[BABRAM]

Geraldine Ferraro needs to step down from any and all positions that she may still hold within the Democratic party. The sight of her at the convention would be put equality standards back fifty years. Her comments were way out of line and let me be the first to say that had this been a well known Republican, every Democrat would had been calling for the culprit's head. If anyone is not up to date on Geraldine's racist styled view that has surfaced, here's a link: Obama: Ferraro claim 'absurd' -- chicagotribune.com

[Wondergirl]

I was horrified when I heard about this. She must have some terrible disease that has affected her judgment. I almost used to like her.

[BABRAM]

I'm still shaking my head. Barack has enough uphill battles to overcome without her voiced hatred; foot-in-the-mouth disease. BTW Ferraro still hasn't apologized; a person that represented African Americans a large part of her career only to call Obama's success due to him being "black."

[oneguyinohio]

I have to agree that the comment was absurd. She certainly could be failing in her judgemental faculties?

Now, if anyone knows the level of support from black voters that he got when he was running for congress, that would be interesting. Without having that experience, he may not have gotten this far. If it can be shown that he was elected to previous office based on a majority of black supporters, then there might be a little more rationale to the statement... but still not a basis for such a strong blanket statement.

[BABRAM]

Hillary still had the black support until Bill screwed up South Carolina. The difference being that Barack earned his position to this point and the hypocrisy of this situation is that Geraldine was given the VP candidacy by Walter Mondale.

[tomder55]

And Evita is in the position she is in because she is the wife of a former President . Whi is this even news ? Sh esaid exactly the same thing about Jesse Jackson in 1988. A Ferraro flashback - Ben Smith's Blog - Politico.com

Ferraro should recall that she was no ways the best qualified for the VP when she was selected to run and that her gender played a huge role in that decision. And she knows that .

"If in 1984 my name was Gerard Ferraro instead of Geraldine Ferraro, I would never have been the nominee for VP," she said.

For Ferraro I guess the lesson should be that it's not how you got the opportunity but what you did with it. Question : Do you as a Democrat think she earned her spot on the 1984 ticket ?





But Obama should not overplay this race card. To me it looks like a diversion from the scrutiny he is just now coming under (about time) . How does he answer his sides claim that he would not follow through with his pledge to withdraw from Iraq? Has he ever clarified adequately his dual positions on NAFTA ? Unless ovf course this race card works to his advantage. Yesterday it appeared to do so in Mississippi.

[speechlesstx]

Yeah in this day it was certainly a stupid thing to say... but I don't think she is completely in what she said. The end of the offending quote is this:

He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept."

How many interviews with voters have you heard or read that gave no reason for voting for Obama other than he's black? I've heard plenty, even seen them on these boards. Even Obama himself hinted at this last year:

“I guarantee you African-American turnout, if I’m the nominee, goes up 30 percent around the country, minimum.” Aug. 20, 2007, in Concord, N.H.

Columns all across this nation have spoken of what an Obama presidency means to race relations.

At its best, the Obama candidacy is about ending a war—not so much the war in Iraq, which now has a mo­mentum that will propel the occupation into the next decade—but the war within America that has prevailed since Vietnam and that shows dangerous signs of intensifying, a nonviolent civil war that has crippled America at the very time the world needs it most. It is a war about war—and about culture and about religion and about race. And in that war, Obama—and Obama alone—offers the possibility of a truce. -Andrew Sullivan

The possibility of a black person becoming president has many dramatic and promising consequences.

Nothing could compare with the immediate positive consequences for our nation's long race-related disgrace. Electing Barack Obama president would immediately ease dangerous tensions that still exist. The entire racial problem would likely begin to be resolved, and the nation's worst blight would finally be healed permanently.

Having a black president would mean a reversal of our nation's negative image in the world. (In 26 countries, America's image has suffered a sharp decline in the last four years.)

Overnight, people all over the world would believe that America was finally putting into practice the high purposes set forth by our founders' statement, "We hold these truths to be self-evident ..." -Marvin Jones in the Lexington Herald-Leader

Yet there is still an enormous amount of excitement abroad about the prospect of an Obama victory. Why? Symbolism plays a big role... the main difference an Obama presidency would make is his race, which today trumps gender in most of the world, as far as symbolism goes. For the first time, the United States would have a chief of state who looks like what most of the earth's inhabitants believe they look like. By American standards, Obama is black; through the prism of the peoples of what used to be known as the Third World, he is simply dark-skinned. He looks like one of the billions of dwellers of the poorer two thirds of the planet. For the first time, the leader of the "others" would look like "us." For the first time, the first impression would be a lasting one: at a time of enormous U.S. unpopularity in the world, essentially because of George W. Bush in Iraq, the leader of the "bad guys" would look like the "good guys." -Jorge G. Castañeda in Newsweek

An Obama presidency would present, as a distinctly American face, a man of African descent, born in the nation's youngest state, with a childhood spent partly in Asia, among Muslims. No public relations campaign could do more than Obama's mere presence in the White House to defuse anti-American passion around the world" -LA Times endorsement

Obama is as global a figure in every respect as it is possible to be. His race, his heritage, and his upbringing create points of strong identification in places as far apart as Indonesia, Kenya, the Middle East, and Kansas. The image of President Barack Hussein Obama being inaugurated as viewed on all those hundreds of television channels would do more in a single stroke, I would argue, to transform the world’s attitude toward the United States than any conceivable policy shift -Peter Osnos, The Century Foundation

the prospect of the first black president would be likely to produce a phenomenon similar to the first free election in South Africa. Blacks would register in unprecedented numbers and the percentage of black registrants who actually vote would soar. Add this upsurge in black voters to the minority of whites in the South who vote Democratic and many southern states—including Mississippi—could become winnable for the Democrats...

Consider what a positive signal would be sent to the world if the first African-American president—and a Christian with a Muslim name and heritage—replaced George W. Bush. In terms of the United States reclaiming its moral position and respect in the world, it might well be that the cure for Osama is Obama.

The symbolism of the first African-American president being inaugurated less than a month before the nation celebrates the bicentennial of the Great Emancipator should be enough to dampen the eyes even of political cynics whose tear ducts have long seemed to be vestigial organs. -Robert S. McElvaine, History News Network

It seems to me the country is indeed "caught up in the concept" of a black president. So was she wrong?

[BABRAM]

Tom and Speech-



I should address some things.

1.) Polarized Mississippi for example: Over seventy percent of Caucasians voted for Hillary yesterday. Did we hear from Hillary's fund raiser and supporter "Geraldine Ferraro" mention that Hillary was lucky for being "white?!" Of course not. But let me remind those wanting to argue that Obama receives the majority of African America support solely based on skin color, that up until the South Carolina primary, Hillary actually had about half of that black support. She can thank Bill for screwing her out of the other half of black vote. And where should that black vote be? For blacks voting Democrat there is only one option and it is for the candidate, Barack Obama, that has not made a campaign out his opponent being white or female.

All the fireworks are coming camp Clinton, and Obama has no choice but to say they are "absurd." I'll take it further and say that it's deliberately fueled and throwing the kitchen sink at Obama included packaged racist remarks. Hillary now sees that backfired so she tells the press that it's simply Geraldine's personal view that she doesn't agree with.

2.) I'm disturbed by the notion that Obama should not defend himself from such intentional statements. Such remarks have no place in a society that fashions itself on equality. Some may say he is overplaying the race card, but if he going to be elected president of the US, Obama has to address such matters on the home-front.


3.) And for moment I want to touch further on more of Ferraro's statement:

Geraldine Ferraro: "He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept."


To be a black politician running for highest office in a country that has never had a black president, is lucky? Where there are stilll parts of the country that darker skinned U.S. citizens wouldn't dare live because of fear for their own families safety. Lucky? The easy route would be on Caucasians with the past 200 years plus of history. Oh! And just in case Geraldine slipped this by anyone, understand what she's really campaigning is that Obama is a dumb little negro boy.

[Wondergirl]

It seems to me the country is indeed "caught up in the concept" of a black president. So was she wrong?

The whites and Asians and Latinos I've talked to about Obama voted for him because he is smart and articulate and thinks on his feet and doesn't get ruffled. Blacks may be "caught up in the concept of a black president" (and rightly so) but the rest of us don't see his blackness--and don't care.

[NeedKarma]

Here is a supporter of Obama (Tom and Speech: sorry if he does not fit into your stereotype):

[BABRAM]

The whites and Asians and Latinos I've talked to about Obama voted for him because he is smart and articulate and thinks on his feet and doesn't get ruffled. Blacks may be "caught up in the concept of a black president" (and rightly so) but the rest of us don't see his blackness--and don't care.

Good point. Hillary failed in the debates when given the opportunity to address the same theme that the Republicans supporters continue to foster. Provided Obama receives the nomination, John McCain will get his comeuppance.

[speechlesstx]

Bobby,

Like I said it was "a stupid thing to say," but I think the evidence is clear there are a lot of people - not just in this country - "caught up in the concept." I think I've shown several good examples of that, so would you say that after 7 years of the "disastrous" Bush presidency (not my words), 2 wars, all the bleating about the economy, the housing "crisis," Rita and Katrina (remember the famous Kanye West "George Bush doesn't care about black people!" remark), the alleged "Republican culture of corruption," etc. that Obama, an eloquent, inspiring black man did not come around at a lucky, i.e. fortunate time for him?

I would not attribute his success in the campaign to race alone, but to say it isn't factor in his popularity right now is a little disingenuous given the evidence from supporters saying it is.

"I think people think of the president of the United States as a white Anglo-Saxon all-American boy," said Nancy Harris, 46, of Manchester, who is volunteering for a presidential candidate - Obama - for the first time in her life. "To see someone who is a man of color will make a difference. It will create a positive image - that America isn't stuck up."

Obama believes himself to be part of a post-racial US. Not so. His race is crucial to his appeal, charisma, sales pitch and symbolism. He will win because he's black, not despite it. Let us hope that maniacal racists in the US do not exact a terrible vengeance.

Renewal is about policy; it’s also about symbolism. Which brings us to Barack Hussein Obama, the Democratic candidate with a Kenyan father, a Kansan mother, an Indonesian stepfather, a childhood in Hawaii and Indonesia and impressionable experience of the Muslim world.

If the globe can’t vote next November, it can find itself in Obama. Troubled by the violent chasm between the West and the Islamic world? Obama seems to bridge it. Disturbed by the gulf between rich and poor that globalization spurs? Obama, the African-American, gets it: the South Side of Chicago is the South Side of the world...

“Mexicans want evidence that things are shifting, which means the Democrats, and of course a woman like Hillary Clinton, or a black like Obama, would signal a huge cultural change,” said Jorge Castañeda, a former foreign minister.

“My sense is the symbolism in Mexico of a dark-skinned American president would be enormous. We’ve got female leaders now in Latin America — in Chile, in Argentina. But the idea of a U.S. leader who looks the way the world looks as seen from Mexico is revolutionary.”

The Bush years have scarred the world's view of America as beacon of hope and bastion of freedom, but the scar can fade given the right treatment. The best medicine America could have for its future lies in the figure of Barak Obama, the epitomize of the global citizen and the man best placed to lead America, not only out of the troubles of the post 911 age, but finally lay to rest the haunting ghosts of slavery that still seem to haunt the American psyche and leave the American dream seeming just that, a dream, something transient, that is never to be realized.

Obama's race, some say shouldn't matter. But in a country so caught up with this issue it can't be ignored and symbolism matters. Of course, he should only be elected on the basis of his strengths, but his race is a strength. It forms who he is, the prism through which he views life and how the rest of the world views the country that he represents, which - despite its faults - remains the best hope for all of us during these troubled times.

So while Ferraro is taking the heat (and rightfully so) for what she said, people the world over are proving her at least partially right.

Steve

P.S. NK, I do resent the way you attempt to portray me. I don't "stereotype" blacks, and I don't back down when I'm right. Besides all that I've made it clear that race and gender are not issues to me, I want the most qualified.

[NeedKarma]

P.S. NK, I do resent the way you attempt to portray me. I don't "stereotype" blacks, and I don't back down when I'm right. Besides all that I've made it clear that race and gender are not issues to me, I want the most qualified.

You might want to apologize - I was referring to your stereotyping the Obama supporters as simply following a hype. Thissupporter obviously knows the issues as they relate to him and is not "caught up in a concept".

[NeedKarma]

Back on topic - it looks like this is a serial offender:
A Ferraro flashback - Ben Smith's Blog - Politico.com

Placid of demeanor but pointed in his rhetoric, Jackson struck out repeatedly today against those who suggest his race has been an asset in the campaign. President Reagan suggested Tuesday that people don't ask Jackson tough questions because of his race. And former representative Geraldine A. Ferraro (D-N.Y.) said Wednesday that because of his "radical" views, "if Jesse Jackson were not black, he wouldn't be in the race."

[speechlesstx]

You might want to apologize - I was referring to your stereotyping the Obama supporters as simply following a hype. Thissupporter obviously knows the issues as they relate to him and is not "caught up in a concept".

NK, Given that I had merely posted what Obama and some of his supporters said and had not stereotyped anyone, your comment alone was inappropriate. Posting it along with a video of a black Obama supporter has racial connotations and I don't take that lightly. I have nothing to apologize for.

Is there something wrong with just responding to my posts without the demeaning jabs?

[kp2171]

There's some truth in what she says (somewhat) and its also its stupid of her to do so... maybe... or not?

The truth? The dems who early on said it was a win-win... that theyd get a woman or a black man nominee... lets feel good about ourselves for being open minded. Now... if you like the policy, then its bonus... but there was an early elation that this will be the most wonderful nomination ever. Gotten a little ugly since then.

Clinton and obama aren't getting separation on the issues. He's getting support from blacks, she's getting support from women. He's getting younger support, she's did well in tx in part due to the older vote.

What I don't get is how she can (or her minions can) use this and get away with it. b!tching cause he's black means you need to put away your tears about how tough it is to be a woman running for prez. Really. Stop it!

And don't tell me for one minute that bill didn't kick arse campaigning against bush and dole because of a charisma, a presence. Its just hypocritical.

Her frustration is real... I believe it... but the clintons have an air of... well, being heirs to the throne... that is disappointing.

And I'm not in love with obama (or mccain for that matter)... but his campaign seems to be running a smarter path. He's mostly counter-punching.

I mean... how can you suggest a dream ticket, with him supposedly as the veep, and still attack him on his inexperience? Really? You are excited about choosing a vp that you say is not prepared for the job... but it'll be a great way to win??

Reagan showed you can't knock a guy down cause he's charismatic, as shown by the crossover dems. His being "old" didn't matter... he had a presence. Does she really think attacking his presence, or worse, the color of his skin, is going to make a difference?

Maybe.

That's why I said at the beginning... maybe.

Maybe its not so dumb after all. Maybe listing him as a potential vp gets some on her side and diminishes his stature a bit. Maybe guilting people about feeling good about voting for a young, black man actually can swing some her way.

In a race this close, every little bit can count... so perhaps she's not so dumb about this campaign after all... she survived tx and Ohio, has Pennsylvania coming up, and has withstood his best shots.

Maybe her campaign is doing exactly what it needs to do, and I'm just a schmuck with a PC. I keep thinking that he's going to take it all... and she's still there.

So having ferraro say this... maybe it'll pi$$ off the obama faithful... but what about those in the middle... wondering which way to go? In a nomination process that is this tight, all she needs to do is keep things close, perhaps, to win. Or at least "not lose".

[speechlesstx]

Yes she's a repeat "offender," one more Democrat dividing the party. :D

[BABRAM]

Bobby,

Like I said it was "a stupid thing to say," but I think the evidence is clear there are a lot of people - not just in this country - "caught up in the concept."

So while Ferraro is taking the heat (and rightfully so) for what she said, people the world over are proving her at least partially right.

Ferraro's partial statement "caught up in the concept," are part of whole incident of remarks. It's no more factual than Clinton or McCain supporters being caught up in the concepts of their own preferred candidates ideologies.

[Dark_crow]

But Obama should not overplay this race card.

And that is what everyone is doing, even in this thread. She is not a racist and what she said, in a historical sense, is true.

[BABRAM]

reagan showed you can't knock a guy down cause hes charismatic, as shown by the crossover dems. his being "old" didnt matter... he had a presence. does she really think attacking his presence, or worse, the color of his skin, is going to make a difference?".

Reagan was a great communicator and along with his charismatic personality had the knack to tell people off that disagreed with him, yet they smiled and enjoyed the lecture at the same time. And in fact, his canny ability was so good that some even thanked him, endured him, not realizing what just happened. However, never in his public career did he damaen anyone based on skin color.

so having ferraro say this... maybe itll pi$$ off the obama faithful... but what about those in the middle... wondering which way to go? in a nomination process that is this tight, all she needs to do is keep things close, perhaps, to win. or at least "not lose".

Ferraro, a staffed Clinton campaign fundraiser, loses more credibility, if that was possible. She needs to step down from a life of "me, me, me" and come off her "none apologetic" throne.