"Hilary Playing The Race Card Again?"

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton quickly apologized Friday after citing the June 1968 assassination of Robert F. Kennedy as a reason to remain in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination despite increasingly long odds.

"I regret that if my referencing that moment of trauma for our entire nation and in particular the Kennedy family was in any way offensive. I certainly had no intention of that whatsoever," the former first lady said.

The episode occurred as Clinton campaigned in advance of the June 3 South Dakota primary.

Responding to a question from the Sioux Falls Argus Leader editorial board about calls for her to drop out of the race, she said: "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. You know I just, I don't understand it," she said, dismissing the idea of abandoning the race.

Clinton said she didn't understand why, given this history, some Democrats were calling for her to quit.

Her remark about an assassination during a primary campaign drew a quick response from aides to Democratic presidential front-runner Barack Obama.

"Senator Clinton's statement before the Argus Leader editorial board was unfortunate and has no place in this campaign," said Obama spokesman Bill Burton.

Clinton spokesman Mo Elleithee said the senator was only referring to her husband and Kennedy "as historical examples of the nominating process going well into the summer and any reading into it beyond that would be inaccurate and outrageous."

Even so, Clinton decided within a couple of hours to make a personal apology.

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

"The Kennedys have been much on my mind the last days because of Senator Kennedy," she added, referring to Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's recent diagnosis of a brain tumor. "I regret that if my referencing that moment of trauma for our entire nation and in particular 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 to our leaders who have inspired us, give us a lot to live up to, and I'm honored to hold Senator Kennedy's seat in the United States Senate from the state of New York and have the highest regard for the Kennedy family," she said.

       Senator Hilary Clinton, in her efforts to justify her staying in the race for the Democrat nomination for President in '08,  alluded to Senator Robert Kennedy's assassination in his prolonged campaign in '68. The Obama campaign, knowing the concerns of many black Americans about the possibility of Barack Obama being assassinated and ever ready to play the "race card" , condemned that allusion. Senator Clinton apologized if her statement offended or hurt anyone. In my opinion, the last thing that Hilary Clinton, or any Clinton supporter would want to happen is for Barack Obama to be assassinated. That would be a tremendous loss to his lovely wife and daughters and to all of America, black and white. In all probability Hilary will be portrayed as a racist by Obama surrogates for this historical statement that had nothing to do with racism. Another example of Barack Obama's "politics as usual". In my opinion, Barack Obama's run for the White House will not be stopped by an assassin's bullet but by his financial and political dealings with convicted land developer and political fundraiser, Tony Rezko, if not before the Democrat convention, for sure by the November general election. Playing the "race card" then won't help him.

tags: obama  2008  america  us  hilary clinton  barack obama  clinton  president  takebackamerica  politics  

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