Each campaign has had surrogates make stupid remarks that have led to resignations and or apologies throughout. Some people may have heard this one from Clinton supporter Geraldine Ferraro on how Obama is only where he is because he’s black.
Here from our former VP nominee, whose gender, let’s recall, had absolutely nothing to do with Mondale’s choice of her in 84.
“If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position,” Ferraro said. “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.”
And of course Hillary Clinton has gotten where she is by hard work and smarts alone. Nothing to do with her last name of course.
It does make me think about all those comments, many of them here on BMG, about how Obama is just another example of a supposedly less qualified younger man pushing ahead of a more qualified woman. But, I just think about all the technically more qualified women that both Hillary and Obama have pushed themselves in front of.
I mean in the Senate alone – California’s Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein have been in Congress for years, Feinstein was also Mayor of San Francisco. Patty Murray from Washington. Mary Landrieu from Lousiana. Barbara Mikulski. No one is crying out for all these talented female leaders who have been skipped over. They’ve all met the Commander-in-Chief threshold right? I mean if they ran for president this year would Hillary have bowed to their greater years of service and depth of knowledge. By her definition of whose qualified as chief she should have. And heck, these women would have made more history than she – doing it on their own steam all the way to the top. Yet none of them even got a reckoning for this year. Sexism remains a problem no doubt, but will Hillary’s candidacy open the door for more women to make a bid for the top office – women whose husband hadn’t already run for it (remember Liddy Dole)? If something comes out of it, I hope its that.
But Ferraro’s comments are pretty silly despite the reality of sexism that female pols face. Fact is, Hillary Clinton’s entry level political office was as a U.S. Senator. Not something most men or women pols get to do without having first served in a lesser office. Then after one-term in the Senate she launches a presidential bid. Very usual that (and I know Obama is still in his first term as well – making them both relatively green, although Obama has been an elected public servant for far longer than she).
I’d venture to say that political fortune has smiled on Ms. Clinton just a bit Geraldine. I mean if she weren’t who she was and married to who she married, would she be where she is?
In any event, I think Clinton supporters should probably button it when it comes to talking about how black people have all the luck these days – especially ones raised by single mothers and absent Muslim fathers and middle names like Hussein. Those guys just get all the breaks. The world is just so unfair.
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p>Apparently, I missed your post decrying Samantha Power for calling Hillary Clinton a “monster”.
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p>Right…and gender had nothing to do with the extraordinary assault of Ferraro’s candidacy and her family by the media in 1984.
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p>Oh, yeah, Hillary’s had it easy…her career has been handed to her on a silver platter. Forget the venom and hatred which have been heaped on her ever since she became a First Lady with a mind of her own…and never mind that the anti-Clinton folks have pretty much equated Hillary with the anti-Christ. Yeah, hard work and smarts have had nothing to do with her success.
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p>When did Hillary Clinton push aside any of these U.S. Senators? I don’t recall hearing about the Presidential ambitions of Senators Boxer, Feinstein, Murray, Landrieu or Mikulski…did I miss something? And if I’m not mistaken, most of these above-mentioned esteemed members of the Senate are enthusiastically supporting Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
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p>You make no mention of the male Senators who have served longer than Obama…what’s up with that? Do you think that he pushed them aside as well?
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p>You are actually criticizing Hillary Clinton for launching a Presidential bid after being elected to two terms in the Senate? Come on…she is currently serving her eighth year in the Senate. Obama was in the Senate for one year before announcing his Presidential run.
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p>And you are giving Obama credit for being a “public servant for far longer than she”? Really, this is just hilarious. Serving as a state legislator takes precedence over 7+ years in the United States Senate and 8 years as an activist First Lady?
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p>Sorry. I respect your enthusiasm for Obama, but you make it sound like Hillary is some airhead who has had her career handed to her on a silver platter. Believe me, this is one woman who has had to work pretty hard for everything she has attained.
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p>And I’m not condoning Geraldine Ferraro’s comments about Obama…I just think you’re being more than a tad unfair to Hillary in your analysis.
Geraldine Ferraro stated an obvious fact that has been stated over and over during the primary by any number of commentators and political observers. If a U.S. Senator who happened to be Caucasian, who had been in the Senate just one third of his first term, had served in a state legislature prior to that, and wanted to run for president…his colleagues in Congress and the press would not have given him a second look…and if that same Caucasian Senator happened to be a woman, she would not have gotten a first look.
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p>Get over it. Mr. Obama’s race has been an advantage for him because had he been caucasian, we would never have heard his name because he would not have been taken seriously.
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p>Geraldine Ferraro says forthrightly that had she not been female, she would never have been added to the Mondale ticket. She is right. But, more than that, she acknowledges the reality of the situation.
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p>Even the great Congresswoman and presidential candidate Shirley Chisholm acknowledged that she had “two handicaps…being black and being a woman…and being a woman always presented the tougher barriers” in her political life.
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He’s a honky. He hadn’t even been in elected office before becoming a Senator. Big deal that he had been in the Senate a few more years than Obama. He was as green as Spring blossoms – much less experience than Obama. He became VP nominee before he had even finished his first term in the Senate.
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p>Obama is where he is because he’s awesome, he’s interesting, he’s fresh and new. If he were just any ordinary black guy he wouldn’t have gone anywhere. But he gave a speech that moved people at the DNC. He wrote books that moved people. He campaigned across the land at the request of all types of folks and people responded.
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p>No doubt his mixed race heritage is a part of the Obama story – but its just part of it. He could have flopped. He could have run a poorly planned campaign. He could have failed to raise the money and put in the work or miss the mood of change that has swept many people up in his campaign.
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p>And for you to act like Hillary has not greatly benefitted from her gender is crazy. Women, particular Caucusian women like you, are the biggest voting block in the Democratic Party. She would have been done in New Hampshire if they weren’t the force they are.
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p>And to completely overlook the obvious, that Hillary is where she is because of Bill, is to inflict yourself with temporary blindness. She took a Senate seat in a State she had never lived in before. How many people except for first ladies get to do that? NONE – except Bobby Kennedy, after his brother had gotten killed. But of course Hillary has never caught a break. She’s a woman who has had to struggle for everything against the odds. Crap. Crap. Crap. If you white ladies want to a discussion about sexism than let’s have one – but please, spare me this crap that Hillary is a victim of it. She’s gotten further, faster than most women ever without struggling like most women do.