Woe to Geraldine!

The I'm Just Being Realistic Award goes to Geraldine Ferraro this month. She becomes the sad and mad oldster who can't take responsibility for her words.

The 1984 Dem VP candidate refuses to see a problem with announcing that Barack Obama is lucky to be Black and is only able to advance because of his color. Consider:

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've long held that race must be an issue in this election. The first Black man to have a shot at the White House will necessarily have people who vote for him because of his color and others who vote against him because of it.

Yet, Ferraro's contention that his color is a key advantage is what has raised wails far beyond the Obama camp, and even a distancing by Hillary Clinton's. What is astonishing is that she thinks it was smart and cool. She would like people to say that because she faced and fought discrimination of various types for 40 years, she's untouchable on this.

Moreover, on Fox News, she was more audacious. She said Obama had better be nice to her. Specifically, she said after bragging about bringing in money for Clinton:

If Barack Obama is the candidate, he really should not antagonize people like me, because he's going to come to me and ask me to raise money for Barack Obama, and I would do it for him too if he stops doing this kind of horrendous attacks on me.

As a Southerner, I have to say, honey, you may have fought the feminist fight and even marched for Black people on occasion, but listen to yourself. You're saying — in full context — this Black man got where he was because people cut him slack for his race. Then you pile it on telling him he'd better know his place because you have so much power.

She compounds one offense with another. She seems to think she covered herself by saying she wouldn't have gotten the 1984 shot if she were a man, but the fact is that she's lost it.

Huntington Post is all over this. Henry Blodget had the shortest and probably clearest view. He wrote that her comments weren't racist, just moronic.

He holds that far beyond skin color, Obama's voter-popular traits are eloquence, intelligence and education, looks, inspiration, youth, charm, and freshness. "Does Ferraro seriously believe that a white Obama with all of the qualities above 'would not be in this position?' The Democrats have been waiting a decade for someone with these qualities to come along, and they'd take him or her in any shape, size, color, or species."

Apparently, she does. Were I the praying type, I'd beseech the heavens for what she also needs most — help me age gracefully.

Predictable Update: Late Wednesday, Ferraro stepped down, voluntarily she says, from Clinton's campaign finance committee. Keeping to the low road, she continued to hold that any fault was with others — "Am I sorry? No, no, no. I am sorry there are people who think I am racist."

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Tags: massmarrier, McCain, racism, Obama, Ferraro, Democrats