In a measure of how uncomfortable female pols feel about targeting Ferraro, given her historic role as Veep, Obama's female surrogate on the call, Rep. Jan Schakowsky, stopped well short of demanding that she be removed.

Oh, that's just stupid.

Rep. Schakowsky: “Any and all remarks that diminish Sen. Obama’s candidacy because of his race are completely out of line.”

Strategist David Axelrod: “Offensive statement” reflects “an insidious pattern (in the campaign) that needs to be addressed.”

Separately, agrees with reporter that Clinton campaign’s Wolfson “has assumed a kind of junk-yard dog role in this campaign.”

Plus, says “there’s been a real inflation of credentials” about Clinton’s foreign policy role during the 1990s.

Howsabout this.....

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23571095/

Meh. This does nothing for me. Unless it's meant as theater of the absurd to show how stupid the denounce, reject and fire attacks are.

Hillary is desperate and increasingly delusional. Is she trying to set up McCain to win, thinking she can take another shot in 12 that way? Ferraro's effort to sow racial resentment reaches out to the worst aspects of America. Obama appeals to our better angels and that's why he's inspiring a movement for change. I believe that America is better than this. People aren't going to fall for Ferraro's cynical ploy and this kind of thing won't help Clinton/McCain. The national polls show that. Obama is by far the better GE candidate in head-to-head polling precisely because he believes in and is fighting to restore the American dream for everyone rather than cynically trying to exploit resentment and stereotypes.

I'm curious about the timing of the interview in question. If it was deliberately timed to coincide with late-deciding voters in Mississippi, then it could easily be a calculated attempt to boost Clinton's percentage of the white vote, which was going to be substantial anyway. Think about Clinton campaign behavior before other recent primaries in which playing the dog whistle/race card was part of the plan. Think about it: these despicable comments may HELP Clinton in Mississippi, and keep Obama below the threshold needed to have a commanding delegate win.

Yeah. Good point. How about it. What does this have to do with what ?

commenters, I encourage you all to listen to the audio when it's available. you'll see that Jan explicitly went out of her way to NOT name Ferraro in the section where she was being critical of such comments in a general way.

But no need to believe me, listen to the audio

BKinDaHouse, where would Hillary Clinton be if she weren't married to a President of the United States?

"What we have is unofficial results and they are not complete," said party spokesman Hector Nieto. "We won't know the official results until we have the senatorial and county conventions on March 29."

18 more days to go.........then we will finally find out who won the texas caucus.

ALL states should do away with caucuses they take to long to find out who won and they aren't fair....A caucus is not held during the general election so why should they be held during this process.

I think delegates should be done away too.....

I think popular vote is what should determine who the winner is....

It makes life easy and fair.

anyways Guam is the only other place that has a caucus all others will be primaries between know and June.

CNN is going to start talking about the mississppi results tonight around 6pm edt.....all polls in mississippi close at 8pm edt.

im glad to see this from team obama. they were playing defense for too many days.

You gotta love the sewer into which the Clinton campaign has chosen to take us all. Now this idiotic campaign is going to be nothing more than mindless tit-for-tatting and an uninterrupted stream of resignations from frustrated and boneheaded campaign advisers.

I'll ask again.

Would Obama have won as many delegates as he has without the 8-2 Collective Black Pride Vote?

Not to mention all the black super delegates climbing over themselves for a piece of pie.

At this rate, stupid surrogates will be enough to keep the media going for the next 7 weeks. Problem solved, I guess.

It's really sad when I read the same type of hate comments about Hillary as I've read in the past about George W Bush and Dick Cheney.

She's gotten her OWN PARTY to hate her almost as much as they hate Bush.

Who the F is using Obama's race to promote him??? He knows that's political suicide and has assiduously avoided injecting race into the campaign. The only people to do so are the Sinbadders, everyone from Bill (Jesse Jackson won SC) to now Ferraro.
Hillary is the only one to run on identity politics. Any assertion to the contrary is based on ignorance or deception. Period.

Haha, Kefa, you are pathetic. I absolutely LOVE how every time anyone points out that Hillary isn't as electable as Obama, or that Hillary is lying about an attack, or that Hillary doesn't actually have the experience that she says she has, one of you idiots, generally either you or Matthew Weaver always say "Rezko Rezko Rezko", even though it has been debunked, and even though Obama hasn't done anything wrong, he hasn't been implicated in anything, and Hillary and Bill have TONS more ethical dirty laundry that can be thrown right back at you. Seriously, get a clue. You can try to tear Obama down with your throwing stones from a glass house routine, but it isn't going to make your allegations any more true, and it isn't going to make your candidate suck any less. Face it, she is going down because she is the inferior candidate. Get used to it.

It sounds like Axelrod is beginning to get desperate. What precisely was wrong with what Ferraro said? It is simply a statement of fact.

Sen. Obama has used the black pride card to haul in 80% of the African-American vote. He actually invokes the language of Malcolm X in doing so, when he says that folks should not be misled into believing what white politicians (the Clintons) are saying.

BK,

What is your point. White men were for Edwards. Women are for Hillary. Black are for Obama.

Identity politics is a fact of American life. The difference is that Obama is not saying "Vote for me because I am black". Hillary on the other hand is openly playing the gender card.

Btw, if Obama wasn't black his support in the African American community would not be as high, however his support among Latinos would be much greater. Now, without the 3 to 1 advantage Hillary gains from Latinos (which is based largely on race) where would she be?

Why is it ok for Hillary to get votes due to Feminism and her last name but its wrong for Obama to get votes because of "black pride". Alan Keyes or Jesse Jackson never made it this far as Obama. So its more than him being black that got him votes from the black population.

so,Would Hillary have won as many delegates as she has without the Latino, Gender, Name recognition Vote

THIS IS EXCELLENT NEWS!! FOR HILLARY!!!

!!!HLLMENTUM™!!!!

BKindaHouse, why not STFU already. Why are older people overwhelmingly voting for Hillary(especially older white voters), or Women, or White people in general? See, two can play that game. People seem to forget that when AAs vote like 90% for democrats in the general election. You think they just like voting democratic in block or just maybe they prefer the the party on issues!

Funny enough, the % of AA voting for Barack started going up after the whole south carolina brouhaha. Maybe, just maybe AAs started preferring him to her as a candidate and not just cos he is black. This is not to say that a lot of AAs don't support him based on his race. A lot of Hillary's supporters probably do so cos she's a woman too. Bottomline, enough with using statistical correlations to make stupid political arguments.

Hillary won't do shit. She's expected to campaign dirty, she's expected to talk double speak, she's expected to move the goal posts.

Barack "fired" (resigned) Powers because he had the mantle of the hopeful feel good campaign. Some booed him for "caving" to Clinton. I say he did the right thing, he took away CLinton's bone that she could have chewed on. Powers can come back for the general if she wants she was a liability at the moment.

Hillary won't blink about Ferraro, she'll just spin, misdirect and obfuscate. And the media won't crucify her for it because she's living up to type. Which is excused cause it's a hard life for a female candidate and she has to make up for whatever percieved disadvantages the mean old media and male dominated society have foisted upone her. What I'd really like is for this Sinbad thing to get some traction. See him on a talk show maybe parodied on SNL or Daily Show or Colbert.

Good to see the GOP doesn't have exclusive rights to the racist bloc.

The Hillary camp hasn't rejected Ferraro's claims yet. Wow. An entire day of not responding.

Ferraro is a big player in the Clinton Camp.

They send her to represent them on PBS Newshour last week.

She told of how big a role she played in helping them organize in Florida.

The Clinton Camp demanded that Samantha Power be removed from the Obama campaign. Ms. Ferraro is guilty of blatant racism, and should be removed from the Clinton Camp. Time for Hillary to do as she says: Reject and Denounce Racist Ferraro Now, Self Righteous Hillary!

I cannot BELIEVE Ferraro even said that out loud; she isn't even trying to HIDE her blatant racism. She's disgusting.
And all Hillary says is "we disagree with her"? But she whined and cried about someone called her a name? Clinton is a loathesome creature. She should have ripped Ferraro a new one publicly and fired her.
I never realized how hideous the Clintons really were until this campaign. Repulsive.

"I have a dream that one day my children will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character".

MLK, Jr.

Though I was too young to understand it at the time it is easy to see how the Democrats suffered the biggest blowout in Presidential politics with her as the VP canidate.

democratICnproud,

Obama's campaign is historic not because he is black, but because he is the first candidate in ages that people feel that they are voting for, not just against the other guy.

He grew to prominence not because of the color of his skin but because he gave one hell of a speech at the Democratic National Convention that echoed the feelings of a nation. He maintains his standing because with a million individual donors he has no campaign bundlers to repay. He is the best shot America has had in a great while to change the way Washington is run.

On the other hand Hillary is historic because she is a woman and married to a former president. That's it. No one is doing back flips for Hillary because of her failed attempt at universal health care.

If you were to grade Clinton and Obama solely on there actions and character, it is no contest. It is really telling that the best defense that I keep hearing for Hillary is that she is not to be blamed. That is the way things have always been done.

Truly pathetic.

It's not just this.

Ferraro lost my respect with this piece:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/25/opinion/25ferraro.html

Key quote:

"These superdelegates, we reasoned, are the party’s leaders. They are the ones who can bring together the most liberal members of our party with the most conservative and reach accommodation. They would help write the platform. They would determine if a delegate should be seated. They would help determine the rules. And having done so, they would have no excuse to walk away from the party or its presidential nominee.

It worked. In 1984 I headed the party’s platform committee. We produced the longest platform in Democratic history, a document that stated the party’s principles in broad terms that neither the most liberal nor the most conservative elected officials would denounce. It generated no fights at the convention. It was a document that no one would walk away from. We lost in 1984, big time."

Yes, Ferraro helped stop party-infighting, and cost us several election, including 1984s.

Maybe the Democratic party should stop pursuing failing strategies, and start trying new ones?

I watched "The Godfather" the other night, and in the scene where Sonny explains to his father why the gang war began he says: "They hit us, we hit 'em back." Sounded like a 5-year-old. Which is what it sounds like when one side "demands" that the other side get rid of one of its own; like that will end the warfare.

Sorry, folks: I'm tired of the underlings being tossed overboard at the first sign of trouble. My suggestion is that if one sign has a problem with a soldier on the other side, then don't demand that person be ditched. Just raise a fuss about what that person did. If it sticks, the other side will have to ditch that person because they'll have become a distraction from "the message of the campaign."

That way, both campaigns can presumably return to their messages.

Ferraro: Helping dems lose elections since 1984.

Now, before everyone gets upset, I think it's GREAT that she ran as a female VP. I really, really do. And Reagan was going to be tough to beat anyway.

BUT: It's the Superdelegate rules she vouches for that cost Hart the nomination, despite actually leading in the popular vote, that cost Hart the nomination. (Hart won sixteen state primaries and caucuses to Mondale's ten).

But the Superdelegates had already decided Mondale was going to be the nominee.

On one hand, the Obama camp has pushed his "blackness" as a reason to vote for him--even criticizing Saturday Night Live for portraying him with a "non-black" actor (not even complaining that the actor was white, just not black)--so, in a way, they have to accept that he wouldn't be where he is if he weren't black. Of course, there's a lot of racial politics in this country; Latinos are less likely to vote for you if you're black, blacks are more likely, etc., so "not where you are" isn't the same thing as "not having accomplished what you have accomplished."

On the other hand, this was an incredibly insensitive remark from a woman who, by virtue of having been a VP nominee, is seen as one of the leaders of the Democratic Party. If Ferraro would reflect a moment, she should apologize.

I think the Clintons should definitely keep Ferraro.

Like an albatross around the neck. Better yet, have her amplify and clarify her "insights" throughout the media!

Now THAT sentiment KenM1 is pathetic. If the treasury had a dollar for every reference of Obama to the newest JFK or RFK we would have a surplus! Not being unique, just the lastest..... Remember, the first step to recovery is for you to stop being in denial about the basic facts of your candidate's camnpaign and that his unique claim to history is that he IS the first black man to be a viable candidate for the leadership of our country. Why do you feel there is something wrong with that fact?

It's not true that only the Clinton's are bringing up race in this campaign. Did you miss Orlando Patterson's op-ed in today's NY Times, where he made the suggestion that the 3am ad was actually trying to trigger the fear that we can't have a black man entrusted to care for the nation's white children. The author adds that the inclusion of children of color in the ad would have taken race out of the equation. As is turns out, there is an African-American child in the ad. And we all know the ad is a Mondale copy-cat ad meant to attack only the "Commander in Chief" question. I've also seen in the blogshere a lot of weird suggestion that the 3am ad subliminally used "nig" on a child's nightgown. Obviously, it reads "good night" and is from stock footage. I also find it interesting that Obama is characterizing Hillary's suggestion that the two would make a good unity ticket (with her on the top, naturally) as just an attempt to "hoodwink" and "bamboozle" voters. Is that not racially charged?

The sad truth is that this nomination process is revealing the strong divisions we still have in this country along race and gender lines -- not to forget class. Both have cried fowl. I do believe the MSM has been overtly sexist in its coverage of Hillary and that the general public is more apt to allow that sort of nastiness. (Hence the "Iron my shirt" placards, which engendered nearly nil outrage...even though "Shine my shoes" placards would have rightly so created a national outrage.)

So it's true that Ferraro has made some weird and inappropriate comments. But the title of this piece assumes that Ferraro is a paid member of Hillary's campaign. She is not. And meanwhile, I'm sure the Obama campaign is just delighting in that goof because it gives them more ammo with which to fan the racial flames. They did it in South Carolina and it's happening again.

I don't give a flying flip if Mrs. Clinton is or is not a white woman, whether she's gay or straight, what kind of car she drives, or how she likes her favorite beverage. It simply does not matter.

I am supporting Mr. Obama because he is the best candidate of the two, not because of his race or gender.

But old school politics are what the Clintons are good at, so the sad saga continues.

You know I have to admit that the Orlando Patterson piece was pretty stupid. You see, Obama people are not under some hypnotic spell. We'll call a foul no matter who does it.

The thing is that the facts have had a pretty anti-Hillary bias as of late. We are just pointing them out.

It feels really naive -- considering our country's history -- to say that race and gender simply don't matter in our choices. As Ferarro later tries to explain, she knows that she would not have been selected as a VP had she not been a woman. Did that make her unqualified, she continued, no it didn't. But she knows that her gender contributed to the excitement surrounding her selection. I am beyond thrilled that we have an African American and a woman to choose between. I think race, gender, and class create unique experiences in this country that contribute to one's approach to policy and governing. Both of these candidates are exceptional. I think Hillary is the stronger candidate for the job right now. That she is so qualified and is also a woman makes me so incredibly proud to vote for her. Should Obama be our nominee, that he is so qualified and also and African American will make me so proud to vote for him in November. We're kidding ourselves if we say race and gender don't matter. And I think in November we'll feel it if we don't heal these wounds...and a disenfranchised-feeling portion of Dem voters don't turn out to vote. These two candidates, in many (though not all) ways, are splitting down race, class, and gender lines. That's a reality we need to deal with and discuss without being called racist or sexist at every turn. Stop attacking Ferarro.