Clinton tries to move past Kennedy assassination comment
WASHINGTON (AFP) — Democrat Hillary Clinton campaigned in Puerto Rico Saturday as she sought to move past a firestorm over her mention of the 1968 killing of Senator Robert Kennedy to justify prolonging her White House bid.
Both Clinton and her rival for the Democratic nomination Barack Obama travelled Saturday to the densely populated Caribbean US commonwealth, which has 55 delegates up for grabs and is the next place holding its nominating contest, on June 1.
The New York senator was on the back foot after issuing a hasty apology for comments to a newspaper board in South Dakota Friday where she said she could not understand calls for her to quit the race.
She argued that history showed some past nominating contests had gone on into June, saying: "My husband (Bill Clinton) 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, I don't understand it," she said, in an interview with the Argus Leader newspaper editorial board.
Campaign aides said that she did not intend to hint at any potential assassination of Obama, the Democratic front-runner who is seeking to become America's first black president.
The topic is fraught with sensitivity, especially for supporters of Obama, who accepted Secret Service protection last year long before it is usually offered to most presidential candidates, because of unspecified threats.
Hours after the remarks were released, Clinton launched a damage control effort, saying the Kennedys had been in her thoughts after Senator Edward Kennedy -- Robert Kennedy's brother -- was diagnosed with brain cancer this week.
"I regret that if my referencing that moment of trauma for our entire nation, and particularly for the Kennedy family, was in any way offensive. I certainly had no intention of that, whatsoever," Clinton said.
Obama spokesman Bill Burton condemned her comment as "unfortunate" and said it "has no place in this campaign."
The Argus Leader's executive editor, Randell Beck, issued a statement saying: "(Clinton's) reference to Mr Kennedy's assassination appeared to focus on the timeline of his primary candidacy and not the assassination itself."
It was not the first time Clinton brought up the subject.
"Primary contests used to last a lot longer," she told Time magazine in March.
"We all remember the great tragedy of Bobby Kennedy being assassinated in June in LA. My husband didn't wrap up the nomination in 1992 until June. Having a primary contest go through June is nothing particularly unusual."
The late senator's son, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., defended Clinton in an interview with The New York Times.
"I've heard her make that argument before," he was quoted as saying. "It sounds like she was invoking a familiar historical circumstance in support of her argument for continuing her campaign."
Still, Clinton faced an avalanche of media criticism for the remarks, which appears to heighten tensions with Obama's camp after a period of relative warming and fresh rumors of a potential joint ticket.
"To raise the specter of a rival's assassination, even unintentionally, is to make a truly terrible thing real," said The Washington Post in an editorial.
"It sounds like one might be waiting for a terrible thing to happen, even if one isn't. It sounds almost like wishful thinking."
The dust-up overshadowed the release of medical records by Republican White House pick John McCain, as doctors said he had no health condition that would bar him from the presidency.
The Arizona senator, who turns 72 in August, would be the oldest president ever inaugurated for a first term and age issues will likely surface, especially if he faces a 46-year-old Obama.
McCain was spending the weekend meeting with three potential vice presidential candidates, Governor Charlie Crist of Florida and Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, as well as former White House rival Mitt Romney.
According to the independent RealClearPolitics website, Obama now leads Clinton by 1,968 delegates to 1,779, and is just 58 delegates short of the winning post of 2,026 delegates.
