of everything that I stand for...", they would be nothing but truth and the public should have supported her candidacy. Obviously, like Wolfson, she's aimed her attack on the Obama campaign and media, respectively.
Clearly there's nothing much to be expected from Hillary. Not her repentance, not her regrets in destroying the unity of the party in order to correct the wrongs in American politics in the past eight years. I was astonished today to learn that CNN has still maintained that Hillary's inuendoes should be considered as just another slip of the tongue and, for that reason, Obama should not close her possibility for becoming his running mate. Fortunatey, Maureen Dowd came to my rescue when she wrote in NYT:
Obama now has the perfect excuse not to pick Hillary as his running mate. She has been too unseemly in her desire to be on the scene if he trips, or gets hit with a devastating story. She may want to take a cue from the Miss America contest: make a graceful, magnanimous exit and wait in the wings.
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I would say, though, that expecting Hillary to make a "graceful...exit" could be a tall order, for she has repeatedly said that she's "no quitter." Strategically, Hillary should have conceded to Obama after NC primary, when the numbers of delegates were showing that the latter is clearly an undisputed nominee. The Dems should have, by now, been consolidating itself to face John McCain and the Republican party rather than further entertaining the kind of unproductive internal bickering. The DNC should listen to Jimmy Carter and those respectable, wise leaders within the party and not those unrepentant and incorrigible flunkers in the Hillary camp.