Clinton to Dems: "I Want to Be Next in Line When Obama Gets Shot"

Well no, that isn't what she said, but it sure as hell sounded like it:

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.

This comes on the heels of Mike Huckabee's assassination joke, but at least that gaffe felt like an actual joke. Clinton sounds like she's strategizing. And her apology isn't very helpful. After claiming she merely meant that campaigns sometimes drag all the way to June -- as though the nomination process in 1968, a year when it was still possible to enter the race at the convention itself, has much to tell us about the 2008 election -- she apologized to…the Kennedys:

"I regret that if my referencing that moment of trauma for our entire nation and in particular the Kennedy family was in any way offensive. I certainly had no intention of that whatsoever.

"My view is that we have to look to the past to our leaders who have inspired us, give us a lot to live up to, and I'm honored to hold Senator Kennedy's seat in the United States Senate from the state of New York and have the highest regard for the Kennedy family," she said.

Of all the reasons someone might be put off by her remark, the possibility that RFK's family might be offended is not exactly at the top of the list.