Geraldine Ferraro resigned from her honorary position with the Clinton campaign after a furor over remarks dealing with Obama’s race. Those comments from MSNBC:
“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.”
Ferraro has come under withering attack from the Obama campaign, as well as others claiming these remarks are “racist”. Obama himself remarked:
“I think they were wrong-headed,” he said at a Chicago news conference. “The notion that it is a great advantage to me to be an African American named Barack Obama and pursue the presidency, I think, is not a view that has been commonly shared by the general public.”
Ferraro wrote a resignation letter to Clinton:
“Dear Hillary, I am stepping down from your finance committee so I can speak for myself and you can continue to speak for yourself about what’s at stake in this campaign. The Obama campaign is attacking me to hurt you. I won’t let that happen. Thank you for everything you’ve done and continue to do to make this a better world for my children and grandchildren. You have my deep admiration and respect, Gerry.”
Ferraro is not backing off, and has indicated that her severance from the Clinton campaign is at least in part designed to allow her to speak freely on this issue. She has defended herself vociferously against the charge of racism, and indicates that her viewpoint is merely expressing the obvious, to wit Obama’s success has at least in part been attributable to race. She also acknowleged that her own selection as Walter Mondale’s running mate was gender based.
I was talking about historic candidacies and what I started off by saying (was that) if you go back to 1984 and look at my historic candidacy, which I had just talked about all these things, in 1984 if my name was Gerard Ferraro instead of Geraldine Ferraro, I would have never been chosen as a vice presidential candidate,” Ferraro said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “It had nothing to do with my qualification.”
Well, what about it? Is the criticism of Ferraro justified? Has the Clinton campaign once again interjected the “race card” into this campaign? Or is this criticism Obama spin, or just a PC world run amok? Is there any truth to Ferraro’s comments? I have attached a clip from the Hardball Show with Chris Matthews, in which this debate gets pretty tough.
Bill Manzi.com 
Ferraro is a seasoned political veteran and should know better then to bring race into the conversation, because there will always be a backlash. Regardless of the context of her words, she had to have known the media would have a field day with any comments about race.
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This controversy is utter nonsense and is being blown out of proportion by the Obama campaign. I watched Geraldine explain her comments (when Diane Sawyer would allow her to without interruption) on Good Morning America. She was making commentary on the uniqueness of the race and comparing it to her run for Vice-President. After understanding the context in which she spoke there was no harm intended. However, when one wishes to take or find offense one always can. Tempers are running short in the campaign. Every comment from anyone in either camp is being disected and analized to death. It is ridiculous.
chris
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The fault is in the hands of the moron who decided to have a two year nomination process.
The Republicans resolved their winner early, while the Democrats ran down to a tie with two people whose politics are convergent. Now they are forced to compete against each other for several more months.
Without difference in policy they begin to tear at each other in a process of dirty tricks, inuendo, loose tongues and gender and race based charges and countercharges. A couriosity considering Hillary’s “village” and Obama’s inclusiveness.
Now Obama is found to be sitting for twenty years listening to the hate filled, anti american and anti-semitic rants of reverend wright, an admirer of Louis Farrakhan. The holiness of Obama may be disassembling.
I listened closely to Geraldine Ferraro and she was not talking about race, she was talking about affirmative action. Mondale chose Geraldine to show a female face.
The smartest thing the Democratic party can do now is shut down the campaigns and go home to be resumed later.
To continue is to wear the candidates out and to denigrate the party, driving a wedge between the party adherents.
What has happened is the Demacrat Party is cracking along its expoused principles.
Who would have thought.
Jules
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I believe that your phrase “moron” ought to be plural, as in “morons”
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Your Honor,
Would one alternate spelling of moron be
H-O-W-A-R-D D-E-A-N ?????
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