This piece in The Sunday Times, UK, leaves me conflicted – coming so soon after Hillary’s colossal gaffe, essentially the airing of “her dark soul.”
It appears Obama’s ‘senior aides’ are mulling bringing Bill Clinton on board to heal the rifts created by his wife, Hillary …and may I add, himself.
Excerpts from
The Sunday Times, UKBarack Obama wants Bill to heal Hillary Clinton wounds
An assassination remark is the latest twist to sour relations between the two rivalsBarack Obama, the probable Democratic presidential nominee, wants Bill Clinton to help him heal the deep party rifts created by his wife Hillary’s divisive campaign – culminating in her dramatic claim this weekend that the 1968 assassination of Robert F Kennedy was a reason not to be pushed out of the race.
The tension between Hillary Clinton and Obama intensified after she told the Sioux Falls Argus Leader in South Dakota, which holds the last primary contest in 10 days’ time: “We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June.”
She quickly apologised, ashen-faced, for a comment which appeared dangerously close to wishful thinking about Obama, but the damage was done.
Senior officials on Obama’s campaign believe Bill Clinton has the unique status and political gifts to reunite the party after such gaffes. They expressed confidence that the former president would rise above the perceived slights and grudges of a hard-fought campaign and work flat out for an Obama victory in November’s presidential election.
“If anybody can put their arms around the party and say we need to be together, it is Bill Clinton,” a senior Obama aide said.
“He’s brilliant, he has got heart and he cares deeply about the country. It’s tricky because of his position as Hillary’s spouse, but his involvement is very important to us.
“Bill Clinton will give permission to Hillary supporters to come into our camp and become one party. He is critical to this effort.
Hillary, 60, claimed that her remark about the assassination had arisen because the “Kennedys have been much on my mind” after Senator Edward Kennedy, Robert’s younger brother, was diagnosed with a brain tumour last week.
[.]
However, while she expressed regret for “referencing that moment of trauma for our entire nation”, she did not apologise to Obama, who has been receiving secret security protection for the past year after death threats.
“We have seen an x-ray of a very dark soul,” wrote Michael Goodwin, a New York Daily News columnist. “One consumed by raw ambition to where the possible assassination of an opponent is something to ponder in a strategic way. Otherwise, why is murder on her mind?”
[.]
After the Kennedy gaffe, however, the implausible has become the unthinkable.
It is a delicate matter to bring Bill Clinton on board. The former president believes that Obama should offer his wife the vice-presidential slot as a mark of respect after she proved her electoral strength in the big must-win states for Democrats, but her latest error is widely perceived to have squandered what little chance she had.
“It would be hard to take the country in a new direction with the Clintons in the White House,” a source in the Obama campaign said. “They bring controversy.”
[.]
“When this primary is over, we’re going to unite as one and Bill Clinton will play a huge role,” said Patrick Murphy, a congressman who chaired the Obama campaign in Pennsylvania, a battleground state.
It’s been twenty four hours with wall to wall coverage, including the three daily papers in New York City – Daily News, New Yorks Post and Newsday – not a word from Bill Clinton and, Hillary has not issued an apology to Obama.
We are in tricky waters filled with mines. How do you heal such raw wounds? How do you trust the Clintons ever?
Instead of friendly intra-party rivalry, this campaign has been more like a nasty divorce.
As Michael Goodwin and Keith Olbermann observed, Hillary’s actions and thoughts precludes her from any public office – not even a dog catcher.
Certainly not the VP slot. Hillary obsession with the presidency goes beyond the comfort level.