Election 2008: So is Hillary Clinton finished?

FYI

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0308/Ferraro_steps_down.html

Ferraro steps down

After defending herself in a day-long media tour, Geraldine Ferraro has stepped down from her (ceremonial) post on Clinton's finance committee, CNN is reporting.

The move comes after Ferraro first suggested that Obama owed his success in the presidential contest to his race, and then defended her comment in combative terms, accusing Obama of tarring foes as racist, and saying she was being attacked because she is white.

UPDATE: Ferraro's note to Hillary:

Dear Hillary –
I am stepping down from your finance committee so I can speak for myself and you can continue to speak for yourself about what is at stake in this campaign.

The Obama campaign is attacking me to hurt you.

I won't let that happen.

Thank you for everything you have done and continue to do to make this a better world for my children and grandchildren.

You have my deep admiration and respect.

Gerry

...I have to now wonder if all of Ferraro's accomplishments and goals happened only because she is a woman? What are they anyway? Can anyone name them without some research...?

sweet tea wrote: ^um, you mean besides being the first woman on a major party ticket for the vice presidency, right? because everyone knows that, right?

i'm not going to defend what she said, which i think is stupid and wrong.

part of the reason it makes me so hurt is that she was a big hero to me when i was a little girl.

um, yea.
Besides being chosen for the failed Mondale campaign, what else has accomplished of note? She has been out of the media for more than 20 years so I just don't know. I'm sorry that you lost a hero of yours becuase that always sucks.

But I now see a disturbing pattern from her and her angry resignation and attempt to defend her comments say more about her that anything she may have paid lip service to in the past. To her credit, she did say she was chosen because she was a woman and i am not sure she was suggesting she was otherwise unqualified.

The problem is that her comments just don't jive with what is going on at all. Obama has created a whole new demographic and dialouge of his own making, planning and skill. His academic and political success did not happen because he is black. But she felt the need to summarize it that way because of who she really is as a person. " We have to keep them in a box - my box."

If she has completely missed that, it says a lot about Hillary's core demographic base (white women over 60) and how out of touch they are with what is happening on this planet and why Hillary keeps encouraging the crap on her campaign ( the pictures, he might be a muslim, etc).
It reminds me of when I had to politely tell me dad that we need his generation to die off in order for real change to happen in this world. They are holding on to too may old thoughts that most people have moved beyond.

I think it is great that people are finally seeing the light on their great liberal heroes (Bill, Hillary and now Ferraro) after years of coddling and appeasing people of color, you really are getting down to the core of how these people really think about race and color:

Yes, they believe in affirmative action and preferences, but because they really believe black people ARE inferior because of their color and when black people do achieve something, it is also because of their color and favors white people give out only.

That is the double edged sword that most liberal politicians are afraid to touch, but we see it coming out now. The more they are on camera and under pressure or losing, they more they reveal. The longer this democratic campaign goes on, the more you will see liberal heroes drop like flies.

Subject: The broad brush that still paints within the lines....

No, I wasn’t assuming all white women over 60, including your mother, are racist.
Didn’t meant to insinuate that at all.

I was stating that Hillary’s core demographic is people like Ferraro (age and race, etc.). That’s just true. – those are the folks voting for her and the demographic most loyal to her (yes there are others as well but she solidly holds the geriatric, white crowd over Obama). No, people who dislike Obama politcally are not racist. But if while describing your dislike for his policy, experience and qualifications, you bring up his race – when it has NOTHING to do with the topics at hand …there could be a connection between a critic and racism. Especially if a pattern emerges over time. Ferraro was trying to say something profound, she came off sounding like “Jimmy the Greek”; It was clumsy.

But specifically to this point, isn’t it interesting, that the Clintons (and their camp) have to keep bringing up race?
( Hey, remember folks, this is just the “black” guy, wink, wink) Interestingly, Obama’s bid has completely transcended race as we know it in this election and he hasn’t brought it up at all. When Black epople are unified behind a viable candidate who also happens to be black, you see folks getting nervous. They simply are not used to seeing it: black people uniting behind a viable, non devisive candidate over the only avialbale white candidate(s). So, they gotta bring up the race arguement to remind white people that they are not “sticking with their tribe”. Mind you, historically, it has usually been white people voting other white people in office in this country, so Ferraro’s point is almost moot. Numerically, whites are the majority in this country and race and racsim exist to be sure.

But what WAS it that Ferrarro so desparately wanted to accomplish with those statements exactly? What was behind the words?
She could have just said, “ given his experience, I don’t think he is qualified”. But her old intincts just got the best of her when she thought no one would catch it. Why the need to “remind” people that Obama is “the black guy” or “like that other black guy” (a la Bill) whenever they are against the wall or losing? Is this an instinct reaction? Is it true that character is revealed when one is under pressure? The silly political-speak of the past has been failing them thus far and now they find themselves being beaten down by a so called “unqualified black guy” and they cannot get their heads around it. So they go straight to their (true) instincts.

Watching this campaign, I have seen the Clinton Campaign get more and more desparate and Obama get cooler and calmer under pressure. Even during the debate, the more frazzled Clinton got, the cooler he was – they simply are not used to this type of new specimen. Anyone who really studies the entire thing can cleary see that Obama likey IS qualified to be commander in chief because of who his thoughtfulness, intellegence, candor, education, and comminication skills. He surrounds himself with people of the same caliber. (which is key to being commander in chief – compare the campaigns, if you will). Compare the steadiness of the Obama Campaign to the erratic nature ( finances) of the Clinton campaign. He is connecting with people ways that OLD people like Ferraro and Clinton cannot; They don’t have the skill set.

Congratualtions Geraldine, you may yet be personally responsible for annointing the first female VICE president: Hillary Clinton.
And it’s not because he is “ a black guy” Geraldine.
Oberman was DEAD ON regarding Clinton, et al.