shame on you, keith olbermann

The media are in a feeding frenzy today after Hillary Clinton raised Robert Kennedy's 1968 assassination, though she says she was only talking about primary timelines.

Keith Olbermann and the rest of the pundits are leaping at an opportunity to try and sink Clinton's already faltering campaign. Olbermann devoted his "Special Comment" to trashing Clinton over her remarks, saying that she "cannot be forgiven." Others are saying potential vice-presidential ambitions are also out the window now.

What happened that was so bad? You'd think from watching MSNBC tonight that Wonkette's satire were true, and that Hillary said she'd assassinate Barack Obama or something. [Wonkette has a roundup of the press flipping out over the comments here.]

Here are Hillary's comments in context:

Hillary Clinton: People have been trying to push me out of this ever since Iowa.

Q: Why?

Clinton: I don't know. I don't know. I find it curious. Because it is unprecedented in history. I don't understand it. Between my opponent and his camp and some in the media there has been this urgency to end this. And historically, that makes no sense. So I find it a bit of a mystery.

Q: So you don't buy the party unity argument?

Clinton: I don't because again I've been around long enough. 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. I don't understand it. There's lots of speculation about why it is.

Q: What is your speculation?

Clinton: I don't know. I find it curious. And I don't want to attribute motives or strategies to people because I don't really know, but it's a historical curiosity to me.

You can make your own judgment here, but I think it's very obvious reading these comments (or hearing them over and over and over again on the cable networks) what she meant here. She is saying that the race isn't over, and citing historical instances when the race has gone into the month of June. Sure, she shouldn't have brought up the memories of that 1968 tragedy, but she was trying to recall a time when the race had gone into June. It isn't hard to understand. If she had worded it just a little differently it never would have been a question.

For anyone to suggest that Hillary Clinton is making some kind of statement about the current race, suggesting that perhaps Barack Obama will be assassinated, is absolutely repugnant. I am so deeply disappointed in the media for blowing this up, especially since it has been dismissed by the Obama campaign and the media outlet she was speaking to.

The media are grasping at straws in order to have another scandal before this nomination battle comes to an end, and in the meantime they are impugning the character of one of America's great leaders. They should be ashamed.

Worst of all is Olbermann, who made an idiot of himself when he yelled out every minor controversy or scandal of this long primary season, blaming all of it on Hillary and saying that the media forgave her those sins. The screaming buffoon ended by saying that her latest comment was unforgivable. So I guess Olbermann's happy now, because he will no longer have to try and hide his heavy bias toward Obama, now that Clinton cannot be forgiven.

Clinton apologized to the Kennedy family today and clarified what she meant by her statement:

Earlier today I was discussing the Democratic primary history and in the course of that discussion mentioned the campaigns that both my husband and Senator Kennedy waged in California in June 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. The Kennedys have been much on my mind the last days because of Senator Kennedy and I regret that if my referencing that moment of trauma for our entire nation, and particularly for 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 and to our leaders who have inspired us and 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 entire Kennedy family.

So let's move on, before Keith Olbermann pops a blood vessel.