Is Illinois Sen. Barack Obama really “lucky” to be the front-running Democratic candidate for president? And is he in that position only because he’s black? That’s what former vice-presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro thinks, and until yesterday she was on the Finance Committee of Hillary Clinton’s campaign. So what does that say about where Hillary’s tactics have now fallen?
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(NOTE: This weblog creates, for us all, a chance to meet at the intersection of Life and the New Spirituality. It is written by the author of Conversations with God, the worldwide best-selling series of books. The “New Spirituality” is defined by the author as “a new way to experience and express our natural impulse toward the Divine without making others wrong for the way in which they are doing it.” The author’s latest book is Happier Than God, published in February by Emnin Books and distributed by Hampton Roads.)
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Surely by now you must be aware that Ferraro, in an interview published last Friday in a small California newspaper (The Daily Breeze, of Torrance), said these words:
“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.”
Such words can only be devisive–and that is the intention, of course, of the Clinton campaign. Divide and conquer. That’s the strategy. That’s the only way to stop this train, and the Clintons know it.
Of course, publicly Hillary Clinton has to disagree–though I notice that she at first did not go so far as to denounce Ferraro’s remarks, nor did she ask for Ferraro’s resignation from her campaign finance committee. Yesterday, Ms. Ferraro herself resigned, and yesterday, in an apparent second look at all the ruckus that Ms. Ferraro’s remarks had created, Sen. Clinton did, at last, repudiate them directly.
Speaking to black newspaper publishers, she was asked if she thought she had done enough to signal that she not only disagreed with Ferraro’s racial remark, but disapproved of it even having been made. Hillary Clinton is reported in the Washington Post to have replied: “I certainly do repudiate it and I regret deeply that it was said.” Referring to Ms. Ferraro, Clinton added: “Obviously, she doesn’t speak for the campaign.”
I am glad that Sen. Clinton finally stepped up and used strong language to make it clear that Ms. Ferraro’s comment was way, way out-of-bounds.
Jay Leno had a lot of fun with this on the late night talk show. He quipped: “”Well, Geraldine Ferraro was forced to leave the Clinton campaign after saying that the only reason Barack Obama is winning is because he’s black. And you know, hey, there’s some truth to that. The only way you’re going to get elected president in this country is if you’re a black guy. A rich old white guy? How many of those have we had? Huh? It’s almost impossible!”
Leave it to Leno to see the humor in all this. But seriously, folks, can you believe this? Can you believe that a member of the Finance Committee of the Clinton campaign, a prominent political figure and supporter of the senator from New York, would say such a thing? I guess some Clinton supporters just can’t stand the fact that someone other than Hillary might be seen by some Democrats as a candidate superior to Hillary.
It was Hillary herself who told reporters only last week…
“I have a lifetime of experience that I will bring to the White House. Sen. John McCain has a lifetime of experience that he’d bring to the White House. And Sen. Obama has a speech he gave in 2002.”
This is hardball politics at its very worst–and we might have expected it from the Clinton Machine, furious as it must be that their candidate, who everyone a year ago thought was a shoo-in for the nomination, was behind in states won by two to one, and behind in the national popular vote as well.
Adding to the sense of chutzpah, now come both Clintons–first Hillary, and then former President Bill–to suggest that Mr.Obama might well be seriously considered for the VP spot on a Clinton national ticket. This feels to me like the height of arrogance. Does it to you? I mean, what is it…the first time in U.S. political history that the candidate running second has offered the front-running candidate second place on the ticket? Wow. I mean, wow. That is arrogance.
Again, comedian Jay Leno seems to have more wisdom than the lady running for president. The other night he said…
“Hillary Clinton has been hinting that she and Barack Obama might share the Democratic ticket, with her in the number one position. She feels Barack Obama deserves some sort of consolation prize for getting the most votes and being the most popular.”
One thing you have to give the Clinton Machine credit for. They know how to control the news cycle. They are experts at it. Obama can’t get a decent headline lately on anything he is saying or proposing. All he is doing to reacting, reacting, reacting to everything that Clinton & Co. are throwing at him. Every story about Obama is a reaction story.
Somebody in the Obama campaign had better take a closer look at the news cycle and figure out how it works. Clinton and her Cronies are now in charge of network television news and every major paper in the country, in terms of whose getting the headlines and whose grabbing the focus.
The only thing that has stopped the trend in the past 48 hours is the very sad Eliot Spitzer thing. Gov. Spitzer is, of course, a high profile, major supporter of Hillary Clinton. Can somebody tell me what in the world was in Eliot Spitzer’s mind? I don’t want to be judgmental, and I am not the one among us who has the least sins, so I shan’t be throwing stones…but i am simply wondering, just from a standpoint of simple human curiosity: What in the world was Mr. Spitzer thinking?
Can anybody be so sexually needy that they would throw away an entire career and virtually destroy their family? Can anybody be so sexually addicted that they would spend thousands upon thousands of dollars for a single 90-minute experience with a call girl? The answer, of course (as history has repeatedly shown us) is yes.
What is going on here? What is this all about, in the human scheme of things? I’d like to take a look at this tomorrow, from a New Spirituality point of view…that is, if Hillary & Gang don’t come up with another headline-grabbing stunt in the next 24 hours.
So what do you think? Do you think the Barack Obama is only in the position he’s in today because he’s black? Or do you think he’s where he is–the front-runner in the contest for the Democratic presidential nomination–because he has excited and inspired the electorate, and because voters see that he does have the qualifications to lead this country and to reinvigorate the world with newly restored respect for the United States as a nation?
Oh, and, just an off-handed inquiry that Everybody and His Brother has already been making: If Barack Obama is so sadly and very unqualified to be the Commander-in-Chief, as Hillary Clinton repeatedly declares, how can she even think of putting him one heartbeat away from the presidency? Am I missing something here? Or is this–once again–not only the height of Clinton arrogance, but also of Clinton hypocracy?
Hmmm….and your thoughts?