Geraldine Ferraro takes on a bitter tone:
“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,” she said. “For one thing, you have the press, which has been uniquely hard on her. It’s been a very sexist media. Some just don’t like her. The others have gotten caught up in the Obama campaign.
“If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position,” she continued. “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.” Ferraro does not buy the notion of Obama as the great reconciler.
“I was reading an article that said young Republicans are out there campaigning for Obama because they believe he’s going to be able to put an end to partisanship,” Ferraro said, clearly annoyed. “Dear God! Anyone that has worked in the Congress knows that for over 200 years this country has had partisanship – that’s the way our country is.”
I don’t mean to be nasty, but it is ironic for Geraldine Ferraro, of all people, to complain that Obama is only where is he is because of his race. In 1984, Ferraro was a bankbench congresswoman from Long Island. She had only joined Congress in 1979. In her brief time in Congress, ‘she served on the Public Works Committee, the Budget Committee and the Post Office Committee.’ In other words, she did nothing related to intelligence, to diplomacy, or to our armed services. She had no special qualifications to be president. Just by comparison, Barack Obama serves on the Foreign Relations committee, which has jurisdiction over the State Department among other things, and the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which is self-explanatory.
Walter Mondale selected Ferraro in spite of her thin resume because he hoped that it would bring him enough female votes to overcome Reagan’s popularity. If Ferraro had not been a woman, she never would have been considered for the ticket.
By contrast, Barack Obama has not been selected as some kind of Hail Mary electoral gamble. He has simply outcampaigned, outorganized, outfinanced, and outperformed all competitors…white…Hispanic…male…and female. Obama is not a quota pick, he’s the choice of the voters.
I don’t disagree that Clinton has faced some sexist news coverage, but if Ferraro thinks it’s a political advantage in this country to be half-black man with a Muslim-sounding middle name, maybe she could explain why Clinton’s team keeps reminding the voters about those facts. I never thought I’d see the day when being black was spun as an unfair advantage in a race to control the world’s most lethal arsenal. Silly me, I must be Rip Van Winkle, or something.
