Defiant Hillary Argues Nomination Still In Doubt, Citing Case of Sirhan v. Kennedy

It has begun.

Hillary Clinton today brought up the assassination of Sen. Robert Kennedy while defending her decision to stay in the race against Barack Obama.

"My husband 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, dismissing calls to drop out.

Yipes.

With that salvo, it seems pretty clear that at long last, we're witnessing the beginning of the endgame.  The first spastic lurch of the long-prohesied Clintonian death rattle.

The prophecy foretells a magnificent and hideous spectacle.

Despite inevitable calls for Hillary to exit gracefully, I think we've banked enough Clinton exposure at this point to suspect those final throes will be anything but graceful.  Remember, the spectacle of Gore v. Bush involved a JV Clinton Machinist trying to litigate his way to victory.  With the full faith and credit of the remaining Clintonistas backing an intra-party fight over Florida and Michigan (assuming the delegates at stake would toggle the outcome), it promises to be a Circus of Vitriol like we've never seen.  In the end, of course, Hillary will (and should) lose that fight.
...
And while the Clinton campaign's death rattle will be a hideous series of backfiring hail Marys, and ultimately, perhaps even a deliberate mutually-assured scorched earth campaign (think final scene in "Predator"), a portion of that final panicked assault will inevitably find its mark and inflict damage on Obama.

This would be a good time to duck and cover.  Or crawl inside a lead-lined refrigerator.

Update: Clinton offered some follow-up clarification, blaming her bizarre allusion on Bobby's brother's brain tumor.

"The Kennedys have been much on my mind the last days because of Senator Kennedy and 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."