I've seen tons of spammed comments around here that Geraldine Ferraro is a racist and that Hillary Clinton and her supporters are racist for not denouncing Ferraro's comments. I think that Ferraro's comments have been taken out of context. She is referring to the "historic firsts" of this election. Here is what she said in the interview with the Daily Breeze.
More over the fold...
Speaking by phone from her New York law office, the 72-year-old former Democratic congresswoman outlined the themes that will dominate her talk [American Perspectives series]. She also offered pointed observations regarding the Barack Obama juggernaut and what she sees as a sexist media bias against the candidate of her choice.
"I will probably start with a personal account, drawing attention to the historic firsts of both these candidacies in our party, and point out specific, significant differences between Hillary's campaign and mine," said Ferraro.
"I will discuss what I think's been going on in her campaign and the role of the media, which has been far larger than anything I've seen before. And I'll get into what this bides for the future. I may also speak about the superdelegates, since I was involved with their creation."
"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."
People seem to be getting stuck on this portion of what Ferraro said: "If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position." What she is saying is that Obama is unique and an historic first. He was only in the US Senate for one year before running for President. No one else could pull this off, but Obama can because of his message and who he is as a person. Yes, she could have worded this differently. But she isn't a racist. This whole thing is getting blown way out of proportion. Let's deal with the real racism that exists instead of making false charges.