Beware The Ides of June

Hillary Clinton may have revealed her real strategy yesterday when she attempted to justify her perseverance in the presidential campaign, despite the virtual mathematical certainty that she cannot get enough delegates to win:

"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. "

This remark was not well received. There was a furious round of outrage by the Obama camp. Later in the day, Hillary sort of apologized - to those who chose to misconstrue her remark.

When I first heard this quote, I wondered, what's the fuss? She is just saying "It ain't over until the real votes are counted."

Naive me. After listening to the nuance police on TV, now I realize that this was actually a very subtle RFP for a hired hit job on Barak. People who hate the Clintons believe them to be capable of any, I repeat any, act, however ruthless, in order to fulfill their ambitions. Imus calls Hillary Satan. And Bill has already proven that he would risk everything for Oval Office blowjobs from a talkative young intern.

I did not initially find Hillary's statements to be inflammatory because I had already heard the same rationale from more than one talking head using the Bobby Kennedy example: Stuff happens, they say. It may be unseemly for her to make the point, but the context was in answer to a question during a round table discussion, not a rhetorical call-for-action in a stump speech.

Logic has no authority in this matter. The jar is open, and whether she meant it or not, the spectre of political assassination is floating in the air. Now she (and we) will have to endure another month of shukking and jiving in the spotlight about what-she-said and what-she-meant. Conspiracy lovers will have a(nother) field day.

The naive among us think that political assassinations are events that happen in other, primitive societies. The realists among us realize that it can (and did) happen here. The darkly imaginative anti-Clintonistas among us might be thinking: first strike.