On Countdown with Keith Olbermann today, he had on presidential historian Douglas Brinkley, who I thought said some very astute things about Hillary Clinton, particularly what her comments today (and previously) about possible assassinations of candidates suggest of her state of mind.
His remarks reflect not so much an historian's eye, as a very humane sensitivity to emotional distress, which just happen to be on display now in a presidential campaign.
At about 4:00 he says something about how she is in “depression or meltdown” and is not expressing the “best side of her nature.”
This comment really struck a chord with me. There are plenty of others who are saying what needs to be said about the abhorrent suggestion in Clinton's remarks — they say it far better than I can.
But I have been in that state of mind where you really do not know what you are doing anymore, and while you realize things are not right, you keep trying to function, and just manage to make things worse. I've been there, and so, as disgusted as I am with Hillary Clinton right now over this, I have to also say I am very concerned and sympathetic.
If we can presume she is, as Brinkley suggests, in a very bad place that isn't representative of her heart, then going forward she will have a hard time living with what she has done. Being on the stage before the whole world for this sad performance, well, if we do think she's better than this, then she will suffer greatly when it all sinks in. So I feel for her if that eventuality comes.
But having said that, the best thing for her, and everyone in the country, is for her to gently be told by whatever powers that be in the Democratic Party that she needs to end her campaign and get some serious rest.