Ferraro: "They're attacking me because I'm white"

[peacebird]

Source: CNN

"CNN) -- Geraldine Ferraro defended her controversial comment that Sen. Barack Obama's campaign was successful because he was black, telling an interviewer Tuesday that she was being attacked because she was white.

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," she told the Daily Breeze of Torrance, California. "Racism works in two different directions. I really think they're attacking me because I'm white. How's that?"

In another interview Tuesday, she compared Obama's situation to her own 24 years ago, when she was the first female candidate for vice president.

She told a FOX News interviewer, "I got up and the question was asked, 'Why do you think Barack Obama is in the place he is today" as the party's delegate front-runner?

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/03/11/ferraro.comments/index.html

---

Wow. Just wow....

[Marie26]

1. NO, you're being attacked because you're racist. nt

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

19. And stupid.

[Born Free]

43. Not Stupid...

They know central Pa has many racists, skin heads, kkk etc.- many right wing nut jobs and they are betting many of them will switch from republican to democrat to help Hilliary beat Obama in the upcoming Pennsylvania primary.These individuals will eat this stuff up, they love anything that is decisive. No they will not vote for Hilliary or Obama in the general election, these individuals would never vote for either of them, but they will do everything they can to stop them. It's disgusting that Hilliary would go after their vote in the primary, but I guess she is the type that will do anything to win. There was a time when I didn't care who won, but every day I grow more and more angry at the Clinton campaign.

[PA Democrat]

44. I hate to admit that you are right.

I live in a PA county that voted for Bush in both 2000 and 2004, and racism is quite apparent here. In my son's high school Government class, kids made comments such as "black people expect to have everything handed to them." And these are high school students, so the problem isn't going away any time soon.

[coalition_unwilling]

51. What do you expect from a yellow-dog Democrat from Arkansas? I mean,

really, up until 1964, the Democratic Party in the South was as racist if not more so than the Repukes. Yeah, Nixon's 'Southern Strategy' may have temporarily reversed things. But the Clintons are masters at using racism to appeal to voters, all the while denying they (Clintons)are racist. It's the politics of innuendo, typified by HilBilly's response to the recent question of whether she thinks Obama is a Muslim: "As far as I know he's not . . .".

Note that anti-Islamic racism is just as offensive as anti-Black racism or anti-semitism.

People like HilBilly and Ferraro make me seriously question why I have consistently voted Dem since 1980.

[Uncle Joe]

57. A couple of minor quibbles with your post.

1. The term hilbilly or hillbilly is offensive to some people in itself, when used as a derogatory reference to people living in the hills in general or the South specifically.

2. I'm not saying the South doesn't have racists by any stretch or even that Hillary Clinton is a racist, as I far as I know she's not, but wasn't Hillary Clinton originally from Illinois?

[coalition_unwilling]

58. Gee, if people are offended by the word "HilBilly" (with its obvious

play on words of Hillary and Bill's names), they ought to be really offended that HilBilly couldn't summon up the character to state definitively that Obama wasn't a Muslim. Instead, it's that constant Clintonian innuendo . . . "As far as I know . . . but I could be wrong. Gee, you never know " Not quite as bad as using the N-word about Obama but then, the Clintonian strategy is to use racism while appearing not to be racist.

Hillary is constantly touting her 35 years' "experience". Most of that experience (for what it's worth which ain't much) came while she was first lady in Arkansas (a decidedly southern state) and in the years prior to that while working at the Little Rock law firm . She's a classic 'yellow-dog' Democrat and it really doesn't matter where she's from originally, imho.

[Uncle Joe]

59. And since 2000

she's been a Senator from New York.

Also, I can't help wonder if the play on their names would've materialized had they been from and or governed in Connecticut or Massachusetts for example?

The upshot of what I'm trying to say, is that I believe you're defeating you're on purpose, while I agree with your sentence below, I contend the same is true for regionalism. I recall a scene from a PBS special on the life of Martin Luther King telecast last year, as he marched through Chicago and racists set off firecrackers to scare them, MLK said he was more afraid there than he ever was in the South, later he would amend it to being a tie with Mississippi.

“Note that anti-Islamic racism is just as offensive as anti-Black racism or anti-semitism.”

[coalition_unwilling]

64. You're referring to MLK's march through Skokie Illinois in the

campaign for economic justice (post-1964), I believe.

As the historian C. Vann Woodward amply demonstrated in "The Strange Career of Jim Crow," racism and Jim Crow laws were alive and well in the North at the same time as in the South (or even earlier, if memory of Woodward's book serves correctly.)

And, for the record, I have very little use for the South any more. I grew up in southwest Missouri (northern fringe of the Bible Belt), so I feel singularly well qualified to comment on people who come out of that area of the country and their genteel (and not-so-genteel) racism, having witnessed it first-hand many times while growing up.

[Uncle Joe]

65. I suppose the same logic could be applied

with Christians who had bad experiences with people of Islamic or Jewish faith, or whites; who had bad experiences with blacks.

For example, I recall when Rodney King was abused and beaten by the police, later during the riots a white truck driver with no connection to the incident was dragged from his truck and almost beaten to death.

Personally I don't believe any single individual in spite of their personal experiences can pass judgment on a race, religion or region, with the exception of extremely rare examples. I could understand for example why people who survived the holocaust would feel bitterness to the German People in general, of course even in that example, there were cases of people bucking the trend such as Oscar Schindler.

I believe to write off any region of the nation or the world is the equivalent of tying one hand behind your back in a fight to the death. I also believe that ultimately humanity can rise above it's most base instincts if given the chance, to do otherwise would condemn us to eternal division, which of course the forces of evil would only magnify and use for their own power driven agenda.

[BearSquirrel2]

73. Chicago was so segregated ...

Chicago was a city so segregated that demographers had to invent a new term for it "hyper-segregation". You can bet Boss Daley enforced this. When Harold Washington was elected mayor, people phone in to talk shows asking if they were going to tear out the elevators and install vines in their place.

I'd like to think things are much better now. But I know full well that Barack Obama became a community activist for a reason. I also suspect that the next mayor of Chicago will be a black man because Daley Jr. will not be giving up that job and he cannot move upward (except perhaps to prison).

[BearSquirrel2]

72. Let me chime in ...

I originally used the term "Hilly-Billy" because it rhymed with both Hillary and Hillbilly. As in they ain't got much learnin' up in them dar' hills. The fact that Bill's name appeared there didn't even occur to me.

I would like to apologize to Hillbillies for comparing them to ardent pig-headed Hillary supporters who seem bent on tearing the party apart.

BTW, Hillary was a Goldwater Girl!!! I'm just reminding people that the apple doesn't fall that far from the tree.

[fascisthunter]

2. Keep On Diggin' Lady (nt)

[LittleClarkie]

3. When did her little red choo choo go around the bend exactly

Good grief.

[Warpy]

11. Around the bend? Jumped the tracks!

Good grief. I guess it's nice to be a first. You just don't want another first to steal your thunder, not that she's had much of that in recent years.

Her remark was intemperate at best, disgusting at worst.

[jgraz]

26. 1988

That's when she first used this racist meme.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x5028671

[thunder rising]

4. don't have to shut up ... retract the remarks with an apology and resignation.

[DesertFlower]

6. even if she retracts the remarks,

everyone knows that she said it.

[grannylib]

5. And how is Obama's racial background in any way connected to

"the problems we're having in this world" - ?
That, to me, is the more inflammatory statement.

[skypilot]

77. I JUST posted about that farther down in this thread.

That statement jumped right out and punched me in the face.

[grannylib]

78. Great minds, eh? I thought that was just too snarky/sneaky/sly/

shitheaded for words.

[Canuckistanian]

7. Ferraro was NEVER the charismatic figure that Obama was

She was rejected because she was ordinary. Non-controversial. Dare I say, BORING.

I remember her campaign just barely.

I kept falling asleep.

[skipos]

8. I guess I am a white person who is racist against whites

Who woulda thunk it?

[Bicoastal]

9. Gee, why didn't Bush use that argument after the Katrina controversy?

He should have just said--"Everyone who dislikes me must be black. Ergo, they're the racist ones, not me!"

[CountAllVotes]

10. no one is attacking you Ferraro

you lady are a loser just like the woman you are campaigning for. Get over it!

:kick:

[NC_Nurse]

12. She and Dr. Laura should get together. They apparently live in the same

alternate universe. :crazy:

[struggle4progress]

24. Ferraro was NEVER anything like Dr. Hatemonger

[NC_Nurse]

25. I was just thinking that they both said pretty weird things today.

I don't really know much about Ferraro, but she didn't impress me with her statement.

[struggle4progress]

32. She's long past her prime and no longer mentally fast enough for a national campaign

Communicating in a national campaign is an exacting craft, and Ferraro hasn't practiced that art for decades

Of course, you shouldn't be impressed with what she said: she swallowed her foot up to the knee in a context where she has no chance to explain in detail whatever she was really trying to say

But she was certainly never on my list of enemies when she was in the House or working for human rights in the UN

[Faygo Kid]

13. This is sad. It could be age. Maybe we ought to lay off.

Hillary is never going to unconditionally condemn these statements, but she will hang Ferraro out to dry. That's how she does it.

Hell, I am no youngster, but Geraldine is not young. I don't believe she is a racist. Let her go. The Clintons will deal with her. They always do.

[struggle4progress]

21. Agree 100%. Ferraro did great work in her day. But she's gotten too slow for campaigning now

[skids]

37. kos points out she did it in 1988 too.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/3/11/21956/1233/291/474642

[struggle4progress]

40. It would be nice to have the full quote. I was supporting Jackson in 1988 and was

(in the manner that finally became all too familiar to me) ripping out my hair over the surprisingly limited range of allowable opinion in American politics

In 1988, Jackson was far too "radical" by the standards of the American political establishment -- and I think he remains so today. I have never considered him an extremist but certainly my support for him in 1988 did not involve any real expectation that he would be the party's nominee. Though he was active on the road talking to real people about real issues, Jackson actually did not get much coverage as a candidate by mainstream media: he was marginalized much as Edwards was marginalized twenty years later

Without seeing the full 1988 Ferraro quote, in context, I really do not feel particularly inclined to slander the woman as a racist: she may have simply been trying to say that almost anyone who spoke as Jackson did, would have been dismissed immediately by the political establishment (an accurate assessment, though not at all reflecting poorly on Jackson), and she may have described accurately why the media cracked slightly to allow Jackson any coverage at all. In other words, it seems entirely possible to me that Ferraro in 1988 was making an accurate observation about the political behavior of the US media

Incidently, I'll happily vote for either Clinton or Obama, though right now I'm leaning slightly towards Obama. The sort of accusation you post will have zilch impact on my views, though I think you do a disservice to the Party by running this nasty crap up the flagpole

[coalition_unwilling]

52. Hello there fellow Jackson 1988 supporter. I walked precincts for

Jackson in the 1988 Wisconsin primary in Madison (which Jackson lost). Then walked precincts for Dukakis in the general election. Jackson was the first political figure to actually get me excited enough about politics to get involved.

[MadMaddie]

14. Yawn.....what a bore.

Hillary should get rid of her if she even want's to think about the black vote.

So I guess in Ferraro's eye's any black in America who has worked their ass off to achieve success is only because they recieved preferential treatment.

It's one thing to get on an even playing field because of EEOC but it is another to not sit on our asses and wait for handouts. Obama didn't sit on his has just as many other successful African Americans didn't sit on their asses.

The longer that Hillary holds onto Geraldine Ferraro you can start subtracting minority and other voters.

[Cassandra]

15. Spitzer should send Ferraro a bouquet of roses...

not as a come on but to thank her for dominating so much of the news cycle.

[Baby Snooks]

16. White and an idiot

Not sure she is a racist so much as she is an idiot.

[bluestateguy]

17. I was looking in the dictionary for a definition of the word "pathetic", and I found this picture

[roseBudd]

23. The superdelegates picked that guy to be the nominee?

[struggle4progress]

42. Voted for Reagan in 84, eh?

[bluestateguy]

45. That would have been hard for me

I was 8.

[struggle4progress]

60. So tho y'weren't payin attention t'politics in 84, y'wanna call my candidates from then "pathetic"?

[bluestateguy]

61. Yes. When they lose in a 49 state landslide, I feel fairly comfortable making that statement

Mondale was the candidate of grabby "me, me, me" interest groups, the party establishment, no charisma, don't say anything that will offend the "groups" and he had the political acumen of a broken shopping cart.

[struggle4progress]

63. For someone who can't really remember that campaign, y'sure know all th'wingnut talkin points

[Alexander]

66. What part of "We should've nominated Gary Hart instead" do you not understand?

HARRIS POLL FINDS HART IN A TIE WITH REAGAN

http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F70E1EF73C5C0C708DDDAD0894DC484D81

"A mid-March Gallup poll backed up his claim, showing that Hart would beat Reagan, 49% to 47%, while Mondale would lose, 52% to 44%."

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,951038-3,00.html

For someone who claims to remember that campaign, you sure forget who our best candidate was. :eyes:

[struggle4progress]

79. Great! DU can create a separate GD:Primaries forum for every election year back to 1980

so old geezers can continuously enjoy the enmity of bitter elections long past!

[BearSquirrel2]

74. That makes you think ...

That really makes you think that maybe the party establishment doesn't know as much as they think they do. It's a bad idea to overturn the most important poll there is, the vote.

There are certain lessons here for Hillary supporters.

[ReformedChris]

62. YIKES, taking the lumber to a solid guy like Mondale? Think Gary Hart had a chance against Reagan?

Or how about John Glenn? The 84 election was a monster for the Democrats to overcome in the first place. Reagan had momentum on his side. Mondale was a damn solid midwestern democrat and was a very good Democratic Senator. He turned around the office of Vice President and made it into a more important role other then a ceremonial spot. He was brutally honest about taxes, attacked Reagan on the issues, and outside of the age comment, debtated Reagan solidly. Taking on RayGun in 84 would have been nearly impossible for any democrat to overcome.

[Alexander]

67. Several polls showed Hart beating Reagan - and Mondale losing to him.

HARRIS POLL FINDS HART IN A TIE WITH REAGAN

http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F70E1EF73C5C0C708DDDAD0894DC484D81

"A mid-March Gallup poll backed up his claim, showing that Hart would beat Reagan, 49% to 47%, while Mondale would lose, 52% to 44%."

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,951038-3,00.html

Guess what happened? We nominated Mr. Unelectable, and he lost. Badly.

In a way, 2008 is like a repeat of 1984 - only with Clinton and Obama playing the Mondale and Hart roles.

Both Clinton and Mondale were supported by the party establishment and special interest groups, have zero charisma, have taken rightward positions on issues related to national defense, are associated with the previous presidential administration, and have been shown losing to the Republican nominee (in his 70s) in nearly every poll.

Obama and Hart are party insurgents, have decidedly more charisma, ran in their 40s, ran to the left of the people they challenged, had less experience than the people they challenged, and have been shown beating the Republican nominee in nearly every poll.

The similarities even ring true in terms of endorsements - Mondale and Ferraro support Clinton, while Gary Hart supports Obama. In both contests the superdelegates have been the deciding factor.

Hopefully the superdelegates won't repeat the mistake of 1984.

[JeanGrey]

18. Geraldine, SHUT UP. You are digging your way through

to another continent...............for god's sake what is going on here? Is she being paid by the other side?

[sharp_stick]

20. She really should just STFU

For christ's sake lady you used to have a legacy. My mother simply adored you, and now you're digging this hole that's about to swallow every bit of dignity you have. This is just fucking pathetic.

[rateyes]

22. Gerri, you've lost your fucking mind.

Go away.

[jgraz]

27. No, she hasn't. This is a calculated statement

And she's done it before.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x5028671

[rateyes]

29. Then she lost it years ago.

Sad.

[coalition_unwilling]

53. Of course it's a calculated play to white racists in PA. Probably fully

endorsed by HilBilly in their secret councils.

HilBilly's new strategy: bloody up Obama enough so he loses in 2008, so HilBilly is positioned for 2012.

HilBilly: what despicable specimens of the human race.

[Jackpine Radical]

28. Ya gotta admit, whites have been elevating blacks for a long time...

http://www.digitaljournalist.org/issue0309/lm18.html

[IsItJustMe]

31. Disturbing picture

[Jackpine Radical]

34. Disturbing reality.

And it happened in Indiana in 1930. Not the deep South, not 1870.

[rocktivity]

30. No, Gerry--they're COUNTER-attacking you

because you attacked Obama for being black!

:headbang:
rocknation

[IndianaGreen]

33. Ferraro is channeling Brent Bozell

What is piece of shit has she turned out to be. If I could, I would take back that vote I cast for Mondale/Ferraro.

[RaleighNCDUer]

35. No, dearie,

they're attacking you because you're an ass.

[shanti]

36. geraldine, shut your pie hole!

:eyes: good grief this is beyond pitiful....

[GOPNotForMe]

38. Is she demented? My goodness.... nt

[bobthedrummer]

39. There is a rainbow coalition of racists/eugenicists, just as sure as there are universal fascists.

[TML]

41. Geraldine...

Racist and stupid is no way to go through life.

[noamnety]

46. A couple days ago somebody asked about being called a liberal

and how it made us feel. My answer was: "Generally I'm not too happy with that label any more. The further left you slide, the more "liberal" denotes a lot of kinda DLCish policies and "colorblind" attitudes that uphold institutional racism, sexism, and economic imperialism."

---------
I'm hoping that answer - particularly the part about liberals often being "colorblind" in a way that upholds racism - makes more sense in the context of Ferraro's remarks here.

[Lex Talionis]

47. Man, it just keeps getting better and better. n/t

[indio55555]

48. BOOOHAHAHAHAHHAHA....

Keep talking... is everyone taking notes.

[Medusa]

49. Well there's another person I now have zero respect for

disgusting

[Spazito]

50. Despicable, absolutely despicable comments by Ferraro

and the fact that the Clinton campaign is NOT doing anything to distance themselves from this is also despicable, imo. For the Clinton campaign to shrug and say, "I disagree with her" is a wink and a nod TO Ferraro to continue to spout her racist views.

Unbelievable.

[coalition_unwilling]

54. HilBilly's 2008 strategy: bloody Obama up enough so he loses in

the general election and HilBilly positioned to run in 2012.

[Spazito]

55. Whatever the Clinton campaign's motivation in exacerbating..

the racial divide along with using the "fear" tactics reminiscent of the bush campaign, it is despicable. I used to have the highest regard for the Clintons, flaws and all, because I believed their intent was to good, to make their country better but this campaign has shown me how naive I was.

[coalition_unwilling]

56. HilBilly will do anything to "win". If she can't win in 2008, she'll do

everything in her power to cause Obama to lose (endorsing McLame's putative experience over Obama comes to mind as the most recent tactic in that regard). Her longer term strategy is to undermine Obama in the general election (a la Humphrey re McGovern in 1972), so as to improve her chances in 2012.

While one might admire the Machiavellian evil implicit in such a strategy, I happen to believe Obama is a wonderful human being, as opposed to the despicable specimen of the human race that HilBilly has shown herself to be, starting with her vote to kill 1,000,000+ Iraqi civilians.

[grassfed]

68. Resist Hillary's race baiting

Hillary's strategy was to find a suitable conduit (Ferraro -first female vp candidate) through which to reframe the contest in racial terms provoking Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and other polarizing figures that play into traditional African American stereotypes. Hillary, the "liberal feminist" would like nothing more than to see MSM coverage of Black Panther types rising in anger against her.

[ismnotwasm]

69. Last I checked

Racism had to do with the dominant race, which would be in in this country "white", imposing and assuming it's superiority over other "races"-- making up the rules so to speak. (Since skin color seems to have been almost an evolutionary afterthought, I support the idea that we're all part of the human "race" But I live in the real world too.)

If I went to China, say, and the people there assumed I was an oversexed criminal every time they say me, now THAT would be racism. I'd be white and not numerically superior, to say the least.

Whites, may experience bigotry or prejudice, but not racism. Not while whites are on the top of the food chain here. Blacks or Latinos never get the experience of anonymity, or invisibility that whites have. Even in cloistered unsegregated neighborhoods.

Not an impressive comment to say the least. Actually quite dumbass.

[KamaAina]

70. No, she's being attacked because her *dunce cap* is white.

[ima_sinnic]

71. good grief, she is just downright ignorant. no finesse, no class at all.

I'm embarrassed to admit I voted for that pathetic idiot in 1984. Apparently the only reason she was tapped for VP was because she was a woman, because she sure as hell doesn't have anything else going for her.

[The Stranger]

75. This is David Duke type shit.

Unbelievable.

[skypilot]

76. Shades of Trent Lott

"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, is Obama's race one of the "problems we're facing in this world"? What do her comments yesterday have to do with addressing the reality and the problems of the world?

I have to say that I didn't read the entire article because I got pissed all over again after reading that part.

[goforit]

80. Hillary playing the race card to swing the PA whiteman to vote for a white

woman over a black man.