I agree with Ferraro's most recent response. When you challenge Obama, you are branded a racist.

[Freida5]

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/03/ferraros_latest_theyre_attacki.php

Ferraro's Latest: "They're Attacking Me Because I'm White"
By Greg Sargent - March 11, 2008, 7:15PM
snip

"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?"

[islandmkl]

1. forget attacking Obama...when you say racist things....

you are a racist....

[Darth_Kitten]

77. When you really, really WISH somebody was a racist.......

so you can play the victim card, then, well..........

[jgraz]

2. No, when you use racist bullshit to challenge Obama, THEN you're a racist

If the white sheet fits...

[AZBlue]

6. No kidding. I'm appalled by the number of racists here on DU.

This has certainly uncovered them.

[mod mom]

They sure are-it's appalling and so sad.

[DS1]

22. thread win

right here

[dchill]

45. !

:hi:

[anonymous171]

3. lol You obviously haven't seen a certain thread here where everyone is being called a sexist.

[ananda]

4. That's alll very fine and dandy, but..

.. why do Bush and Cheney get off scot free
on ANY issue, any of which is harming America
and Americans and destroying the world?

Hmmmmm??????????????

[saracat]

5. Good for geraldine.She had the courage to speak the truth.Racism works both ways.

[Occam Bandage]

14. Poor, poor white people. They have it so hard in politics.

[OzarkDem]

25. Still haven't read her full comments

A bigotry all on its own.

[Occam Bandage]

27. Sure I have. She's nuts.

[jgraz]

33. No, she's not nuts. This is an intentional tactic.

She's been the racial hit woman of the Democratic party for 20 years.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x5028671

Hillary knows exactly what she's doing here.

[Occam Bandage]

38. I'm sorry. I should have written,

"Sure I have seen that, and her message was so jarring as to seem separated from reality at first blush."

[Seeker30]

76. Says the guy that says 'Poor poor white people'

[stillcool]

39. How likely is it...

that any black man would be in the position Obama finds himself in this country? Or how extraordinary? His success is in spite of the fact that he is black. Not because of it. Sometimes it seems like they want to fan the flames and have an all-out race war.

[cemaphonic]

60. Yes, I find this odd too.

Implicit in her argument is an assumption that blacks have some sort of leg up in American politics. It's especially odd in that Obama has been successful in avoiding being marginalized as "the Black Candidate" in the way that say Jackson and Sharpton have been.

[redstate_democrat]

23. lol!

You guys are hilarious. Seriously. Now, tell me, what racist thing has the Obama camp said about Ferraro? What have the even said about Ferraro except that HER comments have no PLACE IN POLITICS. FACE IT. She is a tired, bitter, angry, racist person. She deserves to be driven out of the party.

And the rest of you racist fucks can follow her too. The Democratic party DOES NOT NEED YOU.

[Darth_Kitten]

78. She knew what she was talking about......

it's a shame that people want to slam her for being a racist. :(
Maybe they should really listen to what she had to say.

[AX10]

7. Shelby Steele made a some good points about this.

Critisize a black, and you are then branded a racist, mostly by the white liberals who are militantly PC.

[jgraz]

37. What an appalling statement. You've outdone yourself here.

[AX10]

64. We can't even discuss the issue with this shit coming from your mouth.

[jgraz]

67. "Critisize a black, and you are then branded a racist"

Your post, your shit. Embrace it.

Oh, and learn how to fucking spell, dumbass.

[SOS]

44. Ferraro didn't criticize him, she insulted him.

nt

[ContinentalOp]

47. Those damn white liberals and their political correctness.

Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

[Iceburg]

83. Obama et al can be summed up in 3 words: Racist, Homophobic, and Sexist/nt

= Divisive

[sharp_stick]

8. Sure, when you challenge him

by saying the only reason he's a Senator (something she failed at twice) and the only reason he's being successful as a Presidential candidate (something she failed at once) is because he's black. Of course she's being branded a racist, I don't really think she is, personally I think she's just fucking stupid.

[DJ13]

9. Would you agree that if someone says

Hillary is only qualified to be President because shes a woman that would be sexist?

[ContinentalOp]

51. Yes.

Who on the Obama campaign said that?

[crispini]

10. Why not challenge Obama on OTHER THINGS BESIDES HIS RACE.

Honestly. :eyes:

[Occam Bandage]

11. When you say racist things, you are branded a racist.

[El Supremo]

12. You are nuts.

Ferraro has her head up her... butt. The era of that kind of racism is past.

[skipos]

13. Bullshit.

When you attack Obama with racist crap, you will be called a racist. No one has called Hillary racist for endorsing McCain over Obama, even though McCain is the whitest candidate ever, and Obama the darkest.

[Renew Deal]

15. It's KKK night on DU

You're right on time.

[meow mix]

35. passing out the pointy white hats tonight, right after the win. they are scared.

[jefferson_dem]

Ya. When you make raicst comments, you are and should be branded a racist.

Deal.

[baldguy]

16. If he's challanged on the substance of his positions, its not racism.

If his entire campaign is dismissed and marginalized by saying "he's popular just because he's black", it is.

[walldude]

17. When you say "Obama is where he is because he's a black man"

For some strange reason, not sure what it is, but for some odd reason people tend to think she's talking about his race. Call me crazy. Did she say that the only reason Hillary is where she is is because she's a woman? Hell no, if she had Hillary supporters would be hanging her in effigy.

But please, don't let me rain on your pity party.

[OzarkDem]

18. Its his knee-jerk response

he can't discuss issues or run a real campaign. He's proven that numerous times, especially when he's behind.

[dchill]

54. Uh, he hasn't BEEN behind...

since the primary season started. I guess if you had to use facts, though, you'd never be able to make a point.

[JBoy]

62. Yeah, he's crappy at running campaigns.

[meow mix]

19. wow racists coming out of the woodworks tonight. must be skeered of the black man winning

:scared:

[mmonk]

20. I'm from North Carolina and when Helms said such things

or a visual messages from an ad (such as pink slips extended to white hands when discussing affirmative action), it was called race baiting. I see the same sort of things this campaign. Sorry, but I disagree.

[NJSecularist]

21. It's amazing all the people who are coming out of the closet now.

Says a lot about what type of support Hillary attracts.

[redstate_democrat]

30. I would expect no less from her supporters

After all, it is a fact she attracts the most uneducated people.

[unschooler]

24. That's not what Ferraro said. She implied Obama is getting votes

only BECAUSE he's (part)black. Which is ridiculous. He's getting votes because he's an incredibly talented politician who is persuading people that he's the best person for the job.

[rocktivity]

26. But when Obama challenged her back, she branded HIM a racist.

:eyes:
rocknation

[grantcart]

28. So do you also agree with her

1) John Lewis is a coward

2)Ferraro is a lunatic

3) Hillary is entitled to the nomination and Obama is a 'problem' because he is taking it away from her?




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqL_sm0J8jc

[Georgie_92]

29. People showing their true colors tonight, disgusting.

[Splinter Cell]

31. Did I miss something?

Who really gives a damn what Ferraro thinks anyhow? Kinda like Mondale, not exactly in a position to spout off given their massive success for the party.

[havocmom]

32. Depends on how one frames the challenge. Geraldine's remarks WERE racist

Her blaming race and playing the victim instead of taking the hits she so richly deserves for her racist attacks is the height of arrogant hypocracy. What? We should give her a pass on her EXTREME bad judgment because she's a girl?

Suck it up, Geraldine. Big girls don't cry

:rofl:

havocmom, who is white, female and about Hillary's age and a humanist who has worked for feminist causes.

[Upton]

34. What century is this?

many defending Ferraro's racist comments sound like it's still the era of Jim Crow.

[angie_love]

48. Apparently its 1950 again. Or maybe a bunch of old racists from back in the day.

[ecstatic]

36. No, when you make race baiting statements you just might be called on it

Why is that so hard for you to understand?

[Ka hrnt]

40. What I want to know is

why does Obama have 80-90% of the African American vote? And before giving an answer, I'd like Obama supporters to ask themselves, "How does this explain why no other minority group--and whites--overwhelmingly support him the way the AA community does?"

PS I don't particularly like either candidate, and I think both are now in deep doo-doo come the general election.

[SOS]

53. Why did Kennedy get 83% of the Catholic vote?

:shrug:

[ContinentalOp]

55. He didn't until the Clinton campaign started pulling this racist bullshit.

[jgraz]

57. DING DING DING DING DING

Nailed it.

[NYCGirl]

66. Well, it sure worked out well in 2004 for Al Sharpton and Carol Moseley-Braun

[alcibiades_mystery]

41. When you say things like "He's lucky he's black," you ARE a fucking racist

Your fanatical devotion to your candidate is preventing you from operating with even a minimum of basic decency.

[Oleladylib]

42. You are absolutely correct..our next gov'ner when Spitzer resigns

will be an African American male-who is progressive but works very well with the other party...I personally am tickled..he'll be great...I am not an Obama fan..I personally think his idealism is ahead of it's time..he'll season..oh but for that I'm a racist..yup, that's right.

[jgraz]

49. Nope, for this you're a racist.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=4748699
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=4777209&mesg_id=4777381

Feel free to knock Obama all you want. But when you knock him using racially inflammatory language and imagery, you're damn right people are going to call you a racist.

[dchill]

56. Jeez! Nice catch, jgraz...

:puke:

[Oleladylib]

72. Okay..you're reported, I don't care if O is pink..he hasn't got

the presidential goods...Paterson is class and he'll do us fine..Oh, he happens to be black and fine and for Hillary...that's peachy

[Jed Dilligan]

43. Then you are as deranged as she is.

[chitty]

46. The sick truth

of the matter is, that if Barack were white, he would be mopping the floor with her worse than what he is doing now.

I believe firmly that he lost Ohio especially because he is black.

There is a host of good people from Ohio, but unfortunately most of the ones I have met have not been too kind to African-Americans.

[dchill]

59. I'm originally from Ohio...

and you are right about the "good people" of Ohio. I keep hoping, though. :)

[TheZug]

50. After all the ridiculous charges of sexism here, you start screaming about this??

[backscatter712]

52. *plonk*

Take your bigotry and go back to Free Republic.

Burn any crosses lately?

[Quixote1818]

58. Then why did Hillary distance herself from the comment? Is Hillary wrong? nt

[jgraz]

63. This is a woman who distanced herself from anti-torture resolutions

The next time Hillary takes a stand will be the fitst. If Ferraro's statements weren't part of an overall strategy, she would have been fired by now.

[donheld]

61. Color me surprised

For some of you anything that's counter to Clinton worship is A-OK with you.

[skids]

65. Ah, the PA strategy revealed...

... I guess the Clinton Campaign was paying attention to the "race mattered" question in the OH exit polls and will be out stoking this for the next six weeks.

Sigh.

[jgraz]

69. This is not the PA strategy. This is the 2012 strategy

The Rethugs can't attack Obama's race because they have no credibility on race. It will take a Democrat to make racist attacks on Obama seem "respectable".

Hillary (and you bet your ass this is coming from Hillary) is raising this now to pave the way for McCain to use the same racist attacks in the general.

[boppers]

68. Repeating Clinton's talking points *is* racist.

I would think that there's only so many ways to say "shuck and jive", but Hillary's finding new ones every day... just because they're hidden in coded language like "all he has is a speech" or "empty suit" or "lack of experience" or "all talk" or "it took LBJ" or "voting present"... she's still (constantly) propagating (and emphasizing) the racist meme that black men are inherently lazy, full of talk, but no real action.

I, for one, no longer think it's even remotely accidental. A string this long doesn't happen by accident.

[TheZug]

70. No, when you challenge Obama by being racist, you are branded a racist.

[saltpoint]

71. Ferraro spoke poorly. Her words were poorly chosen, or if you want,

they were chosen on purpose and in that case they sucked outright.

The venue was extremely questionable as well.

She sounded like someone into her fifth or sixth cocktail well after midnight.

[Darth_Kitten]

81. No, she knows how to speak. If people don't want to listen to what she....

has to say, it's their fault, not hers.

[MadHound]

73. And another rat comes out of the woodwork.

It seems as though this was some sort of signal for the entire Dixiecrat wing of the party to try and rise up and take the party back. Sad, sad and pathetic, embracing such racist bullshit.

[BootinUp]

74. They are attacking her because no one may speak of

his race except the Obama campaign.

on edit: unless the word "historic" is used in the sentence.

[susankh4]

75. Having Now Listened to ALL of Geraldine's comments

I think I understand what she was trying to say. I think she was speaking from her own personal experience... having been the first woman on a national ticket. She even stated that she was only on that ticket because of her gender. And she knew it. "Had my name been Gerry Ferraro, I would not have been chosen."

I know that Geraldine has been very frustrated by the way this who race thing has played out this year. So have I. It began back when HRC was falsely accused of being a racist because she talked about LBJ's role in civil rights legislation. And when Bill was accused of racism for suggesting that Barack's record on the war was a "fairy tale." (LBJ *did* sign the civil rights act, and Barack *did not* vote against the war.)

When one campaign constantly spins something like this... like race .... sooner or later the other campaign is going to lash out. Geraldine felt she was in a position to do so. And she took the bull by the horns. For that I applaud her! It really *is* time that someone stood up to the bullying tactics being used by Axelrod. Mr. Axelrod knows full well that he is inciting race at every turn. Injecting it into Mr. Obama's speeches. He's flying under the radar with it..... and should be called on it!

All this said, I don't think the Ferraro outburst will play well for HRC. And I am starting to feel I'd like her to drop out. I'd like to see her distance herself from all of this before it gets worse. For her own protection. Hillary is too good at what she does to be drawn into the smut this way.

I'll be standing by Hillary to the bloody end. And I am not sure I can ever vote for Obama after what has been done to HRC in his name. But, if Hillary were my close friend I'd tell her to move on..... look at where she can make a difference.

2012 will be another year. Four years of McCain won't be as bad as eight years of Bush.

[LostinVA]

79. Nice, thoughtful post

[NeedleCast]

80. There have been several valid attacks on Obama

that have not been labeled racist. People have questioned his experience and I don't see them being called racist. What Gerry Ferraro said WAS racist, and it's no wonder she's being attacked for it.

Don't let that stop you from spreading that quote far and wide though. Only helps Obama to let people see who Hillary counts among her friends.

[Independent-Voter]

82. Ferraro = just another Northeast Bigot.

The south gets panned for racial bias, but I'd much rather deal with someone who wears their thoughts on their sleeve - at least you know what you're dealing with. These New York bigots are the worst, and I've never seen such latent racism as that found in the Northeast as a whole.

[Hepburn]

84. When she puts on a white sheet and a pointed hat...

...what is it that you wish others to call your bigoted Queen Hillary but a racist?

[myrna minx]

85. If someone says racist things, they are called a racist.

[onenote]

86. If Ferrraro had been purple and said what she said she'd have gotten the same response

She wasn't "attacked" because she's white. She was attacked because she said something incredibly stupid, which was that Obama only got where he is because he's African American. Has his racial make-up helped him with some voters and the media? Sure. Is it the only reason he's where he is today. That's such an unbelievably, breathtakingly stupid thought it amazes me that anyone here would defend it. As I said, Obama's racial make-up has benefited him with some. It also has hurt him with others. And why is he the "darling" of the media? Just because of his race? If that was the case, why didn't the press and "the country" (Ferraro's words) swoon for Sharpton four years ago? Maybe because its not Obama is African American, its that he is incredibly charismatic and reaches beyond identity politics in his campaign (which distinguishes him from Sharpton (who wasn't charismatic and who campaigned solely on an identity politics basis) and from Jesse Jackson (who is charismatic, but also never really sought to expand beyond identity politics).

The fact is that neither HRC nor OBama have run "identity politics" campaigns. HRC appeals to voters across gender lines and Obama appeals to voters across racial lines. Both have benefitted from the media helping establish the credibility of their otherwise groundbreaking campaigns. In HRC's case, the benefit came from the media treating her as a credible candidate almost from the day she and Bill left the white house. Remeber, there was even serious discussion in the press as to whether she would make a run for the WH in 2004 -- after being in the Senate for only four years. And when the 2008 campaign began she was treated in the press as a far more serious contender -- indeed the frontrunner -- than other equally qualified candidates such as Biden or Richardson or Dodd. But being a media darling has its ups and downs -- and when Obama came along -- he pushed HRC out of the spotlight to a signiricant degree. Why? A variety of reasons. In part the press was reporting on the excitement his campaign was generating and getting caught up in it, further fueling it. In part, the press created that excitement (just as they created the widespread acceptance of HRC as a serious candidate back in 2004). Why Obama? Again, his charismatic, youthful, non-identity politics campaign is a good story. Certainly a better story than Richardson or Dodd or Biden.

There is a tendency on DU to try to simplify everything down to a conspiracy based on some one thing or another. But in the real world, life is infinitely more complicated. But in some ways its also that much more simple. And in the real world, Ferraro's comment that she was attacked for being white was as dumb as rocks.

[Buzz Clik]

87. Nah, it's simpler than that. When you make overtly racist statements, you're labeled a racist.

[Vinca]

90. You said it perfectly. It boggles the mind anyone on the DU

would even defend a remark like the one that was made by Ferraro. He might be a fighter, intelligent, well educated, motivated, qualified . . . but it doesn't matter. According to Geraldine, we're just enthralled with the guy because it's a novelty for a black man to attain such heights. Poor Barack, he doesn't know his place.

[TeamsterDem]

88. Quick list of people who've challenged/disagreed with Obama

And aren't being called racists:

John McCain
Mary Matalin
John Edwards
Dick Durbin
Wesley Clark

Hmmm. Here I thought that everyone who disagrees with or challenges Obama was then immediately labeled a racist. Care to explain how these folks "got away" with it? (Here's a hint: They genuinely disagreed. They didn't use racist or race-baiting language)

[rucky]

89. When you say something racist, you're branded a racist.

go figure.