tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7375346.post266529140826116384..comments2023-08-07T06:27:31.133-04:00Comments on Who is Vinny Oswego?: "Clinton, you invoked a political nightmare" by Keith Olbermancmadlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15184444550976365492noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7375346.post-25861355420625833902008-05-29T00:58:00.000-04:002008-05-29T00:58:00.000-04:00What I find especially offensive about the referen...What I find especially offensive about the reference is that the 1968 Democrat Convention — the one HRC uses as a model, was rigged by the Daley forces to put in Hubert Humphrey. Those who remember will recall not only was RFK killed, but George Wallace ran as a segregationist -- he could have won WV and Ky!!. 1968 is remembered for that cop riot and for the worst kind of Republican-style slandering of the anti-Vietnam war movement. In 1968, the delegates were pretty much all old men who decided amongst themsleves who would run. 1968 was the Convention that showed that the nomination process needed to be changed to put the power to nominate into the hands of the members. So this is the year Clinton points to as her model of why she’s still in the race, and like Daley, she’s trying to drag down the candidate who has done most to get people enthusiastic about voting.<BR/><BR/>In the end, it was Nixon who benefited from the division in the Democrats.<BR/><BR/>So Hillary is not only offensive when she brings up the Kennedy assassination as her excuse for going on. Even if she denies that this is what she meant, she certainly did mean to evoke 1968 and all its ugliness — which is highly appropriate in her case.<BR/><BR/>There are some other interesting memories from 1968 that should give us pause to reflect. <BR/><BR/>You'll recall that Eugene McCarthy only ran when it became clear that nobody would stand against the sitting Democrat president -- LBJ -- despite the increasing disquiet about the war -- especially amongst Democrats. Eugene essentially picked up the Obama consituency (minus the lock on African Americans)<BR/><BR/>Within 4 days, RFK had joined the fray. There was that same sense of destiny, but it would never have happened but for Eugene. As things developed Johnson went from being the probable winner to lame duck. RFK rapidly consolidated much of the Catholic vote behind him and bit into a slice of Eugene's constituency. The party heavies didn't like the way things were going so suddenly, Hubert Humphrey was drafted. <BR/><BR/>Post RFK's murder, McGovern tried to assemble the remnants of the RFK and McCarthy forces, but it was no match for the right and hey presto, Hubert won easily. He was the most electable, but the victory was pyrrhic because Nixon won in a canter.<BR/><BR/>You'll recall that Nixon had 'a secret plan to end the war' which turned out to be a secret plan to bomb Cambodia and Laos back to the stone age by dropping more tonnage on these two countries than the US had dropped on all belligerents in WW2. McCain has a plan too ... hmmmAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7375346.post-59149458461725777712008-05-28T11:14:00.000-04:002008-05-28T11:14:00.000-04:00Looking at the current crop of politicians, such a...Looking at the current crop of politicians, such as Hilary Clinton, it is hard to contemplate how far we have fallen from a time when there was a politician who really did stand for justice, not the interests of the big business lobby. Not surprisingly, that man, Robert Kennedy, was assassinated before he could reach the White House. Who knows what a different world we might be living in now, if Robert Kennedy had lived to become President Kennedy. There is a recent interesting article, found <A HREF="http://www.sott.net/articles/show/157315-The-assassination-of-Robert-Kennedy-Part-1" REL="nofollow">here</A> discussing the assassination of Robert Kennedy that you may like to have a look at.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com