Last Friday in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Sen. Hillary Clinton publicly made a controversial historical reference to the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. In response to the question from the Sioux Fall Argus Leader Editorial board probing her to drop out of the race, Clinton commented, "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, I don't understand it." I was outraged by her comment. First, Sen. Barack Obama is the first African-American candidate to make it this far, and there have already been concerns about a possible assassination if he was elected president. Furthermore, Obama is ahead by almost 200 delegates and only needs 56 more to secure the Democratic nomination. As I see it, Clinton is desperately trying to cling to hope that a set of unexpected events will occur and allow her to clinch the nomination. Within only a few short hours, Clinton's remarks were drawing attention in the media. According to thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com, many Americans were disgusted that Clinton said the word "assassination," just a few days before its anniversary. As a result, she decided to make a personal apology explaining the intent of her statement. "I was discussing the Democratic primary history and in the course of that discussion mentioned the campaigns of both my husband and Senator (Robert) Kennedy waged in California in June in 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," said Clinton. If having a long primary is not unusual then why wouldn't she cite a long list of historical examples? Instead, she chose to only reference her husband's campaign and the sensitive assassination of an important public figure. Clinton continued her apology by saying, "The Kennedys have been much on my mind the last days because of Senator Kennedy (referring to his diagnosis of a brain tumor). I regret that if my referencing that moment of trauma for our entire nation, and in particular the Kennedy family, was in any way offensive. I certainly had no intention of that whatsoever." I think it is obvious that her remark was offensive and easily misconstrued because she thought it was necessary to make an apology to the press and the entire nation. In order to preserve unity in the Democratic Party, I feel that it is best for Clinton to drop out of the race. In exchange for conceding the Democratic primary, Clinton should be offered the vice president position on Obama's ticket. According to msnbc.com, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a Clinton supporter, said that Obama should choose Clinton as his running mate. "I think as this race has emerged each one of them has garnered a different constituency and different states, and, therefore, when you put the two of them together it forms, I believe, the strongest ticket," said Feinstein to the Associated Press. t&c;
LIANNE SIMEONE IS A SENIOR JOURNALISM AND SPEECH COMM. MAJOR AND STAFF WRITER FOR THE t&c.;
