Geraldine Ferraro’s Disappointing And Dumb Race Gaffe
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in 2008 Election, Barack, Democrats, Gender, Hillary, RaceThis was not the former VP nominee’s best day…
“If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position,” she continued. “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.”
Obviously this is disappointing, but here’s why it’s also dumb…it’s just as easy to say that if Hillary hadn’t been First Lady during the most popular Dem Presidency in the last 30 years, she wouldn’t be in the her current position either. How many Hillary supporters have you heard say, “I really think we need a woman President.” So Ferraro’s assertion fails on multiple fronts.
And frankly, I think if Obama were white he’d still be in a good position. Maybe he wouldn’t be ahead, but somebody with Obama’s ability to communicate the need for real change is a powerful thing, and strong messages delivered passionately will always resonate with voters, regardless of what type of skin that person has. I look to Mark Warner as an example of somebody who may have been that guy had he decided to keep going. But maybe he saw that in Obama and thought he was a better harbinger of the change message. (By the way, I still think Warner would make one hell of a VP candidate for Obama.)
Also, let’s look a bit deeper into the idea of race for a moment. Maybe if Obama were white, more lower income whites would vote for him. After all, Hillary’s whiteness may help her in ways her campaign wouldn’t like to admit.
Still, getting back to Ferraro, she needs to be reprimanded and/or forced to leave the campaign. There’s no room for talk like that in this debate. Let’s hope the Clinton campaign does the right thing.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 11th, 2008 and is filed under 2008 Election, Barack, Democrats, Gender, Hillary, Race. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
March 11th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
I think there is a substantial chunk of people backing Obama based on his race. It’s something of an elephant (donklephant?) in the living room.
March 11th, 2008 at 3:36 pm
Death and stupidity…………
March 11th, 2008 at 3:42 pm
This is classic HRC/Bill. anything goes to win. It’s pathetic that a great company has put politicians and RACISTS like Ms. Ferraro and Ms. Feinstein in positions of power. Woe are the women in the US who lect these imbeciles. india, Sri Lanka, Israel and even pakistan have had women premiers because there people voted based on capability rather than gender or race.
We in the US deserve better than these smaill-minded politicians.
March 11th, 2008 at 4:02 pm
Compared to Jesse Jackson, Muslim Talk,drug addict black man, 60 minutes interview “as far as I know”, kenya photo, and now this… there is no question about who is injecting race as a divisive issue in this campaign…Another disgusting ploy by the Clinton Campaign…. I will never vote for this so called “woman”
March 11th, 2008 at 4:15 pm
It seems to me she’s alleging some kind of affirmative action by zeitgeist. I don’t know if you can separate Obama’s appeal from his race — I mean, we can assume that if Obama were white he wouldn’t be winning such a high percentage of the black vote. It’s also arguable that his post-partisan image is more salient because of his race. Thus, it’s conceivable that a white man who had done and said the same things as Obama wouldn’t have gotten as far. Then again, John Edwards got pretty far in 2004 with an equally slim if not even slimmer record — so I think the point is ultimately unpersuasive.
But I don’t think Ferraro was looking to have a deep, unbiased discussion on the matter. I think she found a very clumsy way to point out the Clinton theme of “Obama is inexperienced.” I don’t know if it’s racist so much as it’s stupid. As far as I know she has no record of overt racism.
March 11th, 2008 at 4:24 pm
I certainly don’t think what she said was racist, and I don’t she’s racist in the least. But what she said was definitely racial. And given my point about Hillary, I think any of her surrogates need to stay far, far, far away from engaging in any “he’s popular because he’s black” discussion. Because a very similar “zeitgeisty” thing can be said about her.
March 11th, 2008 at 5:30 pm
It’s a form of racism that those on the outside don’t find racist. It’s subtle bigotry no matter how you look at it - and it’s wrong. People of that age range can’t seem to help it - or so it seems. On TV Pat Buchanan and his sister Bay, Chris Mathews, they are the same “cut”. Could it be the subtle bigotry of early baby boomer’s educated in the Catholic tradition?
March 11th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
Agree completely with everything in Justin’s post, but think there is an overlooked aspect of this. Comments like Geraldine Ferraro and Gloria Steimans and Diane Feinstein (and even Tina Fey) point to the hard core idealistic passionate support that is Hillary Clinton’s base. The feminists and professional women who were there and fought the good fight against real sexism in the 60’s and 70’s.
Conventional wisdom is that if Clinton wins the nomination, dispirited Obama supporters will not support her, but if Obama wins the nomination, he will get all the Clinton supporters. Conventional wisdom is that Obama’s support comes from passionate idealism and Clintons support is all cynical party machinations. Conventional wisdom is wrong on both counts.
There is an equal core of idealistic passionate support for Clinton, and it is women like these, who - right or wrong - believe that this is their time - their one shot to see a culmination of a lifetime of struggle for women’s rights - and have a sense of entitlement in this race. The depth of the passion comes out in moments like this, and sometimes - not in a good way.
That said - the nastiness directed at Hillary Clinton across the blogosphere, even this blog, even this comment thread, is far far worse and far outweighs anything that has been said about Obama by Hillary’s core supporters.
March 11th, 2008 at 6:01 pm
Where’s that straight jacket when you need it?
http://osi-speaks.blogspot.com/2008/03/geraldine-ferraro-if-i-had-brain.html#links
March 11th, 2008 at 6:30 pm
mw, respectfully, you need to look harder. From Taylor Marsh to Big Tent Democrat, the salvos launched at Obama have been far more dishonest than those launched at Hillary. The “messiah” meme? The drug thing? The list goes on, and on, and on…
Listen, you know me to be a reasonable guy, so trust that the reason I went against Hillary in the first place is because of those attacks. I’ve followed them and I’ve posted about them. They’re well documented.
Oh, one more thing…
If you follow this statement to its logical conclusion, then why didn’t Jesse Jackson make a much more serious run for the White House? And the African American population made up an even bigger percentage of the minority population back then.
I stand by my previous statement, a “white” Obama with a message of post-partisanship would be doing extremely well in a year like this. In fact, he may have even put Hillary away earlier.
March 11th, 2008 at 6:42 pm
Just to follow up on how hollow the idea that race is helping Obama, take a look at the CNN exit polls from Mississippi…
Mississippi is not known for being a very racially progressive state, so my guess is his lack of support among Democrats who vote for Hillary isn’t necessarily about a lack of experience.
March 11th, 2008 at 8:50 pm
When Ferraro ran for VP she was very sensitive about being singled out for scrutiny because of her Italian ancestry, especially when it came to an investigation of her campaign finances.
Funny, Hillary still hasn’t released her financial statement has she?
Is it because he is black that Mr. Obama has no trouble raising millions over the internet and can be transparent about his finances?
No, it is because he is a true leader.
Is it because there is indeed a latent racism in the Clinton campaign that Mrs. Clinton cannot only officially disavow and repudiate Mrs. Ferraro’s comments but also distance herself from Mrs. Ferraro completely?
Perhaps.
March 11th, 2008 at 8:58 pm
Would someone PLEASE call Ferraro out for her awful grammar? It’s “If Obama WERE white,” not “If Obama WAS white.” Didn’t she go to elementary school?
Also, I can remember a time not too long ago when pundits were suggesting to the public that it wouldn’t be fair to these two great candidates to pigeonhole them by their race and gender. But the candidates themselves, our would-be leaders, are now slipping
I’m not such an Obama supporter that I’m even sure if I’ll vote for him in November, but I’ve come to loathe the Clintons for degrading this whole election cycle. It’s just become cheap and dirty and somewhat stupid– I mean, come on, how many people are really voting for Obama out of white guilt or black pride? Hillary hopes that this number is lower than the Bigot Vote she can incite to the voting booth by playing on white racial resentment. Too bad for citizens who were hoping to hear about issues and solutions to the many dire problems we face.
Hopefully all this racial, generational and gender chauvinism that is oozing out into the public arena will have the ultimate benefit of giving this country some much needed catharsis, but in the meantime, YUCK!
A charismatic speaker runs on a platform of bridging divides and the best response Clinton can muster is to cry like a girl and then figure out how to slip in as many subtle racial slurs as she can without going “too far?” She’s not just “keeping the black man down,” she’s keeping EVERYONE down.
I’m in favor of evolution.
March 12th, 2008 at 11:47 am
I agree with Ms. Ferraro–some people support Obama in part because of what they perceive his mixed race will allow his to accomplish as President. That’s voting for someone because of race–and whether it’s white, black or other, that’s racism. Ferraro’s comments were politically incorrect (heaven forbid) but not racist.
March 12th, 2008 at 3:02 pm
[...] literally can’t believe she’s continuing to go out there, defending her gaffe and trying to spin it as reverse racism. Well, I can believe it if you think she’s trying to [...]
May 29th, 2008 at 4:26 pm
Racism vs Racial Resentment? Geraldine Farraro coins new phrase. What do you think?
I invite you to read my most recent post on this subject at: http://sojournersplace.blogspot.com/2008/05/not-racism-but-racial-resentment.html
SjP