As the Democratic Primary race winds down (that’s a figure of speech of course, for this race is sure to continue for decades, eons even) there is more and more speculation about an Obama/McCain matchup or a Hillary/McCain matchup. A major component of these speculations is about which states will be “in play.” While it remains somewhat ambiguous as to what “in play” means, I think the essence of the idea is that the pundits are stumped as to which state the candidates will screw up in next and lose all of the votes. In that vein, everyone’s favorite conservative loving terrorist hating Argus Leader Editorial Board put South Dakota “in play” yesterday by forcing Hillary to say this (transcript at the bottom):
To be honest, I don’t know what any of this means or what the RFK remark has to do with anything. However, it does accomplish one thing: her incredulous tone about the need for party unity starts openning doors for her to take this fight to the primary. Whether or not she will actually do that remains highly uncertain, and, in the words of Peter Whathisface on MSNBC this morning, “an armegeddon scenario.” While I don’t find this remark particularly offensive to anyone (granted, I’m not a Kennedy or someone who was around when the assassination happened) I find it interesting the big deal everyone is making out of these words like they did Rev. Wright’s comments. Maybe there isn’t such a double standard after all. I also find it incredibly frightening that there is now public acknowledgement of security concerns for Barack. (Did anyone else notice the bullet proof glass and overprotective security guards at the Des Moines Speech on Tuesday?)
Anyway, here are a few links to interesting followups to the South Dakota fall out: The Financial Times, Wonkette, Andrew Sullivan, Rolling Stone, Gawker, BBC
Excerpt of Argus Leader Editorial Board Interview with Hillary Clinton:
EB: You don’t buy the party unity argument?
CLINTON: I don’t because, again, I’ve been around long enough. You know 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 don’t understand it and there’s lot of speculation about why it is, but . . .
EB: What’s your speculation?
CLINTON: You know, 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.
EB: Does it have anything to do with gender?
CLINTON: I don’t know that either.
