Geraldine Ferraro: It's tough being white

March 12, 2008

With each passing day of campaign 2008, your blogstress finds it increasingly difficult to be her blithely madcap self. What should have been the Democrats' shining hour has degenerated into an endless feud in a dysfunctional family, with one faction recklessly hurling race around without regard for the consequences to the party and hence the nation. That would be the abusive parent faction.

If the comments by Geraldine Ferraro, a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton's campaign, about which your Webwench blogged yesterday, were ill-advised, Ms. Ferraro's response to the criticism she received revealed her hand.

“Every time [Barack Obama's] campaign is upset about something, they call it racist,” she said. “I will not be discriminated against because I’m white. If they think they’re going to shut up Geraldine Ferraro with that kind of stuff, they don’t know me.”

Nice. Maybe Geraldine Ferraro should consider shutting her own white self up and, instead of exuding resentment and fomenting division, express some gratitude for the unique role she, like Barack Obama, was able to play in American presidential politics. Instead Ferraro appears to have transferred all of her emotional baggage from that experience and more onto Hillary Clinton's quest, and in the process has done no one any favors.

So far, the Clinton campaign hasn't done much to distance itself from Ferraro's original statement. Spokesman Howard Wolfson simply said, "We disagree with her." Clinton herself merely repeated that sentiment, adding, "It is regrettable that any of our supporters on both sides, because we’ve both had that experience, say things that kind of veer off into the personal. We ought to keep this on the issues..."

Wouldn't want to risk losing those over-50 white women supporters -- especially the ones with racial resentment.

Your blogstress used to love Geraldine Ferraro, whom she regarded as a hero. Bummer to learn that hero's a hater.

This post is presented by your sponsor, Affirmative Action, which reminds you that the foremost beneficiaries of affirmative action have been white women.