Clinton-backer Ferraro: Obama Where He Is Because He's Black

I think this says it all: "Geraldine Ferraro's comments were uncalled for regardless if it's true or not."
Yes, don't speak the truth if it's politically incorrect. However people don't vote for political correctness, and they can scream "racism" when he loses. Suit yourself.

Obama for Vice President in 2008!

Geraldine is right but the media is not interested in truth. What white man could take 90% of the black vote in southern states against a Clinton, whose husband was called the first black president. Note that Obama does not win the working peoples vote.
Note also that the states he wins generally vote republican in the national elections. Isn't it ironic that republican states are trying to choose the democrat nominee.

This just goes to show we are not ready to really discuss race in this country. JFK is a silly comparison, he was rich and groomed in politics by a political family. Sexism is the real issue in this campaign. Maureen Dowd's op-ed piece in the NY Times about Clinton's "emotionalism" was perhaps the most sexist article ever published outside of fringe far-right publications. If a man had written that article it would never have been published. Ferraro was wrong, the country is not ready for this level of discussion, she should have known that as a white person she could not say what she said without being swiftboated.

If anyone can relate to Barack Obama's position, it should be Geraldine Ferraro whose own vice-presidential campaign was clearly hurt by the fact that she was a woman (as she perhaps hints at with the comment, 'he wouldn't be in this position...if he was a woman.'). As we can all see from his speech yesterday, Obama is taking the right approach to these comments of questionable integrity. Obama supporters should applaud Clinton's camp for using such questionable tactics; they're only going to help Barack in the end.

Ferraro's comment was not a racist one; it was an objective one. The fact is that a significant portion of Obama's support is derived from his message of "hope," which is inextricably tied to his own ability to have pulled himself up by the bootstraps in spite of his race. Obama is receiving an overwhelming amount of the black popular vote; I do not believe for one moment that 90% of black Americans in Mississippi firmly believe that Barack Obama is the best candidate regardless of race. They believe he is the best candidate, at least in significant part, specifically because of his race.

I do not want to discredit Obama's accomplishments. As a social worker, I firmly support his work as a community organizer and have a great deal of respect for that. However, being a community organizer and working in public defense does not mean that Obama is ready to lead our country in the White House, nor does it provide a better resume than his competitor's.

Senator Clinton has significantly more experience than Obama, and she has a history of fighting for the constituents of the Democratic party. I think this campaign just goes to show that sexism is as strong as ever in our country, and unfortunately the policy of affirmative action is playing out in the unfair way its opponents proclaim that it does. Obama is receiving a hand-up over Hillary Clinton, in spite of clear evidence that she is significantly more qualified to lead our country.

Okay. Geraldine. I'll take you up on your hypothesis. Let's do a portrait of an imaginary white guy, running for president, a young guy with not a lot of years of political experience in comparison to the stalwarts running his party. He is one of the more intelligent people in the race. He does have a lot of experience , but not the same kind as his opponents in the race for his party's nomination. He is a great orator and has developed almost a cult following.He connects with people with a simple message, but underlying that message is a broader understanding of his generation and where the country needs to go at home and abroad.
Yep..no doubt about it, the guy is going to lose. Wait! I forgot, I am so wrong. We've already elected that white guy-his name was John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Oh... right. No..I guess I was wrong. He only won because he was Irish-Catholic. I forgot.
And what will you say. You'll say "I knew John Kennedy and Barack Obama is no John Kennedy." And again your right. Barack would be better.

Ferraro is just another goon for The Clinton Campaign. They are trying to pull out reverse psychology here on the media too in yet another attempt to play the refs. Ferraro is hurt and appalled?...by comments that SHE made!!! The Obama Camp are trying to distract voters from issues with the race card?...SHE brought up the issue of race. You can't say "play fair and focus on the issues" in front of the camera, but take a cheap shot aimed at race as soon as the camera is off. We saw Samsntha Power resign for a comment much less offensive than this, yet Clinton simply "disagrees" with Ferraro's comments; much like an unknown "staffer" circulated a photo of Obama in African garb to try and convince voters he is Muslim, which according to the Clinton Camp is a bad thing; and, much like The Republican John McCain would make a better president than Obama.

What more does Clinton need to do to fall out of grace with Democrats and be portrayed in a more negative light? People keep waiting for Obama to slip up, yet it is the Clinton Camp that has slipped up 3 times now with the photo, the McCain comment, and now Ferraro. She is dividing the Democratic Party in order to convince people that she should be given an election that she has clearly lost.

This is hurting the Democratic Party and she needs to be stopped before she destroys it for her own benefit. Blacks make up a large portion of the party, and she is refusing to disown a comment that claims that it's easier to run for president being black than it is being white. How does she say now that Obama should be her VP when she has associated herself a comment that suggest that Obama's only qualifications are his speeches and his race? How does she win black votes now if she was to steal the nomination? How does she get anybody to endorse her with her message of racial division?

She is killing the Democratic Party by using the very thing that the party is against, racism. She needs to be stopped here, and the only thing that can stop her before she destroys the party is an endorsement from major party leaders in an attempt to re-unify the party. Al Gore, John Edwards, and Bill Richardson need to come out and endorse Obama and reject these comments and reject the tactics taken up by the Clinton Campaign or this party will be destroyed.

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.

Geraldine Ferraro's comments were uncalled for regardless if it's true or not. Sen. Obama has gotten this far due to his accomplishments,hard work, helpers, etc. Why would you make a racial based comment when your complaining of sexism toward H Clinton? A perfeshional being televised knows that there are just some things you shouldn't say out loud.

What is with all the women supporting Hillary to the bitter end? Don't any of them even realize how many women the Clintons have destroyed over the years? When Bill was done using a woman or got one that said no it was Hillary's job to destroy that woman's reputation and career and smear her in the press and Hillary always went at it with gusto. If you're going to be mad at someone for mistreating women, get mad at Hillary. At the very least she enabled Bill Clinton, for goodness' sake don't enable her. "Sister" my eye. The women who think Hillary is all that are getting used.

I subscribe to the Daily Breeze and read her entire interview -- what she said is true. Liberals give blacks a pass because they are afraid of being called racists, yet when blacks or other minorities say the same thing about whites, nothing is said. Ferraro is a liberal who has the guts to speak the truth, just as Bill Cosby is a black with the guts to speak the truth -- and both get slammed for it.

I subscribe to the Daily Breeze and read her entire interview -- what she said is true. Liberals give blacks a pass because they are afraid of being called racists, yet when blacks or other minorities say the same thing about whites, nothing is said. Ferraro is a liberal who has the guts to speak the truth, just as Bill Cosby is a black with the guts to speak the truth -- and both get slammed for it.

and H. Clinton...help me understand her 35 yrs. of experience oh wiat she gts credit for the debate team in college, sitting on her momma's lap at a civil rights meeting...wait no...they were repubs...first lady of Arkansas working on numerous initiatives, first lady of US and her failed Healthcare plan, 6 years in US Senate

that about sums it up

now...let's look at how qualified and experienced Bush was...

George Walker Bush born July 6, 1946) is the forty-third and current President of the United States of America. He previously served as the forty-sixth Governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000 and is the eldest son of former United States President George Herbert Walker Bush. He was inaugurated as President on January 20, 2001 and his current term is scheduled to end at noon on January 20, 2009.[4]

Barack Obama has dedicated his life to public service as a community organizer, civil rights attorney, and leader in the Illinois state Senate. Obama now continues his fight for working families following his recent election to the United States Senate.

Sworn into office January 4, 2005, Senator Obama serves on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which oversees our nation’s health care, schools, employment, and retirement programs. He is a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, which plays a vital role in shaping American policy around the world, including our policy in Iraq. And Senator Obama serves on the Veterans’ Affairs Committee, which is focused on providing our brave veterans with the care and services they deserve. In 2005 and 2006, he served on the Environment and Public Works Committee, which safeguards our environment and provides funding for our highways.

During his eight years in the Illinois state Senate, Obama worked with both Democrats and Republicans to help working families get ahead by creating programs like the state Earned Income Tax Credit, which in three years provided over $100 million in tax cuts to families across the state. Obama also pushed through an expansion of early childhood education, and after a number of inmates on death row were found innocent, Senator Obama enlisted the support of law enforcement officials to draft legislation requiring the videotaping of interrogations and confessions in all capital cases.

so 8 years in Illinois Senate and just about 5 years in US Senate.In 1991, Obama graduated from Harvard Law School where he was the first African American president of the Harvard Law Review.

yeah, he's totally not qualified to be President. Just like Kennedy wasn't qualified when he won or Abe Lincoln.

Ferraro wants gender to trump race in the hierarchy of oppression, well I have one better for her I'm black AND female so take that!Or did she forget that not all blacks are male and not all females are white?

I agree with Ferraro 100% - also voted for her way back in the good old days... when will women wake up and stand together for change!

My favorite Ferraro comment; "This has made me more commited to raising money (for Hillary). Yeah! I know what you mean sister!

If Obama were white, he would not be viewed as the "symbol" of hope all of his supporters bragged about. That is precisely what his skin color has provided some people. If he were white, it would have been okay to go into his record with fervor, but any attack is turned into being "bamboozled" or "racist". He's got that extra angle and he and Axelrod flash that card everytime they can whether it's ridiculous or not, just throw the accusation out there because some will buy it. The media definitely will run it, that's how they get an audience.

There is no way I think the majority of black voters know what Obama's plateform is.