Ferraro's Remarks About Obama Decried

WASHINGTON — Hillary Rodham Clinton said Tuesday she disagrees with Geraldine Ferraro, one of her fundraisers and the 1984 vice presidential candidate, for suggesting that Barack Obama only achieved his status in the presidential race because he's black. In a brief interview with The Associated Press, Clinton was questioned about Ferraro's remarks.

The Obama campaign has called on the New York senator to denounce them.

Ferraro told the Daily Breeze of Torrance, Calif.: "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."

The newspaper published the interview last Friday.

Clinton said, "I do not agree with that," and later added, "It's regrettable that any of our supporters _ on both sides, because we both have this experience _ say things that kind of veer off into the personal."

"We ought to keep this on the issues. there are differences between us" on approaches to health care, energy, experience.

Ferraro is a former New York congresswoman and was Walter Mondale's running mate when he was the Democratic presidential nominee in 1984. She has endorsed Clinton and raised money for her campaign.

Obama called Ferraro's comments "patently absurd."

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"I don't think Geraldine Ferraro's comments have any place in our politics or in the Democratic Party. They are divisive. I think anybody who understands the history of this country knows they are patently absurd," he told the Allentown Morning Call. "And I would expect that the same way those comments don't have a place in my campaign they shouldn't have a place in Senator Clinton's either."

Obama senior adviser David Axelrod said Ferraro should be removed from her position with the Clinton campaign because of her comments.

"The bottom line is this, when you wink and nod at offensive statements, you're really sending a signal to your supporters that anything goes," Axelrod said in a conference call with reporters on Tuesday.

"There's no other way to send a serious signal that you want to police the tone of this campaign," he added. "And if you don't do those things then you are simply adding to the growing compendium of evidence that you really are encouraging that."

Axelrod said Clinton has encountered problems because people view her as a "divisive and polarizing force."

"The best way to address those concerns is to not allow divisiveness and negativity to flourish among your supporters," he said. "And this is an opportunity for her to address that."

Jan Schakowsky, an Obama supporter and Illinois congresswoman, said Democrats should not tear each other down, and instead focus on defeating John McCain, the Republican nominee-in-waiting.

"I respect every person's right to promote his or her candidate, but any and all remarks that diminish Senator Obama's candidacy because of his race are completely out of line," Schakowsky said on the conference call.

Ferraro also said Obama has it easy because of a "very sexist media."

"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."

Last week, a former adviser to Obama resigned after calling Clinton "a monster."

___

Associated Press Writer Peter Jackson in Harrisburg, Pa., contributed to this report.

Comments

[enoughalready13]

I am confused by the attention of Geraldine Ferraro's comments. Although they probably came out rather "uneloquently," there is some truth to what she said.

This Democratic primary is all about race and gender, two topics that are now coming to the forefront because we have two candidates that are pioneering as an African American and as a woman. We are seeing Obama's support break overwhelming toward the AA vote, and Clinton's support break heavily toward the female vote. There is no doubt that identity politics are happening. If not, John Edwards would have seen much greater support, because he was just as qualified, if not more, running for President.

When Geraldine ran as the VP, she was attacked viciously for being a woman. All the forces that were questioned heavily whether the country was "ready" for a female President ... even though she was running as a VP. Flash forward to this political season, and no one is questioning whether the country is "ready" for an AA President ... despite the fact that he is the first real contender for the office. Confounding that surprise is that Obama has relatively less experience too compared with Edwards or Clinton.

So why is he getting such an unscrutinized pass? The obvious reason is because he is black. Now some may say that is racist, but in reality, it is a fair question. Now, compare this with all the negative press Clinton is getting for being a woman - she's "crying" in public? she's "emotional" when she passionately discusses issues? she's "whining" when she questions the unfair coverage of her in the press? she's a "bitch" or a "lesbian" when's she's tough? Yet if anyone raises any of these questions, it's not sexism, it's just beating up on another Clinton. This is absurd to me.

Quite frankly, I am proud that either a woman or an AA will potentially be the next President. It really doesn't matter if either wins, because it will be one more major step forward for this nation. But to focus on only one side of the equation - someone raising a question about Obama and it immediately becoming a "racial attack" - versus raising a question about Clinton and it NOT being sexist - is really an unfair double standard that needs to be examined.

Geraldine could and should have chosen her words more carefully, no douby. But moreover, this is a nation based on free speech, and she has every right to voice her opinion - as do others - given the freedoms we have in this country. To condemn anyone outright for questioning these issues, without understanding or examining the context for which these comments are being made, is not being democratic, fair or upholding the principles upon which this country was founded.

[castlerider]

There is a balance, an answer back, to this way of thinking...

And that is that there are a lot of people who in spite of his truly being qualified, whether he is or not, won't vote for him because he IS black.

I agree with Ferrarro, that yes, he is lucky. So is she.
He is lucky to be an American, as we all are.
This, his color, and whether or not that's why he's there does not change the fact that he will make an excellent president, and that the country is not just more then ready for a leader like him at the helm, we will much be for the better for it.
But that's mostly because he's a Democrat.

I like Gerry , and understand that she's no-nonsense woman and says what she thinks, but she better be ready to eat her words in a classy manner when he wins the nomination.

[sleeperd]

Are the rabid, venomous, left-wing hatemongers on this site so sensitive that they must be protected from any dissenting opinion? After many months of informative and prescient posts, my remarks are now being censored by the Huffpo protectors.

Can it be that this raving, howling nest of lefties can dish it out in their crude, hateful way but can't take it when it's returned in kind?

What is this world coming to???

[KaAp]

So many things came into my mind as I remain angry at Ferraro's comment .... yes, being a black man makes one so lucky in the United States ... Susan Smith came to mind the woman who drove her kids in the lake and then blamed it on a black man that did not exist but the "lucky" black man's guilt was so naturalized that people believed her --- lucky lucky lucky ... lucky black men to have an incarceration 4 times greater than white people (and it is mostly due to the war on drugs ... where if a white person like myself has some pot it is less likely that they will be serving a long sentence) ... yes lucky black people ... what a despicable comment ... I am a woman and I know that if I am walking on the street in a city people do not cross to the other side ... I cannot say the same for those lucky black men who have people cross to the other side of the street and give them the street to themselves --- wow ...
As a woman yes sexism sucks but I cannot be killed for it ... a black man can easily way too easily get caught in the act of being black ... and that is what makes the argument of Ferraro Steinhem et al and the rest of the second wave feminists so absurd and sick ... Comparative suffering dynamics was never what Obama's campaign was about ... static location identity politics is ludicrous we ought be discussing human rights ...
Ferraro is supposed to be an educated woman she knows that racism is a power formation and that blacks cannot be racist by definition --- blacks can be prejudiced ... the only people who can be racist by definition are whites since we have the power to normaiize whiteness as an invisible unit of measure against which all other people are measured ... For example many people have said that blacks have come out and voted for Obama at 90 per cent rates ... nobody has ever said how many white people have voted for white candidates and consistently voted for white candidates .... because white is normalized ... much as male is normalized but being a woman does not place your very being and possibility of becoming in jeopardy
Ferraro is a racist and that is a tremendous disappointment ... the articulation of her hate filled words ought to send people cringing ... the Clinton's refusal to do anything about this reaffirms the analysis that they are strategically deploying racism (before I said racialized language but they have gone way too far now) in their desperate attempt to be elected ...
I am one middle aged white woman who would never vote for them no matter what ...

[PhyloSeFiser]

No one who knows Barack Obama would say such a thing. He's an exceptional human being. He's remarkably bright and honest. He's got wisdom and an even temperament that belie is relative youth. He graduates number one from Harvard Law and turns down all kinds of high paying opportunities to do community organizing for $10,000 a year––despite the fact that he wasn't rich to begin with––which shows that his heart is in the right place. And all of the evidence from this campaign has proven that he is a more than capable and disciplined leader who surrounds himself with highly qualified people, and he keeps these people in line. And when the get out of line, they're gone.

Apparently Hillary Clinton doesn't hold her staff up to the same standards that Obama does.

[tdbach]

Much ado about nothing.

[jones]

Where is John Edwards????

"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."

I wonder what Edwards (the white populist guy) thinks of this woman's statement?. IMO he should state that Clinton should give the boot to her fund raiser buddy.

[jacobomorales]

who died and told this bitc h that she is of any concecuence?

Go back to your retirement community and have a glass of prune juice!

[ntmessage]

It is amazing that this comment, likely true on the facts and likely benign on race gets all this attention just before the MS primary. Something like this happened as well as just before SC, after Obama lost NH. Both overreactions were against Democrats that have been a positive impact on race and gender their entire lives. The politically correct police seem very selective in their outrage.

Can we all agree that for the country to move forward we all need to have race and gender in our lexicon, to discuss and debate on the facts. Excluding or demonizing anyone who makes a comment or an opinion makes our public discourse false and so politically correct, no solution of these issues will ever happen.

If this is just politics, like any other contest then lets just admit that. Its hard to believe this level of outrage is justified. If it is justified then everyone in the country has a long way to go.

However, the extent of her comments were that Obama’s being Black helps him. The rest of the comments on this post can only be hysterical race baiting, since those attackers attempt to read everything from the civil war to the dirty Clintons into the one comment.

Now that is a huge stretch and unfair on the facts.

[prscnt1]

How many racists infest democratic party?

For those who do not understand genetics, and also to all the females, that Obama is an American first, and is endowed with tan skin, with genetic heritage from Africa like every white person on this earth, and shamefully, even the old, senile Ferraro.

[Malarcus]

I have read and re-read this but have failed to find the portion of the story where Ms. Ferraro says to Obama not to "antagonize people like me" as the title link on HuffPo has claimed since Monday. Whya can I not see it? Is this like those posters with the nonsensical lines that turn into a sailboat if you "don't look at it in just the right manner?"

[ched]

Okay, so just to recap:
1. Obama is only leading because he's black
2. According to Ferraro, people are only criticizing her comments because she's white, and
3. People who are criticizing Hillary are sexist.
From which we can conclude that Ferraro is not only a racist, but also a victim. Welcome to politics, Hillary style.

[frustratedinohio]

Calling someone a monster is childish and that woman should have resigned. On the other hand, making an intelligent observation that most people know to be true, is just someone expressing an opinion. He shows his inexperience once again by calling for this woman to be condemned. Not a good political move and again his arrogance is showing. Someone needs to tell him he's not president yet.

[klondiker]

Yeah, yeah, Geraldine Ferraro's comments were unforgivable.

Nevermind, that Obama himself has admitted in the past that he gets more attention and celebrity because he's black.

[Gumby123]

I realize liberals aren't exactly bears for consistency, but how in the hell are the Democrats going to play the same "racial code words!" game on us in the general election when they themselves are using those "code words" now?