Americans Away From Home

“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.”

With these remarks, Hillary Clinton may have ended her candidacy for President.

Talk about a rejection speech! Not quite the acceptance speech she may have hoped to make.

It's not what Hillary's smoking, or shooting, or drinking. It's not 40 contributors attempting to blackmail Nancy Pelosi; it's not raging supporters threatening to swarm the DNC May 31. It's not Bill; it's not pandering; it's not snipers.

It's Hillary, vetting herself. No baggage like the present.

How does one escape such a tornado of outrage now ravaging what might be left of the Clinton campaign?

I remember when Monica Lewinsky was caught, trapped, with that video clip of her beret crowd scene looping endlessly all over television. "That" woman; "beret"; and even "Monica," ending up as languishing punch lines didn't help. Someone asked top PR executives if they could help her, and how, to get past it.

Can Hillary rebound? From this?

Close, but no cigar.

Americans love to forgive. We forgive people who let it all hang out. Common political advice after a mistake? "Tell them you're sorry; ask them to forgive you."

Can Americans forgive Clinton? Keith Olbermann counts the ways we have, in his spectacular special comment. A familiar list, yet not comforting; an alarming roll call of incidents which, in some cases, need only one word to evoke what happened:

Belittling MLK's civil rights role; insisting she was targeted to end her campaign when few called for that; Bosnia sniper fire; reversing her position of Michigan/Florida votes not being counted; pledging to stick to DNC rules then saying that's as wrong as slavery or denying women's votes; 3 AM and Bin Laden TV ads; minimizing Obama's success; Ferraro; exploiting Wright; reviving Ayers; changing metrics, or What Counts, According To Hillary; telling Americans that some States count and some don't; stirring up race; emphasizing the word White in "white, Americans"; praising McCain, hurting Obama, herself, and Democrats.

Cherchez La Femme.

Where did the woman go? That woman we admired, that woman who inspired people to invest in her brand, that woman little girls could look up to?

"Dangerously Unfit." That's what a London, England newspaper calls her. (Times story here).
Furor and fears stirred up, that's what the NY Times reports. (NY Times story here).
For anyone unclear on what's happened, check this: (Keith Olbermann video here).

Do you remember the children's story, "Seven In One Blow"? A little man swats seven flies in one day, but the giant thinks he killed seven men, and the little man triumphs. Braggadocio maybe, this Hillary isn't likely to twist, tear, lie, misspeak, or cry her way out of.

The story has legs. The tragedy is its irony: in raising assassination, Clinton assassinated herself.

Carole