The XX Factor: What women really think.

Hillary's Hopes

So this is what it's come to: the Lone Gunman strategy. It's no secret that Hillary Clinton has been hoping for a colossal misstep by Barack Obama, or a damaging revelation, to end his candidacy, leaving her the last woman standing. But the satisfying irony would be that Clinton has made the ultimate in political blunders by voicing the possibility of the assassination of her opponent. It's chilling, the cool, uninflected way she casually brings up what she calls the "historic fact" that Bobby Kennedy was murdered in June—before the end of the primary season, so thank goodness Hubert Humphrey hadn't withdrawn prematurely! Later, when forced to apologize, she explained that long primary seasons often run into June, as her own husband's did, and anyway the Kennedys have been on her mind because of the brain tumor diagnosis of Ted Kennedy (take note: Voodoo dolls really do work). This is garbage both as history and self-explanation. In 1968 the presidential primaries started in March; and in his first presidential race, Bill Clinton had effectively won the nomination in April. As for the Kennedy-on-the-mind excuse, Hillary made the same assassination argument to Time magazine in March, before Sen. Kennedy's diagnosis (isn't it funny that this wasn't picked up then).

I don't like the game of gotcha, in which every ill-phrased remark is grounds for ending a candidacy. But recently Clinton has been making a string of offensive statements, from saying "hardworking white Americans" support her and not Obama, to comparing her effort to seat delegates from Florida and Michigan to the civil-rights marchers beaten in Selma, Ala. But calling forth the forces of madness to give her the presidency—please, let her end the madness of her campaign.