Mar 12 2008
Geraldine Ferraro says something blatantly obvious and all hell breaks loose
So here is what is going on. Ferraro, the 1984 Democrat Vice Presidential nominee, has come under fire for essentially stating the truth.
Ferraro’s Remarks About Obama Decried
Hillary Rodham Clinton said Tuesday she disagrees with Geraldine Ferraro, one of her fundraisers and the 1984 vice presidential candidate, for suggesting that Barack Obama only achieved his status in the presidential race because he’s black.
In a brief interview with The Associated Press, Clinton was questioned about Ferraro’s remarks. The Obama campaign has called on the New York senator to denounce them.
Ferraro told the Daily Breeze of Torrance, Calif.:
“If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position. And if he was a woman (of any color) he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept.”
So tell me, is that an ugly truth or just hate speech. No one wants to admit that it is really the ugly truth. Since his entrance into the national scene he has been groomed to be the first (real) black president. And she is right, the democrats are enraptured with the concept of proving they are really as diverse as they claim, so they rally behind him as their totem.
Obama the man, the politician and leader is less important to the democrats than his race is, otherwise the more qualified people would be sitting in the final two.
Aside from being charismatic, he really has nothing in his resume to indicate he is really the best qualified person for the office.
Hillary ought not scoff too hard, she is benefiting from the same thing, being the first woman nominee, and Ferraro should also be an expert at the concept since Mondale chose her solely for her gender to appeal to the feminists. Don’t believe it? See below.
Ferraro is defending her comments, somewhat surprisingly:
Ferraro said she was simply stating an obvious truth, as seen in exit polls that show Obama taking as much as 80 percent of the black vote in the Democratic primaries.
“In all honesty, do you think that if he were a white male, there would be a reason for the black community to get excited for a historic first?” Ferraro said. “Am I pointing out something that doesn’t exist?”
Ferraro said she was not trying to diminish Obama’s candidacy, and acknowledged up front that she would not have been the vice presidential nominee in 1984 if she had been a man.
Got that? She is no fool, nor is she pretending her role in 1984 was anything it was not.
But she also echoed remarks of feminist leaders like Gloria Steinem, who argued in the New York Times that Obama would not have succeeded if he were a woman because gender is “the most restricting force in American life.”
“Sexism is a bigger problem,” Ferraro argued. “It’s OK to be sexist in some people’s minds. It’s not OK to be racist.”
I think in both cases, both sides will drop the card when it suits their needs.
It’s funny. With her comments on Obama, and her admission about herself, she effectively undercut Hillary in equal measure. Hillary is no better than Obama in regard to her being where she is because of her gender.
Not to mention her marriage…
By the way, Ferraro has been down this road before…
“If Jesse Jackson were not black, he wouldn’t be in the race,” she said.
Really. The cite is an April 15, 1988 Washington Post story (byline: Howard Kurtz), available only on Nexis.
Here’s the full context:
Placid of demeanor but pointed in his rhetoric, Jackson struck out repeatedly today against those who suggest his race has been an asset in the campaign. President Reagan suggested Tuesday that people don’t ask Jackson tough questions because of his race. And former representative Geraldine A. Ferraro (D-N.Y.) said Wednesday that because of his “radical” views, “if Jesse Jackson were not black, he wouldn’t be in the race.”
Speaking the truth was never popular.
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18 Responses to “Geraldine Ferraro says something blatantly obvious and all hell breaks loose”
I believe Ms. Ferraro is dead on, but unfortunately she’s going to take a beating for it. I just hope she doesn’t back down and “retract” her statement.
I hope that her courage will survive for much longer than one week, to prove that her integrity and principles are stronger than those of e.g. Larry Summers.
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“[B]est qualified”? How about nothing to show that he’s at all qualified?
BTW, “rally behind him as their totem”–I like that. It marks the essentially arational nature of the contemporary political process, unfortunately on both sides of the aisle (notice Juan Mexicain has called for Rep King to back off his statements on Obama? Arational. King made a perfectly valid argument–right or wrong–and Juan Mexicain calls for him to apologize to Mexicain’s putative opponent *sigh*).
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Ms. Ferraro,
I am terribly disappointed. Your recent suggestion that Mr. Obamas’ success happened only because he is black is especially painful. To think that being black in America is a lucky thing strikes me as being inconsiderate.
I am a black person born the same year as Mr. Obamas’ wife 1964, and I can tell you at no time in my life was being black a lucky thing, or are you unaware of the sad and continuing legacy of American race relations. You disregard Mr. Obamas’ legitimate and laudable accomplishments by attributing them to one thing, and it’s the one thing Mr. Obama tries least to be – a man of race. Mr. Obama is a child of God, a husband, a father, a university graduate and a lawyer. Mr. Obama has been a stellar state representative of Illinois and he is currently a United States Senator, and great American. Somewhere probably in the high teens of the list of things Mr. Obama is would be black man.
The statements you have made and defend amount to making his race his primary attribute. You are playing the race card in a manner that is insulting, and quite frankly would be more expected from the kind of reactionary people America has hopefully outgrown.
In 1984 I was a student at the University of Southern California an institution with a traditionally conservative bent. I remember campaigning for and ardently defending a certain congressperson from New York as being more than just a woman, but a person regardless of gender worthy to potentially lead this country. I’m sorry to know now that I was wrong, and all the time any Gerard really would have sufficed.
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