Comments on: Clinton-backer Ferraro: Obama Where He Is Because He’s Black

By: Howya Doin

Howya Doin — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 03:27:19 +0000

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

By: Agitator

Agitator — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 02:57:37 +0000

Obama for Vice President in 2008!

By: j.A.Laukaitis

j.A.Laukaitis — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 23:43:48 +0000

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

By: Kimberly Clark

Kimberly Clark — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 23:45:02 +0000

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

By: Bryce

Bryce — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 20:34:10 +0000

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

By: Mary Ann

Mary Ann — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 20:35:58 +0000

Ferraro’s comment was not a racist one; it was an objective one. The fact is that a significant portion of Obama’s support is derived from his message of “hope,” which is inextricably tied to his own ability to have pulled himself up by the bootstraps in spite of his race. Obama is receiving an overwhelming amount of the black popular vote; I do not believe for one moment that 90% of black Americans in Mississippi firmly believe that Barack Obama is the best candidate regardless of race. They believe he is the best candidate, at least in significant part, specifically because of his race.
I do not want to discredit Obama’s accomplishments. As a social worker, I firmly support his work as a community organizer and have a great deal of respect for that. However, being a community organizer and working in public defense does not mean that Obama is ready to lead our country in the White House, nor does it provide a better resume than his competitor’s.
Senator Clinton has significantly more experience than Obama, and she has a history of fighting for the constituents of the Democratic party. I think this campaign just goes to show that sexism is as strong as ever in our country, and unfortunately the policy of affirmative action is playing out in the unfair way its opponents proclaim that it does. Obama is receiving a hand-up over Hillary Clinton, in spite of clear evidence that she is significantly more qualified to lead our country.

By: Bob Long

Bob Long — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 21:43:48 +0000

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

By: Anthony

Anthony — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 20:18:49 +0000

Ferraro is just another goon for The Clinton Campaign. They are trying to pull out reverse psychology here on the media too in yet another attempt to play the refs. Ferraro is hurt and appalled?…by comments that SHE made!!! The Obama Camp are trying to distract voters from issues with the race card?…SHE brought up the issue of race. You can’t say “play fair and focus on the issues” in front of the camera, but take a cheap shot aimed at race as soon as the camera is off. We saw Samsntha Power resign for a comment much less offensive than this, yet Clinton simply “disagrees” with Ferraro’s comments; much like an unknown “staffer” circulated a photo of Obama in African garb to try and convince voters he is Muslim, which according to the Clinton Camp is a bad thing; and, much like The Republican John McCain would make a better president than Obama.
What more does Clinton need to do to fall out of grace with Democrats and be portrayed in a more negative light? People keep waiting for Obama to slip up, yet it is the Clinton Camp that has slipped up 3 times now with the photo, the McCain comment, and now Ferraro. She is dividing the Democratic Party in order to convince people that she should be given an election that she has clearly lost.
This is hurting the Democratic Party and she needs to be stopped before she destroys it for her own benefit. Blacks make up a large portion of the party, and she is refusing to disown a comment that claims that it’s easier to run for president being black than it is being white. How does she say now that Obama should be her VP when she has associated herself a comment that suggest that Obama’s only qualifications are his speeches and his race? How does she win black votes now if she was to steal the nomination? How does she get anybody to endorse her with her message of racial division?
She is killing the Democratic Party by using the very thing that the party is against, racism. She needs to be stopped here, and the only thing that can stop her before she destroys the party is an endorsement from major party leaders in an attempt to re-unify the party. Al Gore, John Edwards, and Bill Richardson need to come out and endorse Obama and reject these comments and reject the tactics taken up by the Clinton Campaign or this party will be destroyed.

By: Albert Johnson Jr

Albert Johnson Jr — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 20:18:27 +0000

Ms. Ferraro,
I am terribly disappointed. Your recent suggestion that Mr. Obamas’ success happened only because he is black is especially painful. To think that being black in America is a lucky thing strikes me as being inconsiderate.
I am a black person born the same year as Mr. Obamas’ wife 1964, and I can tell you at no time in my life was being black a lucky thing, or are you unaware of the sad and continuing legacy of American race relations. You disregard Mr. Obamas’ legitimate and laudable accomplishments by attributing them to one thing, and it’s the one thing Mr. Obama tries least to be – a man of race. Mr. Obama is a child of God, a husband, a father, a university graduate and a lawyer. Mr. Obama has been a stellar state representative of Illinois and he is currently a United States Senator, and great American. Somewhere probably in the high teens of the list of things Mr. Obama is would be black man.
The statements you have made and defend amount to making his race his primary attribute. You are playing the race card in a manner that is insulting, and quite frankly would be more expected from the kind of reactionary people America has hopefully outgrown.
In 1984 I was a student at the University of Southern California an institution with a traditionally conservative bent. I remember campaigning for and ardently defending a certain congressperson from New York as being more than just a woman, but a person regardless of gender worthy to potentially lead this country. I’m sorry to know now that I was wrong, and all the time any Gerard really would have sufficed.

By: Emmanuel Lewis

Emmanuel Lewis — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 19:39:30 +0000

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