Geraldine Self-Inflicts More Wounds

Was Geraldine Ferraro always a pinheaded coward or did she just age badly? Her bitter, irrational, irresponsible tirade that appears in today's Globe is more of what we heard from her in February and March. She's a mess.

You may vaguely recall early in the year as part of Hillary Clinton's finance committee, she made a series of sexist and racist remarks, comments she has refused to see for what they are. After proclaiming repeatedly how lucky Barack Obama was to be be Black in seeking the presidency, she figuratively rolled around, crying "I'm the victim here!" when folk called her on it. She is still paying that game.

She resigned from the Clinton campaign, but can't grow up. She went on talk shows and wrote saying what she did in today's column. She says people agree with her that "If you're white you can't open your mouth without being accused of being racist." (Not that that itself, replete with hyperbole, is racist claptrap, eh?)

She goes on to accuse Obama of what she instead has been doing. "They see Obama's playing the race card throughout the campaign and no one calling him for it as frightening. They're not upset with Obama because he's black; they're upset because they don't expect to be treated fairly because they're white."

Back here on planet Earth, Obama has studiously avoided such racist calls. He thanks Black supporters, as he does Latino or white ones, where they were key in a primary or caucus series. That is a far, far cry from Ferraro's race baiting. She even took his comments after winning South Carolina that "our time has come" to mean not the clearly intended progressives, but some threat to white citizens.

Moreover, she writes that she has a group of privileged women ("corporate executives to academics to members of the media") ready to pony up for a Harvard University Shorenstein Center study. That would be to evaluate:

First, whether either the Clinton or Obama campaign engaged in sexism and racism; second, whether the media treated Clinton fairly or unfairly; and third whether certain members of the media crossed an ethical line when they changed the definition of journalist from reporter and commentator to strategist and promoter of a candidate. And if they did to suggest ethical guidelines which the industry might adopt.

Perhaps they can throw in an evaluation of her comments during and after her association with the campaign. That should take about two hours to read and listen to Ferraro. The conclusion would certainly have to be that she's a bigot who is too immature to take responsibility for her errors.

Ferraro remains an embarrassment. She's certainly no role model for women or for white voters. She sees and hears oppressed white people threatened by lucky, lucky Black ones. She writes today that what white voters are "waiting for is assurance that an Obama administration won't leave them behind."

Itty boo, Geraldine. You can't sputter your cocktail party truths without someone calling you on them. What a pity you are a wealthy white person and didn't have the great luck to be born a Black man.

View and guffaw. Click below to see Ferraro in just one of her extended arrogant moments. Search YouTube for many more.

---

---

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