There's an Awful Lot of Buckshot in the Clinton Campaign's Foot. (Feet?)

Former vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro today defended a remark she made to the Daily Breeze last week, in which she suggested that Sen. Barack Obama would not be where he is if he were white.

In an interview with the Breeze, Ferraro said, “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 comment was picked up by political blogs and cable news shows across the country. The Obama campaign held a conference call today to denounce the remark, and Obama surrogates urged Sen. Hillary Clinton to repudiate it.

In a follow-up interview
Geraldine Ferraro today defended comments she made to the Daily Breeze last week saying the media was biased against Hillary Clinton and that Barack Obama would not be where he is today if he were not black. (The Associated Press)
today, Ferraro said her company had been deluged with vicious e-mail messages accusing her of racism.

But far from backing off from her initial remark, Ferraro defended it and elaborated on it.

“Any time anybody does anything that in any way pulls this campaign down and says let’s address reality and the problems we’re facing in this world, you’re accused of being racist, so you have to shut up,” Ferraro said. “Racism works in two different directions. I really think they’re attacking me because I’m white. How’s that?”

Read the rest here.

G.D.

G.D.

Gene "G.D." Demby is the founder and editor of PostBourgie. In his day job, he blogs and reports on race and ethnicity for NPR's Code Switch team.
G.D.
  • Aisha

    Hey Geraladine…but its okay for white men to vote for white men and women women to vote for women women right? I’m sure you’d say there isn’t anything wrong with that?

  • If they were both white men, I’d still vote for Obama

  • LH

    Rightly or wrongly so, Ferraro articulated what (I suspect) many white Democrats have been thinking since Obama went from novelty to serious contender.

  • Aisha

    Hey where is the edit feature? white women not women women

  • She’s a racist. (Is it ok for me to say that?)

  • Big Word

    Talk about can’t win for losin! Or how’s about Obama trancending race? Are there affirmative action delegates or something? I just don’t get it.

  • quadmoniker

    In case you didn’t see it, there’s a really excellent article on this in Slate: http://www.slate.com/id/2186553/pagenum/2/

  • Between this and Venkatesh’s piece, you’re all in my head today.

  • Yet again, Ta-Nehisi Coates hits the nail on the head. (Must be that Howard education.)

  • quadmoniker

    GD: Great minds.
    And yeah, Coates’s piece is really good. The misunderstanding that racism only looks a certain, exaggerated way lets a lot of really damaging comments and images get by.