Thursday, March 13, 2008

Gerry Ferraro Speaks Straight



"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? Am I pointing out something that doesn't exist?" Geraldine Ferraro

The 2008 presidential primary campaign is turning out to be historic because of its two Democratic candidates' gender and race ... for all the wrong reasons.

Everything's fair game, especially the obvious. Did Hillary really cry and if so, are women too emotional? If Barack's middle name is Hussien, does that make him a Muslim? Who's lying to women? Who's pandering to blacks? Whose husband, wife, mother, staffer said this, that or the other?

JAYZUS!

Issues, people! Issues! What do the candidates represent and how do they characterize each other? Neither candidate is responsible for what other people posit, even on his or her behalf.

And Geraldine Ferraro, herself a history-maker as well as a person of substance, merely said out loud what most of us think, if only subliminally. Not because we're racists, because we're Realists.

The Obama machine--oh yes, he has a fully operational Machine, complete with seasoned political attack-dog advisers--saw their chance to make campaign hay and pounced. Their self-righteous bellowing --Racist! Racist!-- is just too canned and canny.

Obama's campaign manager David Axelrod is equally responsible of name-calling when he suggests there's an "insidious pattern" of racial remarks by Clinton supporters. There's the proof, right from the horse's mouth. Play the race card on your own behalf.

Gerry Ferraro is entitled to her opinions, frank and to the point as ever. When the opposition and the media started a firestorm, she replied succinctly and very well:

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 is 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 have done and continue to do to make this a better world for my children and grandchildren.

You have my deep admiration and respect.

Gerry

Geraldine Ferraro has my deep admiration and respect too.

If Clinton and Obama can't or won't control their handlers, they might as well be the same two white guys conducting political campaign business as usual ... crying foul at every opportunity to undermine the competition.

Which only undermines their own credibility, not only as historic trail blazers, but as potential leaders of our country.

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3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I think that Ferraro's multiple comments were a display of racism and despite what you think I am not on Obama Koolaid. And it strikes me as very odd that someone on Hillarys board essentially would let something like that just slip out multiple times. All politicians have machines.. Her comments strike me as racist because they imply that Obama is winning not because of his merits but because of some sort of affirmative action plan by naive voters. It sends a message (to white voters obviously) that Obama has no merits or substance and that he is *only* here because he's black. No comment from any Obama person would be necessary to deduce that sort of masked hostility. It is racism whether she or her supporters realize it. And I am sick of hearing Hillary using her bully pulpit to play the victim (the tears, the mean old media, the race card etc) instead of discussing issues.

No disrespect but Hillary and Ferraros brand of old school angry (macho?) feminism is what is alienating people not moveon.org's members choice to back Obama.

10:29 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I think that Ferraro's multiple comments were a display of racism and despite what you think I am not on Obama Koolaid. And it strikes me as very odd that someone on Hillarys board essentially would let something like that just slip out multiple times. All politicians have machines.. Her comments strike me as racist because they imply that Obama is winning not because of his merits but because of some sort of affirmative action plan by naive voters. It sends a message (to white voters obviously) that Obama has no merits or substance and that he is *only* here because he's black. No comment from any Obama person would be necessary to deduce that sort of masked hostility. It is racism whether she or her supporters realize it. And I am sick of hearing Hillary using her bully pulpit to play the victim (the tears, the mean old media, the race card etc) instead of discussing issues.

No disrespect but Hillary and Ferraros brand of old school angry (macho?) feminism is what is alienating people not moveon.org's members choice to back Obama.

11:16 PM  
Blogger David Goldenberg said...

Uhhhh...Sally--by the way, I'm sure you're not a racist--that having been said, you say:
"Geraldine Ferraro...said...what most of us think...Not because we're racists, because we're Realists." -- She said Obama wouldn't be where he is if he weren't black. Neither would Nelson Mendela, Martin Luther King, and many more. Point being, what's that got to do with "issues, issues?" Race is the issue, and until we Americans realize the immense part bigotry plays in our society, we'll never fix it and we'll never get over it. I think that's what the big hoopla over Obama's "historic" speech is. The recognition of race a the seminal problem of America and Americans, and how the discussion and ultimate remedy of that problem will enable so many other issues to be fixed as well. Saying Obama is where he is because of his black blood doesn't move us forward--it sticks us in pause forever. Ferraro is an accomplished individual, and her big break to fame came due to her gender (female gender: another bigotry p[roblem in our midst), but her remarks on this situation are superfluous at best, and degrading at worst.
I'm not starry eyed (I am an idealist) in that I don't believe the end of racism, bigotry, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, and prejudice of anyone different, will leave the hearts of many of our fellow citizens or their children for a long time. I do see a hope in the explication of, and a discussion of, the fact that this is part of our society, perhaps the underlying biggest downfall of our society, and that as long as it takes, the less it apears every day, the better. Thus any tacit spewing of defacto knee-jerk reaction to profound and complex problems serves to feed the downside, rather than send light to the positive.

7:46 PM  

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