Shut up Geraldine and move to SC, you giving NY a bad reputation.

Project much, Ms Ferraro?

Um...

If I were Hillary, I'd want this woman to stop talking, regardless of her "official" connection the the HRC campaign. Is she serious? Is this NEWS?

Does Obama really have to stop and take time to address this? Poor man. It is unbelievable.

I have to tell myself that this can't possibly be Hillary's stand on this issue...or the direction she wants the campaign to take.

At this point what more is there to say? Can she please go away now? It's sad when one can only get headlines for being a rabid race baiter.

Shhhhhhh, people! If we continue bashing her, she won't hold fundraisers for Obama. Without her, his campaign will be toast, kaput, finished.

Oh Lord, save us from ourselves!

She dealt the card, and everyone else just responded.

Calling Ferraro's racist remarks racist is not playing the race card. Hypothetically, saying something like Ferraro said what she did "because she was white" would have done that, but that's not what we're talking about. The statement she made is already about race. The card was already dealt.

Ferraro is the one playing the race card again and again:

1. Ferraro said the exact same thing about Jesse Jackson in 1988. So she is a repeat offender with smearing black candidates:

""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."

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0308/A_Ferraro_flashback.html

2. Not only is she a repeat offender, but she has previously said that due to "racism" white owmen are more electable (seeming to contradict her recent claims):

Ferraro said in 2006 that white women are more elecctable than a black man:

"Ms. Ferraro offered a similar sentiment. “I think it’s more realistic for a woman than it is for an African-American,” said Ms. Ferraro. “There is a certain amount of racism that exists in the United States — whether it’s conscious or not it’s true.”“Women are 51 percent of the population,” she added."

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/10/weekinreview/10nagourney.html?scp=13&sq=%22geraldine+ferraro%22black&st=nyt

Well, she definitely won't be crying on national TV to get people to her side. At least we can agree on that.

I have to tell myself that this can't possibly be Hillary's stand on this issue...or the direction she wants the campaign to take.

Uh. That was sort of the point of Olbermann's Special Comment. I believe "suicide pact" was the term he used.

Look, Ferraro needs to keep going. Yesterday on Good Morning America she was in full "I'm an old white lady, please don't hurt me you young black man!" mode, which was offensive but seemingly calculative. This is just pushing the envelope too far for reason, and may, instead of reinforcing the racist tropes she parrots, get people to think, "Dear God, that lady is NUTS! I hope I never sound like that!"

The truly sad thing about the whole affair is that she still believes there was nothing wrong with her comments. As though a man named Barack Hussein Obama has achieved what he's achieved by luck, hopefulness, and benefiting from a white liberal establishment so full of guilt and kindness that they're throwing the presidency to the first capable black man they found. As though people are embracing him for blackness and not because of his stand on Iraq, his refusal to take money from lobbyists, his ability to inspire and articulate liberal ideals, his approach to politics and opponents, his media savvy, his organizational dominance of the Clinton campaign, his stamina and focus. The guy is a marvel. Black, white, orange, blue, green, I've never seen a more natural and gifted politician.

Gerry, you are embarrassing yourself. And you are pulling Hillary down with you. This will be both of your legacies if you don't pull up soon. Are you really ready to be forever known as the angry old privileged white lady with nothing in your heart but fear and resentment? An apology would be nice, but I know when we can expect it.

America, 2008. When progress died a little.

What Geraldine did was to point out the the Emperor has no clothes: the Obama camp has been making phony charges of racism for a long time know and she's calling them on it.

Too many liberals have supported Obama because they wanted to show that they aren't prejudiced. This in itself is a form of prejudice.

Vote for me to heal the nation is an implicit reliance on the fact that Obama is black. It is a claim that would not work as well if Obama were white.

This is a simple fact and so in what way is it racism for Geraldine Ferraro to say so?

Yes, Obama plays the race card. He's the one who said he wouldn't be where he is if he wasn't black.

Oh, wait ...

Actually, I think Ferraro is sort of right. She's not playing the race card. She's playing the RACIST card.

President Mondale? Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha! They only needed to win about 260 more delegates in '84 to get to the White House..

100% correct Gerry! GO GERRY GO, You have told the truth and to hell with them if they can't take it. Obamaistas and Obama's standard reply is calling anyone who disagrees with the empty suit, a racist. 91% of AAs vote for Obama and of course there is no racism on the AA side. F them, Love you Gerry!

From the desk of:

Geraldine Ferraro

I have decided to resign from the position that I have never held with the Hillary Rodham Clinton campaign.

I am deeply disappointed that Senator Obama has chosen to attack me in such a racist manner. However, should he become the nominee of our party, I am still willing to engage in fund raising for him, provided that he changes his ways, and promises to stop being a Black Man.

So you are saying that "A black person can't do well without affirmative action"? Or are you comparing Senator Obama with all of the other African American presidential candidates that have done so well and gone on to become president (hint: none)? I really think you need to go back to your radio show, Mr. Limbaugh.

I need help!! Please explain what I am missing here?

Ferraro basically said the following:

1. This contest is billed as "historic" because of the first AA candidate and woman candidate with a real chance.

2. If that's the case, then Obama's race is exactly what makes his candidacy historic. Other candidates (Edwards, Biden, Kucinich, etc) may have been equally or more qualified, but they didn't get any traction because they couldn't effectively compete against historic candidate

3. If that's true, then we have to accept that Obama's race is an integral part of his candidacy, just like HRC's being a woman is an integral part of hers.

So why is this racist? I don't defend anyone or imply anything, just want to understand

A couple of points that I have observed and excuse me if someone has covered this before.

1. The sense of entitlement displayed by Gerry is remarkable. 'I might fundraise for Obama if he is nice to me', which she said Wednesday night. Well he doesn't need it, 50% of 55million by $50 or less. No skimming off the top Gerry.

2. The fact that Gerry and her ilk treat AA's as if the AA's owed them a debt. They think because they have provided food stamps for 30+ years that AA's should sit back and thank them. Screw that, Obama gives people hope that change can come but he is asking people to involve themselves and not accept handouts. This issue has killed the left over the last 20 years and Gerry is one of the original dinosaurs.

3. The older guard DLC, Blue Dog left is terrorfied of Obama and the new progressive youth movement.

This purging of the DLC from the left has been a long time coming and they can kick and holler into the night but BYE-BYE.

"Too many liberals have supported Obama because they wanted to show that they aren't prejudiced. This in itself is a form of prejudice."

I am so tired of this meme. I'm a middle-aged white woman supporting Obama. I am not doing this out of a sense of white guilt. I am not doing this because I've been hypnotized by the rhetoric or entranced by a new pretty, shiny thing. I'm not doing this because he's a handsome man who makes my lady parts quiver.

I support Obama because I truly believe he would make the best president of the United States. I believe he has the intelligence and the temperament to lead wisely, and I believe we share common values and goals for what government should accomplishment.

I denounce, reject, repudiate and spit on the notion that 13 million people have cast votes for Obama based on the color of his skin.

At one point, I would have been happy to vote for any of the democratic candidates, but at this point, I am disgusted by Hillary Clinton's tactics. My disappointment in her is beyond belief.

Its funny since the Obama camp was attacking Hillary on her bogus experience claim when this stuff starting coming out.

Allow me to invite Ms. Ferraro to shut the hell up. Good lord, she is starting to sound like a nut job. Tuck your tail between your legs and slouch off to obscurity (the unknown zone from whence you came). Your relevance expired about three weeks before the Presidential Election in 1984.

Methinks she has gone mad!

How sad.

I do have some sympathy for HRC and Ferraro, two old guard feminists seeing their hope for symbollic equality elude them.

There was and is much antagonism between many of the old guard feminists and civil rights activists. Sadly, neither understands that, when either achieves even a small gain in substantive equality, the other gains as well. They would rather have empty, symbollic equality.

The question becomes: Why would HRC & Ferraro prefer the gestural gain of symbollic equality when they can obtain the substantive equality Obama can bring?

HRC and Ferraro have remained in the 1960s/70s and the rest of the country is in 2008 looking forward to the 2010s.

How sad.

It is amazing to me that, for some, it has become verboten to discuss how a certain block of voters is tending to overwhelmingly support a certain candidate. What is wrong with merely observing that 90% of this block voted for a certain candidate in Mississippi? The news organizations have already reported this fact.

This whole phenomena has been very upsetting to me, and I understdand why Gerry Ferraro got upset. What she was complaining about was not rooted in her envy of a certain candidate, as Maureen Dowd opined in her column yesterday, but was rooted in the shallowness of being forbidden to enter into this discussion. It has become forbidden because David Axelrod and others in the Obama campaign have used the tactics of "PC policemen". Any mention of race now becomes a racist comment. This is very useful for beating up on people in other campaigns. It has now been used against Bill Clinton and Gerry Ferraro.

It is not racist to discusss how certain voting blocks may be voting, or how certain campaigns may be courting certain voting blocks. Racism in my mind involves much more than this. Racism means denial of equal opportunity or denial of a legal right.

Hillary is being very gracious to apologize for the "offense" to the black community that the Obama campaign caused by twisting what both Bill Clinton and Ferraro said so they could attack Hillary. It is amazing that two people who worked for racial equality their entire careers could be successfully protrayed as "racists" by the Obama campaign. Based on some of the comments posted here, Obama supporters seem to have a mean spirit. He must be appealing to those who feel victimized and need to lash out at established and experienced politicians, even if they have helped people. This is not a new political discussion coming from them as far as I can see.

Keith Olbermann's special comments were bordering on hysterical. We can not bring the country together as Obama has promised if people aren't free to express their opinions without being labelled racists. Geraldine is not a racist. Disagree with her argument, don't attack her character. The same goes for Bill. How can people be in such a blind fog of upset over a few comments about the fact Obama's blackness is a part of his popularity right now?

You seem to be forgetting that no one "picked" Obama to make history. He is an extremely talented politician running for President of the United States; he has won the votes of millions of voters in an electoral contest. No doubt, this makes history, but not because some party officials "picked" him as a token figurehead.

I for one have developed a very negative opinion of Obama because of the way he has run his campaign and the things his supporters are saying and doing with the help of the MSM such as Oberman and the rest on MSNBC. I did not have that negative opininion of him in the beginning but I do now. MSNBC has helped flame this anger and disgust.

And because of that, I will not vote for him if he's the nominee. So everytime all of you clap and celebrate when people like Oberman and Shuster push your twisted negative spin on Hillary, just remember, you don't gain support, you lose it.

I like every Hillary supporter I now know, will vote for McCain if this election is stolen from Hillary by this undemocratic caucus vote that has helped him rack up tainted caucus delegates.

Rae

" This made Gerry mad and she quite articulately described how she had participated in the creation of the superdelegate thing back in 1984, and how the whole idea was that the superdelegates be independent."

Oh wow...I just remembered reading about the very first Superdelegates controversy, that was when Walter Mondale used it to oust front-runner Gary Hart and caused a near civil war in the Democratic Party. So, Mondale/Ferraro created the Superdelegates as a coup instrument.

The "Democratic" Party - what an oxymoron.

What a real freak?

I think most people thought this moron was dead or never really existed until she came out of the woods in the last few weeks.

Sorry gradma from hell, sorry he is black and doesn't have a vagina.

Black, Hispanic, Asian and even many working class and middle class white women-I don't think they have anything in common with these rich and elite white feminist freaks.

Thank you for the very clear snapshot of the typical HRC supporter and how they will support the Democratic party retake the White House in November.

Of course Obama's campaign is playing the race card. But they do it in such a brazen fashion that nobody can believe he would be so shameless about it. They are always looking for something to twist out of proportion so they can lablel it subtle racism. And when somebody like Ferraro tells the truth in a tactless way, they make sure that their remarks get the widest possible coverage.

Obama has led the Democratic party into an absurd and dishonest fantasyland where he's pretending that race has nothing to do with the campaign (in spite of the lopsided result in places like Mississippi), and anyone who dares to suggest that it does is automatically labeled a racist. He's basically made supporting him the litmus test of whether or not you are racist. And it's worked very well with blacks and guilt-ridden liberals in the primary. But in the general election it will be a very different matter. Because Republicans aren't afraid of using the race card too. And they're much better at it than he is, and always have been.

Though I've never been a huge fan of Ferraro, I really admire the manner in which she's sticking to her guns on this issue — instead of publishing some touchy-feely apology. I particularly liked this gutsy little flourish: "Any time anybody does anything that in any way pulls this campaign down and says let's address reality and the problems we're facing in this world, you're accused of being racist, so you have to shut up … Racism works in two different directions. I really think they're attacking me because I'm white. How's that?"

Good to see someone exercising a little bit of backbone. It makes a nice counterpoint to the mass media's obsequious Obama love-in.

OMG!!

Ha, Fox is playing clips from Obama's church.

I'd like to see any of you explain how Wright, Obama's best friend and pastor, ain't racist!

This is what Obama has been sitting and listening to and supporting by his tithes, for the last 10 years??

If these were not HIS opinions, would he have stayed there all these years??

Kiss the election goodbye, Obama-mites. The more the American public sees these clips, they will see behind Obama's curtain, the real man.

And to think how you're hopping up and down over Ferraro's comments! LOL ..... how pathetic you all are. Hypocrisy has never known such bounds!

Rae

If Obama weren't black, he'd just be some charismatic, young white Democrat completely indistinguishable from guys like JFK, Jimmy Carter, or Clinton.

So Obama doesn't play the race card?

It's on tape!!

"Hillary ain't never been called a nigga!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUbUBTlmAiA

First Michelle states:

"for the first time in my life, I am proud to be an American".

Now his pastor states:

"God dam America!"

...

His co-members say "I don't call that radical."

Its all on video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzhl-endvco

I really need to repeat this, pls. bear with me. Obama's support accrued over time. if it had been all about white guilt, affirmative action and AAs voting for their own, in other words, his race, the faithful would have flocked to him from the word go.

The logic is twisted like a Mobius Strip. The Black guy's run is historic because he's black and since he's black, it's historic. It can't be anything else. Not his considerable achievements, not his brilliant grass-root campaign, not his well-planned outreach or his readiness. not the power of his message or his charisma, not his campaign's brilliant performance with relatively young and untested operatives in contrast to Hillary's well-oiled machine peopled with guys who ran successful Presidential campaigns for Bill TWICE. And of course Bill himself, adored as the shining sun after 8 years of Bush, there lurking, promising...

This is not a race story. This is a David and Goliath story.

But what? Nothing to see there, just a Black-out, a race thing, a tedious PC debate, nothing to see, move on, nothing to see...

Raek: You said it and We get it. Your clean German White ass is officially a republican now. Go McCain!!!

Happy?

Stop using republican "patriotic" filth and make sure to wear a flappel pin you get out of the house from now on. Believe me you need one.

Senator Obama: "I don't think my church is actually particularly controversial." He said Rev. Wright "is like an old uncle who says things I don't always agree with," telling a Jewish group that everyone has someone like that in their family.

Rev. Wright:
“The Romans were rich, the Romans were Italians, which means they were Europeans which means they were white which means they ran everything in Jesus's country."

“RICH WHITE MEN FIT THE MOLD.”

“Hillary ain't never been called a nigger,” no… just a bitch.

Really? "Living in the US of KKK A"
Santus Obama plays the race card again!

He's on the tape I understand and keeps coming back for more. Beat up a poor old woman but not a racist preacher. And of course Mrs. Obama is now at middle age proud to be an American.

Obama's pastor is a racist, and an anti-American bigot to boot. The "moral stand" would be to condemn Wright and change Obama's church as apparently the Rev. Wright propaganda is available for purchase.

Hope/Change. “Hillary ain't never been called a nigger,”

Next time I misspeak, I will excuse myself as having had a "Ferraro Moment."

Ferraro has been on victim overdrive since Bush Sr. bragged how he"d "kicked a little ass" in the 1984 vice presidential debate.

She proved a costly drag on the Mondale ticket with the drip-by-drip debacle over releasing her and her husband"s tax returns. In 1985, he pleaded guilty in a fraudulent scheme to obtain bank financing.

In her second failed attempt at the NY Senate seat in 1998, her opponent accused her of "running on the fumes of fame." After squandering an early 27% lead in the polls, the electorate caught the aroma, giving her only 26% of their votes in a primary runoff against Chuck Schumer. Her campaign was bedeviled by fundraising problems, campaign mismanagement and inconsistent messaging.

She has resurfaced again propelled by the fumes of fame. Only this time, she has done for herself what voters wouldn't do for her -- stopped her permanent slide into complete oblivion.

To everyone who is buying into her RE-characterization of what she said, please read the original article:
http://www.dailybreeze.com/ci_8489268

One that she said several times that she stood by and didn't regret. There's no excitement about the wonderful outpouring of support from the AA community, or appreciation of the *dual* historic factors of the race ..... just complaints about the sexist media and the empty (black) suit. Even the reporter said she exhibited a "bitter edge."

If she wants to back down, then great! Let her and I thank her for it. But let's not re-write history ... especially when it's right there to see.

Seems like the only thing Ferraro forgot to say was that Hillary's campaign has been as successful as it is because she is female, and is garnering a lot of female votes.
But she's certainly right about Obama, too, and I'm glad she stuck to her guns. They've both got sub-groups fawning all over them, many of the Obamaites are fawning right here on TPM's blog.

I mean making America better and also making the WORLD a better place! sorry, thanks.

It looks like Ferraro struck a nerve. The fact is that the biggest wish of the Obama camp and their supporters is to portray all criticisms of Obama, and anyone who does not support his candidacy, as racist.

And does anyone actually believe that if Obama were not half-black that he would be receiving the same level of support? He is in fact receiving overwhelming support from blacks, for the reason perhaps best expressed by Oprah. And he is receiving support from whites who clearly enjoy the cachet it confers on them.