Infinite MonkeysFollowing is cross-posted from Cup O' Joel, where it already received my best geeky celebrity comment ev-ah.
I don't believe for a second that Hillary Clinton, by invoking RFK's assassination, was somehow offering public hopes that a similar fate would somehow befall Barack Obama. I trust she meant what she said: That RFK was merely a marker that presidential nominating contests have a history of going into June.
It's still not a great comparison to make. Presidential contests used to revolve around slavery too, but it would be silly to be running on an anti-slavery plank in 2008.
What do I mean? This: In 1968, there were primary elections -- but they weren't really meaningful, because everybody knew that all the real action would take place in the proverbial "smoke-filled back rooms." Hubert Humphrey won the Democratic nomination in 1968 without entering a single primary -- and that was his strategy.
So it was different historical moment -- today we expect caucuses and primaries to decide these things, which is why conventions aren't fun to watch anymore -- and thus silly for Clinton to dredge up.
For what it's worth, I'm about half-through with Rick Perlstein's "Nixonland," and though it does have its goofy moments, it's valuable as a corrective to all the RFK hagiography that's gone on since his death -- and which we'll certainly be treated to next month. Even in his final months, RFK was no saint -- he was as dithering and calculating a politician as you could hope to find. Better than what we got? Probably. But a saint? Hardly.
Posted by Joel at May 24, 2008 01:47 PMYou said " -- today we expect caucuses and primaries to decide these things, which is why conventions aren't fun to watch anymore -- and thus silly for Clinton to dredge up." ?
What an outrageous fallacy that is! Just incredible. No, you expect superdelegates to determine this whole thing. There is no way around the fact. You can slice, dice, spin, pretend, ignore, claim, swear, avow this otherwise all that you want. Conventions are not any fun anymore because of democratic-party-conventionphobia. It HAS to be decided by non-Democratic means before C-DAY. And this is for a primary that has been totally skewed coming out of the gate! Not by voters, but by the same nuts that you complain about in the smoke filled rooms, etc.
There is no real fix for this left this year. Hell, SDs don't even vote the way their states or districts do. The whole circus continues to be disgusting.
Posted by: john 2000 at May 24, 2008 11:10 PM