Hillary Clinton and Tanya Harding

I'm not the first to associate these two names. How truly sad is it that Senator Clinton herself has done more than anyone else could have to make the association valid.

You remember the story. Two fierce competitors in the world of ice skating. At the 1994 US Figure Skating championships, Harding's ex-husband and a co-conspirator assaulted Nancy Kerrigan - forcing her to withdraw from competition due to injury. Harding claims she was a victim of a plot and violent abuse by her former husband.

The US Figure Skating Association came to another conclusion:

The USFSA concluded that Harding knew about the attack before it happened and displayed "a clear disregard for fairness, good sportsmanship and ethical behavior".

Harding's supporters (and she does have them) are mostly white, female, lower income...That's not a BAD thing in America...it's just eerily familiar.

When I heard Senator Clinton mention Bobby Kennedy I was following her train of thought: that historic election contests have gone on into June. What I can't understand is why she thought it was a good idea to mention the 1968 campaign.

The reasoning didn't just occur to her. It is now central to her campaign. The fact that she didn't realize how awful that particular analogy is or how it could backfire on her is as disturbing to me as the remark itself. It was a moment of poor judgment, poorly considered strategy, and horrible reasoning blurted out in public. Seasoned journalist Daniel Schorr called her on it on NPR this morning and he's right. We can assume she knew (because she SHOULD have known - which is equally important) exactly what she was saying.

It's understandable that a long campaign could impair one's judgement or cloud one's reasoning. But if the unthinkable were to happen now...it must be laid at her door.

The Secret Service and the FBI must now be checking all leads - including possible conspiracies from opponents.

Please, Senator Clinton. PLEASE! I never hoped to see you like this.