Clinton says her reference to Kennedy was misinterpreted

UNITED STATES: HILLARY CLINTON has claimed that her reference last week to the 1968 assassination of Robert Kennedy was taken…

UNITED STATES:HILLARY CLINTON has claimed that her reference last week to the 1968 assassination of Robert Kennedy was taken out of context and insisted that she is staying in the Democratic race because she thinks she can still win.

Mrs Clinton apologised last Friday after she referred to the assassination when a South Dakota newspaper asked her if she was determined to continue her presidential campaign.

"I made clear that I was - and that I thought the urgency to end the 2008 primary process was unprecedented. I pointed out, as I have before, that both my husband's primary campaign, and Senator Robert Kennedy's, had continued into June," Mrs Clinton wrote in the New York Daily Newsyesterday.

"Almost immediately, some took my comments entirely out of context and interpreted them to mean something completely different - and completely unthinkable."

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Mrs Clinton's remarks last week provoked a storm of criticism, with some commentators condemning them as tasteless in view of numerous death threats that have been directed at Barack Obama.

Mr Obama received Secret Service protection earlier than any other presidential candidate in history because of the threats and his campaign events are surrounded by heavier security than those of other candidates.

Campaigning in Puerto Rico, which votes next Sunday, Mr Obama said he accepted Mrs Clinton's account of her remarks and believed that she meant no harm.

"I think it was an unfortunate remark, but as I said today, I think that when you're on the campaign trail for 15 months, you're going to make some mistakes. I don't think Senator Clinton intended anything by it, and I think we should put it behind us," he said.

Mrs Clinton said yesterday that she was aware of "the challenges or the odds of my securing the nomination" but insisted that the Democratic race remains very close and that she is the strongest candidate to face Republican John McCain in November.

Mr Obama is ahead by about 190 delegates, a lead Mrs Clinton cannot erase in the remaining three primaries.

She is pressing the Democratic Party to recognise delegates from disputed primaries in Florida and Michigan, which were punished for voting earlier than party rules allowed.

Even if the party agreed to seat all of the delegates from both states according to the primary result - an unlikely decision that would be most beneficial to the former first lady - she would gain only an extra 111 delegates.

Mrs Clinton's only hope of winning the nomination lies in persuading about 200 undeclared superdelegates - elected officials and other senior party figures - to back her.

She hopes that a big victory in Puerto Rico will help her to claim that she has won more popular votes than Mr Obama if Florida and Michigan votes are counted.

There are growing signs, however, that leading Democrats have already decided that Mr Obama will be their nominee and that superdelegates will move quickly after the final primaries next week to end the contest.

Former president Jimmy Carter, a superdelegate who has yet to endorse either candidate, said yesterday that he did not believe Mrs Clinton was achieving anything by remaining in the race.

"I think not. But of course she has the perfect right to do so," he told Sky News.

"I think a lot of the superdelegates will make a decision quite - announced quite rapidly - after the final primary on June 3rd."