In her latest rampage, Geraldine Ferraro states, Obama has lost women 'with sexist campaign'
Geraldine Ferraro, the only woman to run on a major party presidential ticket and a supporter of Hillary Clinton, has accused Barack Obama of conducting a "terribly sexist" campaign.
Does anyone remember what the Red/Blue electoral map looked like in 1984, when Geraldine Ferraro was on the presidential ticket?
In her interview, she said:
Miss Ferraro, the losing Democratic candidate for vice-president in 1984, said that she might abandon her lifelong party loyalties and vote for the Republican John McCain if Mr Obama is confirmed as the nominee.
"Should I ratify how the Obama campaign has been run by voting for him? I am going to have to think very hard about that," she said.
For those with short memories, Geraldine Ferraro ran on Walter Mondale's ticket, against Ronald Regan, who won 525 to 13 electoral votes: every single state except Minnesota (and DC).
Ms. Ferraro, please STFU. The Democratic Party does not need your help in devising a winning Presidential strategy.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/...
Ferraro goes on to insist that other women will vote for McCain, as she is considering:
"I've been flooded with calls from women saying they'll vote for McCain rather than Obama," said Miss Ferraro, 72, a New York lawyer who has made a number of controversial comments during the campaign. "I think this is a problem for Obama."
One new group is recruiting female Clinton supporters in swing states to campaign against Mr Obama in the autumn. Another, WomenCount, raised more than $200,000 (£100,000) in four days to buy full-page newspaper advertisements entitled "Not so fast" – a blast at the widespread media assertion that the contest is over.
And finally, she lists some specific instances of perceived sexism:
His response to Mrs Clinton's reminiscences about learning to shoot as a girl at her grandfather's summer cabin in Pennsylvania. Miss Ferraro said: "He walked up and down the stage with his microphone like a stand-up comic and ridiculed her as an Annie Oakley," she said, quoting his reference to the legendary female sharpshooter. "Would he have ridiculed a man by comparing him to John Wayne? Of course not."
His apparently dismissive description of Mrs Clinton as "likeable enough" during a televised debate before the New Hampshire primaries.
His role in an earlier debate in Philadelphia when several of the male candidates running at the time were said to have ganged up on her, prompting Mrs Clinton to complain about the "boy's club" of US politics.
His "failure", Miss Ferraro claims, to speak out against other sexist acts such as lewd T-shirts, the men who shouted "Iron my shirt!" at Mrs Clinton and jibes about her "cackle". Mr Obama also apologised to a female reporter he called "sweetie" in an aside that received widespread coverage.
I'll briefly make a few remarks about her comments.
- If John McCain suddenly began saying that he had been an Environmentalist since the age of 9 when his daddy took him out to plant oak trees in the Pacific NorthWest, a perfectly snarky response would be, "Who does he think he is, David Suzuki?"
- WTF is wrong with saing that Clinton is "likeable enough"?
- Everyone ganged up on Clinton in early debates -- including moderators -- because she sold herself as the inevitable incumbent nominee. She was the one to beat.
- Barack Obama has done FAR more to defend her position as the first female candidate and praise her as a pioneer, than Hillary Clinton has to defend him as the first bi-racial African-American candidate. How often does Hillary Clinton speak out against racist slurs against Barack Obama, such as: "Is he Muslim?" She can't even give a straight answer to that one when asked directly on national television. How about, as an African American, his strength with white voters?
4b. Hillary Clinton has an awful cackle and a metronomic nod. What on God's green earth does that have to do with her gender? That cackle would be just as annoying if it came out of Bill Clinton or Tiger Woods.
4c. Barack immediately appologized for calling the female reporter "sweetie". I can see how this is a teenie bit unprofessional; however, last I heard, this "sweetie" wasn't a sexist slur. When I call a woman sweetie, I don't get punched in the face. When I (as a man) get called sweetie, I don't get upset. And when a woman calls me 'handsome' or 'good-lookin', I feel actually (gasp) good about it.
Geraldine Ferraro's comments are not helping the Democratic party. All they serve to do is to fan the flames of division within the party... and to what end? It's unthinkable that these types of comments are coming from a former vice-presidential nominee.
In closing, I suppose that in her Bizzaro world, I must be a terrible sexist.