Geraldine Ferraro And Why Can’t We Speak The Truth?
Geraldine Ferraro stepped down as a member of one of Hillary Clintons finance committee’s yesterday after news media and the Obama campaign seized on her comments about Obama’s success so far in this election.
What she said was “I think what America feels about a woman becoming president takes a very secondary place to Obama’s campaign — to a kind of campaign that it would be hard for anyone to run against. If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position, and if he was a woman [of any color] he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept.”
What Ferraro said was spot on if taken in the context it was intended. Obama is playing the race card because it benefits him to do so. Not because he believes her remarks were racist, but because he is a seasoned politician who won’t miss any opportunity to leverage his position by associating his opponent with the perceived offender. As I’ve said many times before, the end always justifies the means in American politics.
Obama should have leveraged Ferraro’s comments as an affirmation rather than a mean spirited discrimination. This election is historic. He should have celebrated the acknowledgement, rather than vilify and condemn her for speaking the truth. I think he missed a great opportunity to separate himself from the predictable attack dog campaign style we are weary of seeing. This should have been a moment in which Obama demonstrated his ability to unify rather than divide.
I am not a speech writer, but had I been asked what he should say in response it would have been something like:
“Thank you Geraldine for raising this prickly issue. It is important that we discuss this so that it does not become a campaign theme because there are way too many other things that the American people really care about for this to distract us from our mission of hope and change. I am proud of my African American ethnicity as all Americans should be of their families history. Isn’t it wonderful that so many new people have found their way into the election process as they exercise their right to vote. We are seeing people all across the nation realize one of the great promises of freedom and liberty by participating in this election. If the fact that I am a black man has contributed to this phenomenal surge of interest, then I am proud to be part of that success. The rest of the world is watching, so lets not disappoint them with boorish behavior by debating non issues. Instead join me in the celebration of a new day in America, where an African American man and a female of any race or color has a legitimate opportunity to be elected President of the United States”.
In my opinion comments like that would have earned him far more collateral then the dishonest objections promoted by his campaign.
My .02
4 Responses to “Geraldine Ferraro And Why Can’t We Speak The Truth?”
Ok Josh I will play along. ‘I would like Potpourri for $800, Alex’ - I don’t ever recall saying blacks ‘have it so much easier than us white people’. In fact I would say that is patently absurd. I will point out that the rules of manifest-destiny require each person to be responsible for their own outcomes. Don’t blame others if your life is in the toilet. Simple rules; if your job sucks, you suck as an employee. If your employees suck, you suck as a manager. If your children suck, you suck as a parent. If your marriage sucks, you suck as a spouse. Begining to see the trend?
Nick - we are getting off track. The fundamental question that Gerry F. started - “Has Obama gotten any further in the nomination process because he is black and not white (I will stay away from the gender issues for now)”, There is no credible evidence that this is the case. Of course he does better in black populations and he does worse in Hispanic populations. I don’t want to try and get into the question of are Hispanic’s anti black or more correctly are enough Hispanics anti-black that there voting block as a hole are skewed by the race question. It’s a valid question, I just have not seen enough data on it to have an informed opinion - I will say that historically the race issue always tends to be bigger with lower educated/lower income voters and clearly being black has not helped Obama with Hispanics.
The question is among whites and more importantly among whites with less than a college degree - does being black help more than hurt. Results from states where HRC won, it seems to show that being black hurts - particularly among less educated white males. Ohio is a good test case to look at, from what has been reported on some exit polling, a large portion of less educated white males that indicated race was important in choosing a candidate choose HRC. Now yes, this is exactly the type of question that we can not completely trust polling, because people have a bias to not report the truth (social obligation bias - being racist is no longer cool) but in this case the race card is very likely to under-report the problem not over-report it.
I need to get more cross-tabulation data to strengthen my argument, and I will, but Rob or you and the one’s arguing that being black helps Obama, I would love to see some kind of evidence or at least logical reasoning as to why it is the case.
The data that I have looked at more is Whites - is
JW - No one wants to talk about race unless we recast it as hypothetical or package it in a statistical arrangement. The moment the subject comes up people leave the room and pretend its not an issue. The speech he gives today will determine and define the rest of his candidacy. He should have given this speech last week or last month as I pointed out in the original thread. This would have gone away and we would be discussing the real issues. Instead he made luke warm statements that actually did him more harm. He said he wasn’t in church to hear any of the more abhorent comments made by Wright. I promise you there are GOP and HRC researchers digging for video footage or any witnesses that can put him in that church during any of the hate filled diatrabes. Obama also tried to carefully distance himself from the church leaders. If he throws Wright under the bus the question will be ‘why did you spend 20 years going to his church if he is such a bad guy’? If he defends him it will be suicide. His campaign advisors should be fired. This could very well cost him the nomination.
I will hold you (as one of his supporters) completely accountable for letting HRC win the nomination. I will send you a Juan McCain tee shirt and yard sign if that happens.
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First of all, I think Nick might have missed his true calling - speech writing. However his political analysis is a little off, Gerry said that if BHO was a colored woman or a woman at all that he would not be in this position. She is arguing that the electorate supporting him for his color AND that HRC is losing in the nomination because she is a woman. So black good, woman bad - this should not be ignored and it is not even close to reality.
I know the conservative in you wants to say that Blacks in this country have it so much easier than us white people but it just is not backed by any credible evidence
By joshwill on 03.14.08 4:20 pm