My first political memories are of the events of 1968.  Of all the things that could spark these memories, who could imagine it would be anything as cynically manipulative as Senator Clinton using it as a rationale for continuing a campaign past the point of losing.

                    June 1968 

 . . . The hope and the triumph of spirit . . .

 . . . followed by the pain and the loss . . .

Using Robert Kennedy's assassination as a mental image, as a prop, for her rhetorically empty questions is offensive. 

Here are the answers to Senator Clinton's own questions and statements from the Argus Leader editorial board interview on May 23, 2008, (below).

“It is unprecedented in history” (Senator Clinton's statements and rhetorical questions from the Argus Leader interview, in bold).

— Except for the precedent that the candidates who don't have enough delegates or won't be able to win enough delegates always drop out.

“There has been an urgency to end this“

—  No, there has been an unwillingness by you to acknowledge that it ended.

Asking me to stop “it's historically unprecedented.”

 — Except that, historically, the candidates without enough delegates to win the nomination generally drop out or at least throttle back into a token campaign mode until they give that final (farewell) speech at the convention. Note: We reserve the primetime privilege for team players like Gary Hart and Mo Udall, not the incendiary dividers such as Pat Buchanan (remember the 1992 GOP convention!) and Hillary Clinton.

“I don't know why people have been trying to push me out of this.”

— Except that you have been wrong on Iraq, you have been spineless when it comes to standing up to the Pentagon and Republican war and crime machine, and you are not liberal enough to tackle the systemic and foundationally corrupt economic policies that are shrinking the middle class and destroying the U.S.'s ability to survive in a rapidly changing global economy.

“I don't understand it.“

 — We know

“We all remember that Bobby Kennedy was assassinated, in California, in June.”

 — Yeah.  As I recall, Richard Nixon won the White House that year. He also rallied racists and fanned the fear of foreigners to justify an escalation of U.S. killing in Vietnam and Cambodia.  I'm not hearing a strategy that I like from you.

“I find it a bit of a mystery.“

— It shows.

“My husband did not wrap up the nomination until June after the California primary.”

 — At which point all the other candidates in 1992, who found themselves in the same position that you are in today and who did not have the delegates to win the nomination, threw in the towel. All the remaining Elvis-es had left the building. [btw. Big Dog had it handily in the bag in April '92 after winning the NY primary. Tsongas did not last through May '92, when it became “official”]

“There is a lot of speculation about why it is [that I'm being asked to drop-out]”

 — But no one really needs to speculate to realize that Senator Obama, for all practical purposes, won the nomination by Super Tuesday. Oh, and BTW, no one really needs to speculate that Senator Clinton lost any legitimate claim to deserving the nomination after spending five years defending the need to go, or the reasons the U.S. went, to war with Iraq 2003.

“I don't know why it is, but I don't want to attribute motives to people because I don’t really know (laughs).”

— Here's my motive: I do not want you to be the nominee. I'm just not that into you.

Here is another motive of mine. The Democratic Party, the rank and file, the national media, your husband and a boatload of wealthy backers put you on a pedestal.  They gave you a bully pulpit, a megaphone, political capital and built-in access to the American people. You have stood in front of the cameras, in front of the nation and you have stood at the crossroads of history as the United States made one terrible foreign, military, domestic, national security, fiscal, energy, health care and trade policy mistake after another.

Instead of using your position to lead, you used your position to stay in your position.

You continually tried to stay in the lead rather than leading.

You squandered every political gift and opportunity WE gave you.  You squandered every political gift and opportunity WE trusted you to use. We trusted you to take those political gifts and those opportunities to make a difference and exert influence and stand up and fight. People have both killed and died for the opportunity to lead that you have squandered over the past 7 years.  Month after month during this campaign you promised leadership if we elected you but still you were unwilling to lead your Senate colleagues or your country toward the promise of a better America during all those Bush war years in the Senate.

You ask, “why are people “trying to push me out of the race“? Really want to know? We have watched you run in place for 7 years. It is time for you to stop.

You have been running in place and talking about how you will lead (“on day one”) in 2009, but we have needed leadership for seven years now and you were not there for us.  We were desperate for leadership in 2002 and 2003. For the last five years while you campaigned, Congress has rolled over and forgotten America and the Constitution.  Where have you been?

                                    *   *   *

Senator Clinton, a few minutes after Senator Robert Kennedy (clip at 8:30) was murdered, a man stands at the podium of the Ambassador Hotel pleading with the crowd, “will you please clear the room.”

“There's an exit on this side of the room, will you please clear the room.”

Senator Clinton, now we are asking you — “will you please clear the room.”  “You can help us most by clearing the room.” 

Senator Clinton, please clear the room and stop rubbernecking at history. The rest of us need to move on. 

Advocates were appalled last week when information leaked out that the State was going to enter into a new contract to provide transportation for Medicaid patients with a company that had been in trouble or lost its Medicaid contract in four other states.

The Times Argus reported that  

in 2007 The Washington Post reported that the company had received 200 complaints (out of 15,000 trips) in the first week of managing transportation for patients in the District of Columbia. Patients arrived early or missed their appointments, according to the Post.

And the company reached an out-of-court settlement with Missouri in 2005, although it did not acknowledge wrongdoing at the time, according to news reports.

Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt called the state's agreement with MTM “a terrible contract” that inflicted harm on “Missouri taxpayers and low-income Missourians” in a statement at the time. “By bilking the system MTM hurt low-income Missourians,” Blunt said in that statement.

 Advocates at Vermont Legal Aid challenged the idea that an agency that has already shown an inability to comply with its contractual obligations or the requirements of the law should be relied on to provide transportaion for our most vulnerable citizens:

“My worry is that the people who use the Medicaid transportation system are by definition very vulnerable folks. They are elderly or disabled, generally,” said Trinka Kerr, the state's health care ombudsman. “In a rural state, they really need transportation to get to doctors' services.”

 And VLA attorney Chris Curtis said: “Medical Transportation Management Inc.'s past performance raises questions about its ability to deliver quality services to low-income Vermonters,” he added. “We believe that our clients and Vermont taxpayers have a right to know more about how this contract was awarded and how they can be reassured that the kinds of problems other states have experienced with MTM will not be encountered here.”

The news today is that the state has backed out of the contract, and is back to the drawing board. In a memo released this afternoon, Cathy Voyer, Director of Housing and Transportion for AHS, announced that the current RFP (and the selection of the out-of-state contractor) is cancelled, and the current provider will stay on until a new RFP can be completed.

I say good work to my colleagues who were able to slow this particular train down to give us a chance to actually learn the facts. 

If you haven’t seen it yet, here it is:

“people have been trying to push me out of this… We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California.  You know, I just – I don’t understand it…”

Great. Now she’s musing that Obama may get killed. Classy.

This is disgusting. She’s no longer simply making a mockery of the process, she’s making a mockery of people who consider themselves Democrats.

Throughout this campaign, we’ve been hearing what a green rookie Obama is, how seasoned and experienced Clinton is, and why she keeps staying in this thing counting on a newbie gaffe from the new kid on the block, yet it has time and again been been Clinton saying the outrageous, even unconscionable thing over and over, continually blaming each fuckup on a lack of sleep, while simultaneously sending the message that’s she’s best equipped to have her finger on the button during 3AM phone calls.

Clinton. Out. Now. No more excuses or rationalizations.