that Mondale/Ferraro lost:
As for Reagan Democrats, how Clinton was treated is not their issue. They are more concerned with how they have been treated. Since March, when I was accused of being racist for a statement I made about the influence of blacks on Obama’s historic campaign, people have been stopping me to express a common sentiment: If you’re white you can’t open your mouth without being accused of being racist. They see Obama’s playing the race card throughout the campaign and no one calling him for it as frightening. They’re not upset with Obama because he’s black; they’re upset because they don’t expect to be treated fairly because they’re white. It’s not racism that is driving them, it’s racial resentment. And that is enforced because they don’t believe he understands them and their problems. That when he said in South Carolina after his victory “Our Time Has Come” they believe he is telling them that their time has passed.
Whom he chooses for his vice president makes no difference to them. That he is pro-choice means little. Learning more about his bio doesn’t do it. They don’t identify with someone who has gone to Columbia and Harvard Law School and is married to a Princeton-Harvard Law graduate. His experience with an educated single mother and being raised by middle class grandparents is not something they can empathize with. They may lack a formal higher education, but they’re not stupid. What they’re waiting for is assurance that an Obama administration won’t leave them behind.
Go back to your cushy post at Fox news, you big victim, you.
I was only 14 at the time when she ran in 84- was she always this damned stupid?
4tehlulz
Oppressed white person
hasn’t gotten over desgregationis oppreeeeeessssed.joe
Geraldine, did you ever throw a brick at a school bus?
mantis
When will someone run for president who represents white Americans (you know, the hardworking Americans). We won’t stay in the back of the bus any longer!
ThymeZone
In other words, they’d be happier if the black candidate were Stepin Fetchit.
Black is one thing, but uppity black? Hold on now!
Ripley
This post is:
a) Racist
b) Sexist
c) Good news for Hillary!
d) none of the above
Hmmm…
Whereas people are always saying things like, “Man, I sure can relate to Hillary because she doesn’t have an Ivy League education and totally isn’t elite and quit her cashier job at Safeway to run for President!”
CFisher
Yes.
libarbarian
Is she saying that lots of people interpreted this as a way of telling black people “We’re taking over”?
Ugh
But going to Swarthmore and Yale Law School and being married to a Georgetown-Yale Law graduate and FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, that’s someon normal folks identify with.
thefncrow
Ferraro’s transference is hilarious. Ferraro, and the theoretical “people who agree with her”, think Obama’s a racist and thus they won’t be treated fairly.
Of course, there’s no logical reason to think that, but that doesn’t stop them, and they have a simple explanation, even though it’s one they’d never say out loud.
They’re not racist, swear! But…
They don’t care about black people.
They imagine this is common.
Barack Obama is black, and thus not one of them.
Barack Obama doesn’t care about them. He’s a Racist!
Scotty
If this voting block is that concerned about someone having a higher education, or being part of the middle class, why do I not see more candidates running on the strength of their GED and their lack of funds? Oh, you mean Ferraro might be stereotyping here. I blame Obama for getting her so mad that she would do such a thing.
mantis
But going to Swarthmore and Yale Law School and being married to a Georgetown-Yale Law graduate and FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, that’s someon normal folks identify with.
It is. I work with someone at the factory with the same background.
libarbarian
How much of this stuff is based on empirical evidence and how much is based on projection of her/their own feelings onto the general public?
I have a biased sample of friends, so I cant necessarily think my experiences are representative of the whole country, but I’d like to think that this isn’t true.
Pasota
Base, undisguised, garden-variety racism. Christ, what an embarrassment.
HumboldtBlue
And another thing, there are no fucking “Reagan Democrats.” If you voted for that dipshit or you went along with his voodoo economics, his secret trading deals with terrorists and their state supporters, you’re a fucking Republican, OK? Is that clear? A cocknozzle Republican.
libarbarian
No, they of course identify with two Yale law school graduates!
Havard? Pishaw!
theturtlemoves
Does anyone outside of The Corner or RedState ever actually use the phrase “reverse racism”? And I’ve said it before on this site, if anyone wants to pay me millions of dollars to be “oppressed” like these jackasses, I’m up for it. Seriously, you can call me a honky mofo or a fat cracker. Hell, with my ethnic heritage, you can even use Norwegian jokes on me or assume I drink prodigiously like my Irish ancestors. As long as I get to be rich and famous in the process, fire away.
uri
White people just can’t catch a break in this country.
Locked out of government, barred from the board room, all but nonexistent in the fields of science and literature.
wasabi gasp
I don’t know of any race cards played by Obama. So, as best as I can tell, either I’m totally gay for some big black pony sassage or Geraldine Ferraro’s a big old vagina itchin’ racist.
Dreggas
Now we know what happens when cloning takes place, see there was a secret project to clone Leona Helmsley, the result was Geraldine Ferraro and Hillary Clinton.
Here’s a good joke tho:
A guy is walking down the beach and finds a lamp, he rubs the lamp and out pops a genie. The genie offers him one wish. So he thinks and says “I always wanted to have sex with 3 women at once.” the Genie says “Done”, and disappears.
In his place stand tanya harding, lorena bobbit and hillary clinton. The guy shrugs and they proceed to get down to business. The next morning the guy wakes up to find he has a broken leg, his penis has been cut off and he has no health insurance.
theturtlemoves
But seriously, was she always this stupid? I supported her back in 84, as well, but was two years younger than John at the time, so I just thought it was cool to have a woman running for president. I probably also thought it would be cool to see real, live boobies, so my political acumen was likely somewhat lacking.
Zifnab
No offense and not to sound cliche, but the Republicans were worse.
Dr. Squid
Maybe that’ll be the central theme of Paul Krugman’s next column. Cuz you know he doesn’t give a crap about phony scandals if they’re ginned up against Obama.
Zifnab
Hey, you were right about the boobs thing. I don’t see how that’s a knock against your political savy.
wingnuts to iraq
I think Clinton supporters need to realize right quick the biggest reason Hillary lost is her vote on the Iraq war. Dems hate the war, and many of us (including me) didn’t want to vote for any candidate that had voted for or supported Iraq.
Not only did Hillary vote for the War, but she did so out of presummed political expediency in hopes of a pony for all.
If Hillary had given a speech of “just words” AGAINST Iraq in 2002, perhaps we could have prevented it. And even if she couldn’t have helped stop it, I would have actually given her the time of day in this primary.
But since she voted for the War, and refuses still to this day to admit it was the dumbest thing ever, she lost.
And I’m glad she did. You shouldn’t get rewarded for supporting this Republican War.
tballou
The level of commentary on this blog is shockingly low and I am starting to wonder why I even bother reading, much less commenting. All you Obamaniacs can ignore what Ferraro is saying at your own peril. Clinton Derangement Syndrome has you completely blinded.
Andrew
It’s frog punchin’ time!!!!
Chris Andersen
I’ve offered several criticisms of the Obama campaign and never once been accused of racism.
When I hear complaints like this I have to wonder if the person, in making their complaints, has been demonstrating a latent racism that they just aren’t aware of.
Cris
fixed for you, Geraldine
TheFountainHead
“Feraro? Feraro? Bitter, party of one, your table is ready!”
Dreggas
The Clinton Campaign is just begging to be South Parked.
Incertus
If you use the term “reverse racism” in any way other than ironically or as part of a discussion of how bullshit that term is, then all I’ve got for you is my flabby, hairy ass and two middle fingers. If I’m feeling generous, I might even tuck everything back and give you a fruit bowl.
John
Someone who has gone to Wellesley and Yale Law School and is married to a Georgetown-Yale Law graduate, on the other hand, is clearly a woman of the people.
TheFountainHead
Concern troll is concerned! :(
mantis
All you Obamaniacs can ignore what Ferraro is saying at your own peril.
We are not ignoring it, we are mocking it for it’s monumental stupidity. Take your commentary “levels” and shove them up your ass.
wingnuts to iraq
LOLZ at tballou
Hillary LOST because she supported Iraq. Everything else being said is HOGWASH.
How can any Democrat support someone who voted for this war out of political cowardice? How? How?
Cris
Damn it, I thought “<s>you’re white</s>” would result in a strikethrough. Oh well.
Anyway, there’s also this:
Seriously, can someone please point me to the pattern of Obama “playing the race card?” Even a single instance? I accept the possibility that I’m totally ignorant to what’s been going on in this campaign, but I don’t know what the fuck she’s talking about.
Looks to me like it’s the converse: he’s not playing the race card, and people are calling him for it anyway.
r€nato
By all means, go back to No Quarter or Talk Left or Little Green Footballs or Free Republic and enjoy the scintillating, high-level discourse those sorts of sites have. I completely agree this is not the place for you.
crw
Shorter tballlou:
Serious cat is so fucking serious.
jake
Shorter I am Woman Hear Me Ferraroar:
My candidate is just like the other candidate EXCEPT HE’S BLACK.
WTF? Let’s see. Obama’s single mama was … Caucasian, just like the cowering masses who live in dread of being rounded up and shot. And his grandparents were … Wow, also Caucasian!
What must set his “experience with an educated single mother” (and what a strange way of putting it) and middle class grandparents apart from the people she who have been whispering their fears into her dainty shell likes is the fact that their mothers are unedjucmacated and their grandparents were not middle class.
Or she’s a delusional sack of crap who needs to go away.
Where is the guy with the hook?
4tehlulz
Welcome to the Internet. Compared to other places, BJ is a motherfucking debating society.
Incertus
Part of that Columbia, Princeton and Harvard legacy I can certainly relate to is the student loans that the Obamas paid off only a few years ago. Did Ferraro come from a wealthy enough background that she had to take out student loans, I wonder?
Dreggas
asphinctersayswhat?
CMB
I’m looking forward to Ferraro’s next op-ed, in which she’ll whine that handicapped people get all the good parking spaces.
Just Some Fuckhead
It’s not what he did, it’s what he said. And it’s not what he said, but how he said it. And it’s not how he said it, but what he didn’t say. And it’s not what he didn’t say about her, but what he didn’t say about what others said about her. It’s there, you just gotta know what yer looking for.
JackieBinAZ
How dare Obama play the race card by refusing to be white!
Brachiator
WTF?!
It takes a whole village of teh stupid to read a statement that Obama made before a very diverse crowd as sending a coded message only to black people.
It takes a special kind of cynical viciousness on the part of the Clinton campaign to allow Ferraro to go out filter every Obama speech that specifically includes “black and white and young and old and male and female” to translate as “blah blah blah Blacks Only blah blah blah.”
And sadly, it is more than stupidity at play here. It is a vile attempt to play the race deck while taking cover with a deliberate — and distorted — attack on Obama for being both racist and sexist. So if the governor of Pennsylvania says in advance of much Obama campaigning, that he doesn’t know if whites will vote for Obama, it’s not racism, it’s just the reasonable fear that Obama is a secret Black Muslim. If Ferraro and Clinton subsequently pick up this racist ball and run with it, they’re not exploiting race. Oh, no. They are just … dealing with reality.
It takes a special type of audacity to suggest with a straight face that good, hard working white people cannot “identify with someone who has gone to Columbia and Harvard Law School and is married to a Princeton-Harvard Law graduate” but have no trouble identifying with someone who has gone to Georgetown, Oxford, and Yale Law School and is married to a Wellesley-Yale Law School graduate, as is the case with Bill and Hillary.
And Ferraro swan dives into the bullshit that has been simmering in a number of pro-Hillary sites that hold the Democratic Party in general and Barack Obama in particular responsible for everything that might even remotely be considered to be sexist that comes from the media or society, while simultaneously holding Senator Clinton up not only as Feminist Icon, but as the Lamb of Purity, radiating sweetness and light wherever she goes.
Who knew that Clinton surrogate Ferraro would be allowed to go out and attempt to blow up the Democratic Party in a last ditch effort to hand Hillary the nomination because, ultimately what she is saying is that black people can sit in the Democratic Party bus, can even sit up front, but can never be allowed to drive it. Because when you get down to it, there is very little in terms of background, education, personal life, vision and experience that separate Barack and Michelle Obama from the 1992 version of Bill and Hillary Clinton.
Except of course, the color of their skin.
Dreggas
See now that’s the amusing thing. Ferraro shows she’s stuck in the 80’s as much as Hillary is stuck in the 90’s and the GOP is just plain stuck. They all belong together.
null pointer exception
It seems the Clinton camp has given up. TalkLeft is certainly in a meltdown right now.
mantis
Seriously, can someone please point me to the pattern of Obama “playing the race card?”
He’s black. That’s it.
jake
If Karl Rove gets royalties every time someone breaks into “ZOMG! Hez an elitist,” Camp Clinton is going to be even deeper in the debt doo-doo before this is over (June 3rd).
joe
Hillary Clinton didn’t vote for this war out of political cowardice.
John Kerry and John Edwards voted for this war out of political cowardice.
Hillary Clinton voted for this war because she believed in it.
wingnuts to iraq
I’ve voting for the Obama because he’s White PLUS!
wingnuts to iraq
Well, with some of her votes on Iran, I might even believe that too, Joe.
joe
You know what’s even better than people who say “reverse racism?”
People who tell you who “the Real Racists” are.
“Do you know who the Real Racists” are?
Wait, lemme guess: black people who complain about racism? No, wait, WHITE PEOPLE who complain about racism. Am I right?
“Well…yeah.”
r€nato
I’ve had to listen to several Hillary supporters on NPR today talking about the horrible sexism she’s suffered. I listened carefully to their arguments and it all seemed to come back to: Hillary is entitled because she’s a woman and if you don’t support her whole-heartedly, you’re sexist.
I also had to listen yet again to a detailed explanation of how caucuses don’t really or shouldn’t really count and are discriminatory.
Now pardon me while I attempt to remove these knitting needles jammed into my ears.
Ripley
On the other hand, it sure is nice to have a person who’s figured out exactly what we, the grubby hoi polloi, are thinking. Seriously, do you know how much time she’s saving us now that we don’t have to send letters to every media outlet in the world to tell them what we think?
I don’t know how she does it, but she sure pegged us. America is truly blessed.
Ted
I think when they say Obama is playing the “race card”, who they are really referring to are his SUPPORTERS calling her out on her comments, not the Obama campaign. The campaign itself stays remarkably humble and disinclined to inflame both Ferraro’s comments, and Hillary’s RFK nonsense.
joe
wingnuts to Iraq,
Her statments at the time made a plausible, principled, consistent case for both the invasion of Iraq, and the delegation of Congress’s warmaking power to the White House.
“I remember being at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, and sometimes, I wish my husband had had that power.”
But please don’t get me wrong; this is not a point in her favor.
Cris
The funny thing is, she sort of did… when I listened to her give her floor speech in October 2002, for the first ten minutes I would sure she was warming up for a “Nay” vote. She talked about how “attacking Saddam Hussein now… is fraught with danger” and “a unilateral attack… is not a good option” and even
[ http://clinton.senate.gov/speeches/iraq_101002.html ]
But then she went on to conclude that only the AUMF would convince the UN to act and “that a vote for the resolution best serves the security of our nation.”
I probably should have known that was coming, and reading the whole speech in retrospect, it’s pretty consistently worded, but at the time it sounded like a weird about-face.
dnA
Dude, Obama won. That’s reverse racism.
crw
FTFY. Remember her “I’ve been on the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue” comment? Yeah, that. That’s why she voted it for it. She wanted a precedent of total congressional capitulation on war powers so it would be there when it was her turn.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
To be fair, you have to speak “jive” to decode the hidden meaning. If you’re not a native speaker I think they have elective courses teaching it at Columbia and Harvard Law School.
Balconesfault
Don’t hold black politicians to a different standard than white ones.
That simple.
This is what will make it tough on the Repubs this coming election. They’re used to holding Dems to a different standard than they hold Repubs. They can accuse Kerry of being elitist while they’re supporting a wealthy, elitist, Andover/Yale/Harvard fratboy and get away with it. But now, they call Obama elitist without holding their own guy to the same standard, and they’re going to hear the term “uppity?” thrown back at them.
Tough tacos. The antidote to the RACIST charge is to treat everyone equally. Sorry that’s so damn hard to grasp.
Incertus
Here’s the argument, and I swear to Zombie Jesus I’m not making this shit up.
They argue that before South Carolina, the Obama campaign started floating rumors that the Clinton campaign was hinting at using race as an attack. Now there’s no evidence for this, but that’s where it starts. Then after SC, when Bill Clinton did his whole “it’s like Jesse” thing, Obama’s people jumped on him and started screaming “racist!” And so on with every other time that someone in the Clinton campaign has said something tone deaf in regards to race. Of course, this ignores Cuomo’s “shuck and jive” comment or the other dumbass who hinted that Obama might have been a drug dealer, or BET Johnson’s ignorant comments, all of which predated SC, but we’re dealing with mental midgets here.
Cris
* applause *
MobiusKlein
I don’t know about y’all, but I’m voting for Obama because of his race – yes, I said it.
It’s because he is White.
John
You wonder? My understanding, for what it’s worth, is that Ferraro has never been particularly progressive on racial issues – her big issue as a congresswoman was opposition to busing.
Jorge
It is a shame that so many Hillary supporters can’t lose this thing with dignity. It is over. Hillary has lost. Face facts, even with the Florida and Michigan delegations fully seated as Hillary wanst them in her best case scenario, with Obama getting no delegates from Michigan, He is still 50 pledged delegates and 50 superdelegates ahead of Clinton. And that is with out giving him any delegates from the 8th most populous state in the union.
Tlazolteotl
The second paragraph in that excerpt can be summarized as follows:
Obama is uppity!
You know, folks, I caucused for Clinton, but her ‘campaign’ and ‘spokespeople’ are a fucking embarrassment.
nightjar
This woman needs to shut her flytrap because with each syllable she’s making the world a dumber place. First she accuses Obama of playing the race card, while being the one who initially shits a big steamy racial turd in her first public offering opining “Obama’s only winning cause he’s Black”.
And now she claims to be the conscience of Reagan Democrats, who she claims are so afraid that the big scary black guy is gonna get some payback and doubledown on their insufferable white angst.
Then she parses their injection of racism into the debate, as not that, as much as feared Obama reverse racism they don’t deserve, or something.
Somebody bang the goddamn Gong!
Just Some Fuckhead
I actually cast my first Presidential vote against Mondale/Ferraro. That was my first and last vote for a Republican. I’m not proud of it in hindsight but some of the blame has to go to party Democrats who keep nominating lousy candidates and then having Shrum manage their campaigns.
I mean, look at how close we came this time around to nominating a candidate with the highest negatives ever and zero cross-over appeal.
BethanyAnne
Disclosure: I was an Obama precinct capt. in Berkeley. I think there has been a pattern of racial dog-whistling and race-baiting on the part of HRC’s campaign. That fool from BET and shuck-and-jive come to mind. Unfortunately, I don’t think Obama’s hands are completely clean. Cleaner that I expect from any politician, but there still is this BS that Jesse Jackson Jr. spewed after New Hampshire.
JJJ is just one of many national campaign co-chairs of BHO’s campaign, and they didn’t continue down this road, but… it was still tacky. I don’t know if he was going off-message, or floating a trial balloon, or what, but it looked like race-baiting to me.
Given the BS that the Clintons have inflicted on us, this may be the minorest of slights, but it looks like race-baiting to me. And I think of it when the Sun Queen’s worshipers show up to chastise us. I’m not sure of what else they mean, tho.
Bethany
Dr. Squid
Does the fact that you supported her at a caucus mean that you don’t really count to them?
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
I just realized the best part of this long miserable slog thru the valley of stoopid to get to the end of the campaign:
The Dems are going to win. They are going to actually take power in DC. And when they do, every slimy opportunist, every trash-peddling political operative, every vile racist, every evil warmongering SOB, every money grubbing corporate lobbyist, etc., etc. will all come crawling out of the woodwork and try to worm their way back into the corridors of power – by tunneling into the Democratic party. How to stop them, how to hold the gates against the barbarians – that was going to be a real problem, a very serious challenge.
Not any more.
Because now we know who they are – instead of hiding in the shrubbery until the time was right, they’ve come right out in the open where we can see them and take down names.
Good job, Hillary! Thanks for doing what it took to make people show their true colors.
Jorge
Um, and in case no one else has brought this up….
What exactly makes Ferraro and expert on Reagan Democrats? Wasn’t she on the Democratic ticket that lost 49 states to Reagan?
This is the kind of thinking that provides us with the conclusion that HRC is best suited to get universal health care passed.
Doug H. (Fausto no more)
The Clinton campaign’s folding its cards on FL/MI, Carville’s saying Obama can win, the superdelegates aren’t returning Clinton’s calls…
It really is over. I’m a Rachel Maddow segment away from thinking the soft landing will come on Wednesday.
MDee
Pretty much, from what I recalled. Never liked her myself.
She’s what I refer to as an East Coast passive racist. They don’t realize that’s what they are and when you call them on it they get all self-righteous “some of my best friends are black” on you.
Their racism is not always obvious. It usually emerges whenever they are talking about race or race relations or have it in for a particular person of color or different ethnicity (doesn’t matter what color or ethnic background the person is either). That’s why I think it’s passive and why they’ll just never get it or admit to it. I should know, there are quite a few passive racists in my family.
Zifnab
Hillary Clinton: Useful for more things than just ironing my shirt.
/ducks
johninpt
I love seeing Gerry Ferarro portray herself as the spokesperson for the “Reagan Democrats.” Wonder if Mondale realizes he had a mole on he ticket with him.
BethanyAnne
*two* dead Teckla on your pillow!
Just Some Fuckhead
John McCain, older than the View-Master.
Blue Raven
Got it in one. I was raised in New England, and once I moved to California, I discovered I’d absorbed the passive racism through my skin and thought it made me a liberal. That didn’t long survive contact with more black people in one week than I’d seen in the previous 16 years of my life, let me tell you. My mother’s still got it, which is sad and almost impossible to convince her to work on.
PaulB
From our dear little chum p.luk over at talkleft.com, regarding what the Obama campaign has been (allegedly) doing:
Notorious P.A.T.
I keep hearing what an “elitist” Obama is, how he “looks down” upon typical white people (like me), and so on.
Then the Clinton campaign comes out and says reg’lar white folk don’t have the capacity to identify with someone who isn’t exactly like them, and they’ll only vote for a rootin-tootin’, gun-swingin’, beer-swillin’ type of politician, and they couldn’t possibly support Obama because. . . well, you know. . . because.
So remind me, please, which candidate is the one with a low opinion of regular people like me?
Notorious P.A.T.
From what I can gather from the short periods of time I am able to stand the pro-Hillary websites, Obama played the race card* after Bill Clinton called him a specialty candidate like Jesse Jackson. Obama took offense to that comparison and called him out for charging up race in this campaign, and that was playing the race card*.
*god, I’m sick of the phrase “play the race card”.
bago
PUT ON THE GLASSES!!!
Rick Taylor
Irony overload update: Philogy on dailykos (via americablog)
Zifnab
Hilpocrisy.
Queixada
Zimbabwe ambassador gives Hillary the ol’ 1-2 for her Zimbabwe-Florida comparison:
DAAYYYUUUMMM.
The whole world is watching.
Should Know Better
I’m not even sure she thinks that exactly.
She looks at Obama and sees Other. So when he says “we” and “our” she doesn’t feel included in his message. And she believes everyone else sees him as Other as well.
But she’s not the racist one, oh no.
Notorious P.A.T.
I see someone else has already posted that explanation.
crw
Pfft. Of course he’s going to side with the brother. It’s all part of the Global AfroCommiFascist conspiracy to taint our precious bodily fluids and viciously gang rape our wimmins.
/HI44
Napoleon
What is best about this is that if Barack was some garden variety black congressman (think someone like Charlie Rangel) who was seeking higher Aid to Dependant Family payments or something like that someone like her would be first out of the box with something like “hey my parents made it without govenment help”.
If your black you are damned if you do, damned if you don’t with people like her.
Dennis - SGMM
Having worked as a machinist for thirty years, I’d prefer the candidate who isn’t the bestest friend of the banks and the military-industrial complex.
Ferraro’s bullshit editorial reminds me of a line from Fire Sign Theater:
“Stories of average working people as portrayed by rich Hollywood actors.”
If an average working person rang Ferraro’s doorbell she’d call the fucking cops.
Queixada
Because Black men cannot survive without orgies involving white women and other black men with a respective ratio of at least 3:14
Queixada
3:
14OVAR 9000ThatLeftTurnInABQ
So which candidate was it again, who was tough, steeled, and ready for the very worst the GOP smear machine could dish out?
And couldn’t even take a hit in the Democratic primaries without crying low blow?
Xenos
What I remember about Ferraro was soon after all the excitement died out from the nomination she became an enormous anchor for the ticket. She had no speaking ability and no popular appeal. Also, she soon went on the defensive about her personal life, and remained on the defensive for the bulk of September and October.
If I recall correctly, her husband was an early version of Rezko, and her son at Middlebury was a notorious coke fiend. Oh, but that was just a lot of Anti-Italian racism, but of course, soon enough her husband ended up indicted for fraud and her son got busted and expelled for dealing Bolivian marching powder.
Conclusion: a mediocrity, a fraud, and a self-dealing scamster. With the moral authority of a bunch of Manhattan Beach thugs. God I am so glad the ’80s are behind us!
Lihtox
Unanimity makes me nervous, so though I am an Obamanian who thinks Ferraro has gone over the edge, I think there is a kernel of truth in what she says (IMVHO). I suspect that to many rural whites, blacks make up an alien culture: these folks don’t know any black people, might rarely ever see one. What they do know about them are that a) they were once slaves, and b) they are (reasonably) ticked off about it. It’s not hard to imagine that blacks would want revenge (some do, after all), and this makes some of these whites uneasy. I don’t think it’s a rational fear (for one, even if Obama is the first black president, he’s not going to have an all-black administration), but you don’t counter real fears with ridicule, you counter them with education and sympathy. Obama has been very egalitarian in his campaign, which is the right approach, but he’s going to have to work doubly hard if he wants to assuage those fears.
Mind you, Ferraro isn’t saying this, she’s saying “it’s impossible, so drop Obama”, and she’s being disingenuously partisan for saying so…but still.
Brachiator
Apparently, those elitists at Harvard have looked into Ferraro’s bogus assertion that rampant sexism held Hillary back. Andrew Sullivan has the particulars (Sexism, Sexism, Sexism)
Of course, Clinton supporters won’t let truth, especially if it involves numbers, get in the way. The Sullivan piece includes a link to an abstract and the full report. One other little nugget from the report is particularly interesting:
Evidently the Sun Queen, like many a petty dictator, is outraged if her favorable coverage is not 99.99%
Tom Hilton
Okay, well, thanks for clearing that up. That makes a world of difference.
Notorious P.A.T.
Hmmm, sounds like someone else in the news a lot lately. . .
Downpuppy
Mondale is a pretty decent guy.
Ferraro was always a bit of a turkey, but in those days veeps were still mostly unseen & always unheard. One of the reasons it changed was that Reagan was completely braindead by his second term. In his last debate, he wandered off into incoherence.
That the media ignored it kinda marks for me the beginning of the corporate tool media era.
Wilfred
Why it’s positively wordsmithery, Pluk! But how about ‘bait shifting’ or ‘boat racing’? As in whose boat will crash first upon the rocky shores of the electorate’s turbulent rapids?
milo
Wait a second. Ferraro is speaking about Reagan Democrats. I seem to recall her running against Reagan and losing 49-1. Let’s just say that her campaign didn’t have a clue how to get a Reagan Democrat to vote for it. And now she knows? WTF?
It’s sort of like claiming a primary season which began in March with an incumbent President running who then dropped out is similarly situated to a primary season begun in January against the most sustainably unpopular President in history.
It’s the
economystupidity, stupid.Dreggas
Sadly it was the same for me, I grew up in BFE, Upstate NY and while some of the racism was prominent most of it was passive. The whole “reverse racism” bull shit as well. Racism is racism no matter the race committing it. Fortunately once I escaped to California I was able to remove some of the taint, and admit that it was not easy and sometimes there’re parts that haven’t gone completely. It’s one of many reasons I moved here and one of the many bigotry’s I sought to escape.
Mike
Geraldine Ferraro was an obscure New York Congresswoman in ’84, and was obviously selected purely to be the first woman on a major party ticket. Unfortunately, the Mondale people didn’t vet her sufficiently, so what little political oxygen Mondale had while running against an enormously popular incumbent was spent defending her against her husband’s shady real estate dealings.
So, sure, when Ferraro speaks from her expertise in running a national campaign, I listen. Unless Thomas Eagleton is speaking at the same time. Or Carrot Top.
D0n Camillo
How the hell do you mispell IMHO?
Mike G
What they’re waiting for is assurance that an Obama administration won’t leave them behind.
They continually vote for Rethugs who deliberately leave them behind economically. If you make yourself easily politically-manipulated by empty rhetoric about Jeebus and hatin’ gays then you’re going to keep getting the shitty results you’ve always gotten, and keep on complaining about it. And when something better than the usual economic ass-reaming comes along, you nitpick and discard its substance because it doesn’t pander as energetically.
flyerhawk
Ummmm, Gerry? No one gives a fuck about Reagan Democrats except for 80s politicians still stuck in their Jordache jeans.
I’m much more interested in Obama Republicans. You know who I’m a talking about. These are the people that are sick of BS Republican shit.
Reagan Democrats? Fuck them. The best thing about the 80s was the dredges of the racist South finally found their proper home in the Grand Old Party.
Adam
This is the really fucking astonishing thing to me. “Reagan Democrats” are Democrats who defected to the GOP in ’80 and ’84. While I understand that Ferraro is using the term as shorthand for “white and working-class,” she’s pretty much by definition not a spokesperson for “Reagan Democrats” since she’s one of four people who campaigned against Ronald Reagan. For Geraldine Ferraro to complain about how Reagan Democrats are being discriminated against is like John McCain railing against the corrupt ethics of the Keating Four.
Dennis - SGMM
Reagan Democrats? How long ago was that? What Ferraro is really saying is that there is a segment of the populace who will pull their butt cheeks open for you with their own hands as long as you mouth the right code words.
Incertus
If cousin retarded of Yoda you are? Heh.
Adam
“In humbling my opinion” — see, it kind of makes sense as another way of saying “I’m an idiot”
cbear
Whoa, whoa, whoa, Dennis—that little bit of imagery is definitely not something I needed before dinner.
“Honey, why don’t we skip cooking the rump roast tonight..and maybe just fry some chicken or something?”
Warren Terra
The Tsuris will, FSM willing and if the Clintons don’t want to completely lost their gravy train (not to mention their roles in public life) all be over on Wednesday. Hopefully someone can convince Geraldine to crawl back to wherever she was before the Clinton campaign exhumed her from under some rock.
Even the Hillasphere has pretty much given up. They’re all locked in a circle-jerk about how the only fair solution is full seating for FL and MI, no Obama delegates from MI, and – I swear I am not making this up – yesterday Pup Tent Democrat was explaining that there should be delegate penalties for Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina. And that Obama should lose his FL delegates for running a national ad and “appearing” in FL (Obama and Clinton both held fundraisers in FL).
But the point is, they’re over in their own safe world, engaging in mutual forms of Electing The President. They’re not over here explaining that we must all bow down to She Who Must Be Nominated. They know it’s over.
P.S. That hyperlink there, explaining the Euphemism, is not really safe for work. And the site tries to load Microsoft Office Data Provider, which I hate.
Dennis - SGMM
Anyone who praises their own cleverness has none.
El Cid
Clearly what we need to heal the Democratic Party is to return to the roots of the pre-1964 Southern Democratic Party.
Now they knew how to be sensitive to white fears that black politicians would not fairly treat them!
b-psycho
No, it’s not “payback time”. However, considering what we’ve gone through to get to this point, rather than fear payback we’d recommend you shut up and be really damn glad it’s not.
Signed,
Black America
Dreggas
One of those cases of “Don’t break your arm patting yourself on the back, dipshit”
r€nato
why does anyone care what Geraldine Ferraro thinks, outside of Long Island? She’s like the answer to an 80s trivia game question. That’s the extent of her relevancy. She was plucked out of complete obscurity to be the first Veep on a major party ticket, she and Mondale got thoroughly crushed, and she returned to complete obscurity.
kind of an off white
Explanation is what really sells a good joke.
Okay, seriously? Anyone who stops you on the street to express that sentiment is a racist. I’m sorry, and that doesn’t mean that there’s no such thing as members of minority groups who see discrimination where it doesn’t exist, but just trust me on this. I grew up in New England and spent my twenties in South Carolina, so I’m fluent in Honkese.
Mind you, they’re not white supremacists, and they probably don’t wish anyone any harm, but they’re racists. And nitwits like Ferraro only reinforce these goobers’ sad little worldview by nodding along and saying “good point!”
In closing, may I just say, fuck this primary season with a curling iron.
Conservatively Liberal
OT, but here is a link that you people need to check out. Be sure to read the comments, they are a riot!
I had to disappear for an out of town repair on a network I maintain (hardware failure), so the first thing I do when I come back is go off topic.
;)
Ted
Huh. Bill Clinton was a Rhodes Scholar who went to fucking Oxford. And didn’t he meet Hillary there also?
PeterJ
They have been drinking their koolaid so long so I’m guessing Jeralyntown is the next logical step.
Ted
Why? What’s changed in the last few days for them to go into Jonestown mode?
Genine
That’s fucking funny.
Anyway, Obama has NOT been playing “the race card”. He couldn’t have and gotten as far as he has gotten.
If Obama played the race card, he would have gone from “Barack Obama Superstar Candidate” to “Ummm… Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Barack Obama…. I don’t know which.” In .006 seconds. He would have been dropped and marginalized. And we sure as hell wouldn’t see him getting the support that he has been given.
As for Jesse Jackson, Jr’s remark- yes, that was race-baiting a bit. And guess what? Not really a peep from him since.
But how many “peeps” have we heard from Ferraro, Mark Penn, Carville, and others? It’s fairly like a birds’ nest in spring time.
How about Hillary playing the gender card? She’s definitely done that.
All this talk is projection pure and simple.
slag
Re the race card: Obama’s campaign knows it’s to his disadvantage when people think of him as the black candidate. So, the idea of him intentionally playing the race card defies both logic and the evidence.
Adam
Real Americans understand the difference between Yale and Harvard, you elitist. I mean you philistine. Oh, hell, I don’t even know anymore.
Xenos
I am more afraid of Irish payback based on my Ulster Presbyterian ancestors than I am afraid of African-American payback for my Tennessee Baptist ancestors. Actually not – in both cases the oppressed have dealt with things better than the unreformed Ulster and Tennessee relatives, who still live petty lives darkened with bitterness and resentment. Funny, that – must be karma.
Although once I did find myself arguing a difficult case with an African-American judge with the same last name as mine. I was happy he did not start inquiring about kin in open court. Either too much a gentleman, or just did not care.
Jorge
Sullivan has a great link that puts this whole thing into context…
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/05/sexism-sexism-s.html
w vincentz
Geraldine?
Are you fucking SERIOUS?
Come on now.
GERAL- fuckin’-DINE?
PULEEEZE,
gsp
To paraphase George Carlin, “as a white person our job isn’t to cry the blues but to cause the blues.” quit crying the blues, ferraro.
El Cid
Via DailyKos, Donna Brazile is tired of this sh*t:
Jess
Gosh, I wonder how I’ve escaped unscathed so far. Maybe because I refrain from spouting racist bullshit?
tattoosydney
I imagine that it may have been linked to a few times, and its kind of off topic (but not if it fits into the “crazy crap that is coming out of some Hillary supporters’ mouths)…
I’m finding Meet the Hill Hags very amusing at the moment….
The very best of nutpicking from the Pink Satan… best of all, the posters on the real Hillaryis44 have finally been tipped off that “Meet the Hill Hags” exists, and it looks like its all going to become horribly post modern and self referential very quickly…
When that blessed day comes, and Hillary drops out, “Meet the Hill Hags” is going to be a good way to monitor the exploding heads without actually having to visit Hillaryis44…
w vincentz
gsp.
I’ve been trying to put together this G/G xxx movie I’ve been creating. I’m still awaiting call backs from the casting folks. The script is finished. As are Hill and her BF4Evah.
The leads have been offered, Hillary and Geraldine.
Hey bitches, “Do you want MORE money?”
The phone sometimes gets disconnected.
I can’t understand why they’d hang up.
I’ve only offered them an opportunity to show off their svelt bodies, cause, afterall, their political careers are OVER!
I keep telling these bitches I do my best to turn them in lesbian porn stars, and they don’t EVEN call the fuck back!
Fuck them! They had their chance. I’m tired of waiting.
I’ll be searching for future stars as the come out of the buses for the “PROTEST” on Sat. when the rules and bylaws folks show the reality.
I’ll make some stars, I tell ya.
Just take off your panties, honeys.
SMILE!
Warren Terra
vincentz, that comment is offensive and unfunny. But hey, at least there was no violence involved.
Genine
Umm…. going into ick factor.
Conservatively Liberal
I found a clip of some old McCain ads that someone spliced together. I thought we all could use a preview of what Obama will have to face this fall.
eric
I’m no psychoanalyst, but…
maybe she thinks that if Clinton wins, she helped pave the way for it. She’s not getting any younger – and maybe she’s sees this as her last chance to re-define herself as a member of the winning team. But the reality is, no matter what happens — she’s still just a loser.
D-Chance.
Just your typical White Christian Southern Redneck… oh, you say she’s from New York and part of the Northeastern Liberal Establishment? Eh, nevermind…
Oh, and btw:
And that sideliner is part of the problem. She a super delegate and she’s still “uncommitted”. She’s publicly said on CNN that she’ll wait until there’s a clear pledged delegate winner and then she’ll vote for THAT candidate. So, screw you, Donna and the uncommitted pony you rode in on. YOU are the primary REASON for “this sh*t” by sitting idly by waiting for the bandwagon to do your horse-hitchin’ work for you instead of showing some decisiveness and party leadership.
Personally, I find it hilarious. Come Denver, bring on the torches and pitchforks! Townspeople arise and rebel!
Conservatively Liberal
Ferraro is probably ‘bitter’ because she was more than likely a token VP, chosen more for her gender than her track record. I remember back then the Mondale/Ferraro ticket was derisively referred to as the “Fritz & Tits” ticket. I heard Democrats referring to them as that! I knew that was not going to bode well for them at all.
I voted for them, but at that time it was more of a vote against RayGun than a vote for them.
Now she sees a real history making candidate, and the fact that the first candidate to break a ‘barrier’ to the Presidency is going to be an AA rather than a woman probably pisses her off. Especially since this year it is almost a lock that the winner is going to be a Democrat.
The way she views it is that this is THE year for Hillary to be the first woman President and that Obama is unfairly denying her the win.
Because he is black. I don’t know how you can parse that into anything except that Geraldine has a problem with race.
Maggie
It’s hard to get worked up about Ferrarro. “Passive racist” is a great way of describing it — but part of that way of being is being utterly blind to the way race shapes how you see the world.
What’s funny about that is that I remember in 1984 thinking it was interesting that when Mondale went for a ‘ground-breaking’ VP, he went for a white woman, and not a person of color. It was the safer way to break ground. People never see how these things break for them — but the very fact that she was the first ‘ground-breaker’ on a major ticket speaks volumes about whether race or gender is seen as a more signficant liability.
(Of course, the same self-serving blindness happens with Clinton. Sexism was a big problem with her campaign. But, talking out of the other side of her mouth, she’s more electable than Obama. I guess we’re supposed to think that sexism is a problem, just not *that* big of a problem. Or maybe that gender is a liability with the democrats and an advantage with the rest of the electorate, while race is an advantage with the democrats and a liability with the rest of the electorate. Yeah, that works. Makes total sense.
DFD
Someone!
Please!
Hand Geraldine a tissue!
Warren Terra
I was just a youngling when Ferraro got the veep nomination, but I remember the general air of bewilderment – not that a woman had been chosen, but that it was a nonentity. It really is sad that the distinguished role of “first woman on a major party ticket” is taken by Ferraro. In fairness, it seems a bunch of these “first on a major party ticket” slots are kinda held by scuzzes: Joe Lieberman is the first Jew on a major party ticket (a sore point for me as a fellow Red Sea Pedestrian), and machine politician and notorious FDR hater Al Smith was the first Catholic nominated for President by a major party (I don’t know if there was a previous Catholic veep nominee, or maybe even a Catholic veep).
The tragedy in the case of Ferraro is that Mondale could have chosen one of the actual distinguished women well-known as Democratic politicians of national reputation in the early 1980’s. Barbara Jordan might have been one ‘first’ too many, but there was Pat Schroeder. People who were more aware at the time could likely name more.
wasabi gasp
Man, I really want some weed. Damn you, w vincentz. Over.
eric
She’s a piece of work:
“If Jesse Jackson were not black, he wouldn’t be in the race” – Geraldine Ferraro, April 14, 1988
She’s also corrupt:
“After selling $70,000 in bonds Monday, Mrs. Ferraro said that she had ”painfully” written a check to the Internal Revenue Service for $53,459 in back taxes and interest, owed because of what has been described as an accountant’s error in underestimating her income from a 1978 property sale. Mrs. Ferraro used the proceeds of that transaction to repay illegal loans by her husband and family to her first Congressional campaign. “ – New York Times, August 22, 1984
Cain
From GOS:
Hastert is joining Dickstein.. haha the jokes write themselves. :-)
cain
ScottF
For those of you wondering what the meme on Ferraro was in 1984, I point you to this rather pathetic attempt at humor I wrote for a Princeton Band halftime show in 1984 (right after the season-opening playing of “Princeton Forward”).
And I voted for her. Imagine how all the Reagan Democrats must’ve felt.
Ironically, Michelle Obama (Robinson) ’85 might well have been there to hear it in person…
Sasha
IIRC, all Obama said was that Bill’s choice of words was “unfortunate”. Then the Clinton camp decried that comment as playing the card.
Mike
I remember back then the Mondale/Ferraro ticket was derisively referred to as the “Fritz & Tits” ticket.
That must have been the polite version. The one I recall had her lower down.
Josh E.
Man that is fucking clever. Taking two compound words and switching them up. Goddamn is that clever.
wasabi gasp
p.luk just really enjoys rift-gloating.
cleek
here’s a pluknugget i found on a TL thread earlier today. it’s off-topic, but so much fun, i just can’t not share it:
fap!fap!fap!fap!
Pelosi Scheming Is The Consspeeracee! Triple Bank Shot For The Evil Win! Trechurry Is Go!
Warren Terra
No, Wasabi, you’re doing it wrong.
The correct form would be as follows:
After all, how else would we know you’re being clever? And the references, oh, the references, far too abstruse for any mortal being.
Jeffrey
I’ve only been a lurker for a few months now, but I have to say even by P.Luk’s standards that’s a shitload of crazy.
Chuck Butcher
John, you’re a hell of a lot nicer to Geraldine than I am.
Jack H.
Nobody has explained to me yet why if Democratic primary voters are so racist and misogynist, one of the very qualified white males didn’t win the nomination.
Kevin
When I see the ravings of Geraldine Ferraro, I think of what Molly Ivins said about Camille Paglia, years ago:
Doug H. (Fausto no more)
And patronizing.luk reveals he resides in the same land of crazy with Dan Burton and his watermelons. A damn shame, but I guess we were going to find out sooner or later.
GSD
I think the race card is the Welfare Queen of Spades.
So I’ve been told.
-Concerned White American
Conservatively Liberal
I have heard Donna herself on CNN say that she is “undeclared”, not “undecided”. She once leaned towards Hillary, but that changed after Hillary went ballistic on Obama about Wright. Once the primary races are over, she will declare who she is supporting.
Incertus
Something else I’m not sure anyone touched on. Obama is a single black man. If he gets elected, he’ll be a powerful one, to be sure, but still, he’ll be one man, while Congress, last I checked, is chock full of white dudes, with a few women and brown folks of both genders tossed in. What exactly do white folks have to worry about in terms of being left behind again?
Conservatively Liberal
Sounds like Mother Nature might want to get in on the action in D.C. tomorrow.
Splitting Image
“In fairness, it seems a bunch of these “first on a major party ticket” slots are kinda held by scuzzes: Joe Lieberman is the first Jew on a major party ticket (a sore point for me as a fellow Red Sea Pedestrian), and machine politician and notorious FDR hater Al Smith was the first Catholic nominated for President by a major party (I don’t know if there was a previous Catholic veep nominee, or maybe even a Catholic veep).”
Too true. John McCain is the first Vietnam veteran to be nominated by a major party, and look at him.
Warren Terra
Fixed.
Oh, and in case you were wondering, the ones you forgot were John Kerry and Al Gore, though I don’t think the latter was in combat.
Lupin
The Mondale/Ferraro ticket was IMHO by far the worst Dem ticket in my lifetime.
Splitting Image
“Oh, and in case you were wondering, the ones you forgot were John Kerry and Al Gore, though I don’t think the latter was in combat.”
True that. I didn’t know Al Gore served, but I clean forgot about Kerry.
I don’t know if that’s a worse reflection on me or on Kerry. :o)
firebrand
Christ. I am so looking forward to the day when we can leave racist idiots like Geraldine Ferraro behind. Hopefully, that will be Tuesday.
Darkrose
I’ll cosign that one.
dslak
The Thing That Should Not Be.
jake
Well duh. That’s why only the popular votes (in certain states) should count. We can’t ignore the will of the people (who voted for Hillary).
kind of an off white
Dennis - SGMM
Busloads of Clinton supporters are going to be demonstrating at today’s meeting of the Democratic party’s Rules and Bylaws Committee meeting.
Here’s Monty Python’s “Hell’s Grannies” for a preview of the action.
Wilfred
If everything is against you, get Lanny Davis:
It’s a waste of time since Obama has the thing wrapped up but did anyone ever ask the Hilbots how she would do in the general with the shot and beer crowd once the McCain campaign successfully, and easily, painted her as the doyenne of radical feminism. Anybody? Lanny?
Prospero
Um. Is that supposed to be a good thing?
Dennis - SGMM
Thank you, Wilfred. After reading your linked article, I now know pluk’s real name.
Joy
Sorry for the technical question here. I’m not all that computer savvy. How do you guys bracket comments so you can highlight them in your own comments? Thanks!
ET
I have had women say that they are voting for Hillary because she is a woman. Then to see this comment from the wench in a op-ed about blacks accusing people of racism for not supporting Obama.
“…But I do know that it will never happen again as long as women are willing to stand up and make sure that it is just a one-time bad experience…”
I guess she doesn’t see the hypocrisy. The more I hear/see of the older female generation – the “feminists” from the 70’s the more I dislike them and see why others don’t like them as well. I can thank them for their contributions, but I do just wish they would retire and shut the hell up.
Otto Man
Highlight the text, click B-Quote button.
Dan
My God, you fuckers are cracking me up!
Bob In Pacifica
Let me see. Lieberman, Ferraro. Lloyd Bentsen. All insurance for the ruling elite in case the Presidential candidate actually won and strayed off the reservation. Johnson, too.
Dennis - SGMM
Click the little button with the >> on it at the top left of the box where you type your comments. That will open the toolbar. Highlight the text in your comment then click the B-Quote button.
Dennis - SGMM
You may have something there or it may have just been ticket balancing – which worked out well for all of them, yes? In any case, Lloyd Bentsen’s magnificent smackdown of Dan Quayle was a high water mark. If you view the video, note the reaction shot of Bentsen as Quayle compares himself to JFK: he looks like a batter who just got a non-fastball right over the plate.
Rick Taylor
This Hillary parable has been posted many times before, but it seems appropriate to this thread.
sunny
Aww, you just made me miss Molly all over again. I would love to hear what she has to say about this primary season. She would put it all into perspective and have us howling with laughter at the same time. *cry*
You are so spot on Bob. I will fall over and die if Obama picks Hillary.
Dave_Violence
Bentson was a good choice for VP. Dukakis wasn’t a good choice for P,. neither was Mondale. Lieberman was a brilliant choice for VP, though AG should’ve run a more aggressive campaign.
eh.
Then there’s this:
The “them” are the so-called Reagan-Democrats, right? These were the liberals who liked lazy-fare economics and did quite well (“as long as it makes money…”). My recollection is that these folks embraced Clinton I because he promised (in words? maybe, maybe not) the same economic vision. He delivered, too, so naturally these people want a return to that. Though there’s a lot of money to be made right now, especially for Ivy-League lawyers, Marymount grads notwithstanding.
Ferraro is lying that the Reagan-Democrats are worried about supporting Obama because they’ll be treated unfairly due to they’re being white. As long as it makes money, it doesn’t matter which democrat is in office.
cleek
from the comments at ObWi:
zing!
pinola
I remember Jim Webb said essentially the same thing a few weeks ago on KO. Being from the south, although college-educated, I think Ferraro is admitting, albiet rather clumsily, to an uncomfortable truth about some whites.
And if we are to have a discussion about race in this country, we need to acknowledge these feeling exist among some whites and figure out how to deal with it without alienating them. Some will never change how they feel, but some, if educated, may be able to make more informed, less prejudiced decisions, such as in the voting booth.
As Obama would say, talking to someone is not appeasement. Indeed, it is often the first step towards understanding.
Brachiator
The problem, of course, is that Ferraro, as a notable figure in the Democratic Party, is not attempting to counter this supposedly “uncomfortable truth.”
She is wallowing in it.
Ferraro is still clearly acting as a Clinton surrogate. And since the time of the Ohio and Pennsylvania primaries, Clinton has hewed tightly to the line that some whites just won’t vote for Obama, that’s just the way it is, and so everyone should just as well bow down to She Who Is Inevitable.
I am not aware of a single substantive statement coming from the Clinton camp on the vital need to discourage negative racial sentiments in order to make sure that the Democrats win the general election. Instead, you get the lame accusations that it is only Obama, and never the wonderfully pure and tolerant Clintons, who is playing the race card.
And now, we also get from Clinton surrogate Lanny Davis the sly bullshit that the general electorate “is not as progressive” as Democrats — uh, more bluntly, the general population is a bunch of racists — so everyone must nominate Hillary because she is
obviously the stronger candidatenot black.And if Clinton does very well in the Puerto Rico primary, you will inevitably see Clinton telling the pundits that Latinos will not vote for a black candidate, so Hillary must be named the nominee.
Senator Clinton is deliberately exploiting race now because she understands in her cynical core that if she manages to wrest the nomination from Obama, then there will no longer be any point in having a discussion about race. There might be a scattering of articles about America not being ready for a black candidate, but the new media narrative will be about the potential victory for women in general and Hillary in particular. Any white person still writing about race will be scolded for not being positive or helpful to the cause of women; any black people unhappy with this outcome will be dismissed as angry, sullen, ungrateful wretches who do no know their place.
Lihtox
I think there’s a difference between voting FOR someone and voting AGAINST someone. I have more sympathy for someone voting for a candidate because they are the same sex or race (particularly in this case where that vote would be historic), than for someone voting against a candidate because s/he is white or black or male or female or Catholic or Jewish or what have you.
Jay C
Shorter Geraldine Ferraro:
“I tell people that they shouldn’t vote for the n****r, and I get called a racist! How unfair!!”
grumpy realist
This is the sort of activity that makes me want to think the Democratic Party just really, really doesn’t want to get elected.
Think of it–after 7 years of the Idiot Who Is Going Down In History As The Worst President EVAH, and the only thing the Democratic Party can do is stand around and play Circular Firing Squad.
Sheesh, I think I’ll go vote for the Libertarians. Or the Greens. If we’re going to go down in voting defeat, shouldn’t we at least do it for a reason besides Because We’re Really Really Stupid?
Oh, and Hillary? I hope you’ve figured into your strategic calculations that a heck of a lot of people are going to be really, really pissed if it looks like your shenanigans have resulted in the Republicans putting someone back into the White House. AGAIN.
jecadebu
Yes, she always was that stupid. (I was old enough to vote and greatly regretted it.) I think she had much to do with the paucity of women candidates for top positions in the decades after the terrible error of promoting Gerry to a national audience. I think her husband was investigated after the election for some financial finagle she was also involved in. And when her son went to jail for a drugs offence she claimed he was a victim of her celebrity. It’s tough being a rich white boy — too bad he isn’t black, then he would have been let off in Gerry’s demented world.