Has Geraldine Ferraro Lost Her Goddamn Mind?

Posted by Seth Kramer on Wednesday, March 12th 2008 at 1:41am



You may or may not have heard the recent remarks by three-term Queens County Congresswoman, and one time Vice Presidential Nominee Geraldine Ferraro, but they were so surprising that I was awoken from my slumber of quasi-depression at Senator Clinton's insistence that she is a viable candidate to the detriment of the party I had to blog this.

So take it away crazylady:

“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.”

Now that is a gaffe. I'm sure Senator Obama was counting his lucky stars that he was born a black man to a teenage mother. It doubtless opened SOOOO many doors, being the child of an interracial marriage in the 1960s. But that alone is not the end of it. Oh no. After Ferraro made this jaw-dropping statement to a California paper Senator Clinton's usual integrity-laden response was “eh, whatever.”. Okay the actual quote was “I do not agree with that.” Courageous response, Senator, truly courageous.

But then, to make matters worse, Ferraro felt the need to clarify after the utter shock at her remarks.

"Any time anybody does anything that in any way pulls this campaign down and says let's address reality and the problems we're facing in this world, you're accused of being racist, so you have to shut up," Ferraro said. "Racism works in two different directions. I really think they're attacking me because I'm white. How's that?"

What the fuck have you been smoking? Seriously, you felt saying what is essentially “they're only voting for him because he's black” “address[ed] the problems we're facing in this world”? Is there a huge problem of black people acquiring too much power? 'cause I must have missed that particular geopolitical trend. And that ending, wow! I haven't heard anything that unhinged since Rush Limbaugh briefly commentated for Monday Night Football.

Still I expect Sen. Clinton to have her typical response. As she's done with her taxes, the presidential library donations, the presidential library documents, etc. she'll completely ignore it and pretend that her fundraising committee isn't higher than a kite.

But still this is bad for Sen. Clinton. I don't think she wants the image of Ferraro popping up in association with her campaign. No matter how popular she is/was in Queens, it reminds us all of the efficacy of President Mondale's administration.



Add to that the trouble for another superdelegate of hers, Eliot Spitzer, going down in a sex scandal, and of course the subsequent reminders of the whole ordeal with her husband and Lewinsky, aren't a great juxtaposition.

It's now time for Obama to strike back. Not in some sleezy way, but just point out “this is how the Clintons do business.” Remind the democratic party that while there were good times, the Clintons also brought some sleezy politics. No need to mention the Chinese fundraising (See also: Norman Hsu), pardons that likely led to donations for the Clinton Library (See also: Mark Rich), Travelgate, Whitewater, etc.

Last but not least, return to the message of change, and stress that change doesn't occur with the same cast of characters. Talk about the damage she does to downticket races by mobilizing conservative voters who are demoralized by the GOP picking McCain as their candidate.

Oh, and I forgot to mention Obama won Mississippi 61/37. As counting continues it appears he may have picked up more delegates out of Texas and California than originally thought. According to MSNBC as of 1:30 AM his delegate count is 1394 to her 1242, a net lead of 152 delegates.

State count: Obama 29 (including Dems Abroad, DC, and Virgin Islands), Clinton 15 (including American Samoa)

Up next: Pennsylvania (April 22), Guam (May 3), Indiana (May 6), North Carolina (May 6), Nebraska (May 13), West Virginia (May 13), Kentucky (May 20), Oregon (May 20), Montana (June 3), South Dakota (June 3), Puerto Rico (June 7).

Longest race EVAR!

UPDATE:
Check out this video. h/t Andrew Sullivan