As the photo below suggests, I was in New York this weekend celebrating the birthday of two close friends from college.  It seems that in my time away Sen. Hillary Clinton awoke the vacationing press with her statement about the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy in the context of long political campaigns.  The statement brought swift and viceral reactions from many members of the media, especially the New York media.

Michael Goodwin of the New York Daily News and Maureen Dowd of the New York Times took her to town today.   Dowd was on Meet the Press this morning, and she said, “I think it gave delegates and a lot of Democrats the creeps, because basically the only reason she is still is in the race is that something bad will happen.  Of course she doesn’t wish him bodily harm, but she does want–she does wish him ill in the sense that they want a big horrible story that would debilitate him to break.”  Jake Tapper of ABC News writes of the “fallacy of Clinton’s 1968 analogy.”  The Times editorial board issued a harsh response, noting “We have no idea what, exactly, Hillary Clinton was thinking . . .”  The New York Post quotes a Kennedy insider who says, “I think people really felt that a line was crossed and that her campaign - and even her legitimacy as a politician - ended today.”  Lisa Lerer of Politico summarizes the topic on the other talk shows.   Slate.com’s “Hillary Deathwatch” now estimates her chances of winning the nomination at 0.7%.