{"id":15654,"date":"2008-05-25T10:00:54","date_gmt":"2008-05-25T14:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/15654.html"},"modified":"2008-05-25T10:00:54","modified_gmt":"2008-05-25T14:00:54","slug":"obama-gives-clinton-a-pass-on-rfk-assassination-remark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/obama-gives-clinton-a-pass-on-rfk-assassination-remark\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama gives Clinton a pass on RFK ‘assassination’ remark"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a rule, when a rival makes a mistake — or, at least, something perceived as a mistake — a candidate is supposed to pounce and exploit the error. In the midst of the frenzy surrounding Barack Obama’s “bitter” comments, for example, Hillary Clinton was rather aggressive in pushing the argument that Obama’s remarks were “elitist”, “condescending” and “out of touch.” For a while, Clinton hammered the point “at every event<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

In light of the uproar over Clinton’s RFK assassination comparison, would Obama return the favor? Apparently not; he gave her a pass<\/a> yesterday.<\/p>\n

Barack Obama passed up an opportunity to pile onto Hillary Clinton’s problems Saturday, essentially giving her a pass when asked about her recent remarks about Robert Kennedy’s assassination.<\/p>\n

“I have learned that when you are campaigning for as many months as Sen. Clinton and I have been campaigning, sometimes you get careless in terms of the statements that you make,” Obama told Radio Isla in Puerto Rico, where he and Clinton stumped in advance of the June 1 primary. “And I think that is what happened here. <\/p>\n

“Sen. Clinton says that she did not intend any offense by it and I will take her at her word on that,” Obama continued.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Maybe this can engender some goodwill? Obama could have piled on, but instead took steps to diffuse the situation. I’d like to think this classy move could help lower the temperature between the two sides. (Wishful thinking on my part? Probably.)<\/p>\n

For her part, the Clinton campaign is still doing some damage control.
\n
\nClinton has a front-page exclusive with the New York Daily News this morning, writing a 900-word piece<\/a> about her perspective and defense for Friday’s poorly-worded comparison.<\/p>\n

This past Friday, during a meeting with a newspaper editorial board, I was asked about whether I was going to continue in the presidential race. <\/p>\n

I made clear that I was — and that I thought the urgency to end the 2008 primary process was unprecedented. I pointed out, as I have before, that both my husband’s primary campaign, and Sen. Robert Kennedy’s, had continued into June. <\/p>\n

Almost immediately, some took my comments entirely out of context and interpreted them to mean something completely different — and completely unthinkable. <\/p>\n

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. Both the executive editor of the newspaper where I made the remarks, and Sen. Kennedy’s son, Bobby Kennedy Jr., put out statements confirming that this was the clear meaning of my remarks. Bobby stated, “I understand how highly charged the atmosphere is, but I think it is a mistake for people to take offense.” <\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Clinton went to explain why she’s still campaigning, and said, in part, “I am running because I believe staying in this race will help unite the Democratic Party.”<\/p>\n

I’m not sure why she believes this, but it’s her story and she’s sticking to it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a rule, when a rival makes a mistake — or, at least, something perceived as a mistake — a candidate is supposed to pounce and exploit the error. In the midst of the frenzy surrounding Barack Obama’s “bitter” comments, for example, Hillary Clinton was rather aggressive in pushing the argument that Obama’s remarks were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15654\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}