Robert Kennedy, 42, wasshot on June 5, 1968, in Los Angeles, shortly after winning the Democratic presidential primary in California. He died the next day

Washington, May 24: The customary somnolence of America’s long Memorial Day weekend exploded into political fury and uproar here last evening after Hillary Clinton, the underdog in the Democratic presidential primary campaign, implied that she was staying on in the race in case her rival Barack Obama was assassinated.

“We all remember, Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California,” Hillary told the Argus Leader newspaper’s editorial board in South Dakota in reply to a question about calls for her to quit because she was outnumbered by Obama among her party’s nominating delegates.

Pointing out that previous primary contests had gone well into June, Hillary added that “my husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary, somewhere in the middle of June, right?”

The New York senator regretted the passage of her foot into her mouth almost as soon as she made the potentially disastrous reference to Robert Kennedy’s assassination 40 years ago.

Her interview in South Dakota which was simultaneously being broadcast on streaming video sent out shockwaves.

Hillary emerged from the newspaper’s office to be told by aides that the reference to a political assassination in 2008 could be the death knell of her presidential campaign.

She went to the nearest supermarket, gathered her accompanying media — to whom she had not spoken for a full week — and regretted the remark.

A visibly shaken former First Lady said: “I regret that if my referencing that moment of trauma for our entire nation, and particularly for the Kennedy family, was in any way offensive. I certainly had no intention of that, whatsoever.”

She added: “My view is that we have to look to the past and to our leaders who have inspired us and given us a lot to live up to, and I am honoured to hold Senator Kennedy’s seat in the United States Senate from the state of New York.”

Randell Beck, executive editor of the Argus Leader, tried to soothe swirling feathers with a statement that Hillary’s “reference to Mr Kennedy’s assassination appeared to focus on the timeline of his primary candidacy and not the assassination itself.”

But the efforts did little to help Hillary as the night wore on and Saturday dawned with all-round criticism of the one-time front-runner to be the next US President.

A columnist for Hillary’s home town newspaper, the Daily News of New York, wrote this morning: “We have seen an X-ray of a very dark soul. One consumed by raw ambition to where the possible assassination of an opponent is something to ponder in a strategic way. Otherwise, why is murder on her mind?”

A blog signed by “The Editorial Board” of The New York Times, which has supported her candidacy, described her apology as a non-apology. “She issued one of those tedious non-apology apologies in which it sounds like the person who is being offended is somehow at fault.... Mrs Clinton tried to excuse her inexcusable outburst by saying she was distracted by the shock of the news of Senator Edward Kennedy’s malignant brain tumor. But there was something familiar about what she said....”

The paper was referring to an interview Hillary gave to Time magazine on March 6 when she said: “We all remember the great tragedy of Bobby Kennedy being assassinated in June.... We will see how it unfolds as we go forward over the next three to four months.”

That reference was not taken seriously then because an Obama presidency had not yet fully emerged in March in the realm of any certainty.

Nor had threats to Obama’s life become an issue as they are today.

There were reports this month that the US Secret Service, which protects the Illinois senator, did not allow him to campaign extensively in either West Virginia or Kentucky, where Hillary won in a landslide a few days ago. White racism and gun culture are rampant in both states.

The Secret Service does not confirm or deny such reports. But it is significant that Obama was the first among presidential contenders to get Secret Service protection, personally approved by President George W. Bush, obviously in the light of credible threats.