Insanity, Thy Name is Geraldine

One of the most bizarre and deranged editorials in a long time was just written by Geraldine Ferraro.

In an editorial written by Geraldine Ferraro and published in the Boston Globe, the former Democratic Vice-Presidential candidate continued and extended her spate of bizarre comments on race and gender.

In an editorial written by Geraldine Ferraro and published in the Boston Globe, the former Democratic Vice-Presidential candidate continued and extended her spate of bizarre comments on race and gender.

She attacks both Barack Obama and the media in general for

the effects of racism and sexism on the campaign have resulted in a split within the Democratic Party that will not be easy to heal before election day.

Veering sharply to the reactionary right she continues:

Perhaps it's because neither the Barack Obama campaign nor the media seem to understand what is at the heart of the anger on the part of women who feel that Hillary Clinton was treated unfairly because she is a woman or what is fueling the concern of Reagan Democrats for whom sexism isn't an issue, but reverse racism is.

So, in Geraldine's World, support for Obama is not only sexist against women and racist against whites.

It gets worse. She continues that:

The truth is that tens of thousands of women have watched how Clinton has been treated and are not happy. We feel that if society can allow sexism to impact a woman's candidacy to deny her the presidency, it sends a direct signal that sexism is OK in all of society.

Yes, it was all a big conspiracy to deny Hillary the presidency; The Vast Anti-Woman Conspiracy. Ferraro neglects to give any examples of exactly how Hillary has been treated that is making anyone unhappy except to link it to her not being president. This sounds like another example of "Hillary was owed the presidency."

Ferraro wants a study conducted, even offered to help pay for it, to determine how Hillary was denied the presidency. (I know how! Give me a $100,000 grant and I'd be happy to show you the election results!)

But it turns even more bizarre. She continues with a professed deep concern for how "Reagan Democrats" (her term) have been "wounded" by Barack Obama.

They're not upset with Obama because he's black; they're upset because they don't expect to be treated fairly because they're white.

Whoa!!!!! As a white person I take exception. How in the world can you come up with the idea that a HALF-black candidate will necessarily be unfair to white people? Well, in Geraldine's World, she can:

It's not racism that is driving them, it's racial resentment. And that is enforced because they don't believe he understands them and their problems. That when he said in South Carolina after his victory "Our Time Has Come" they believe he is telling them that their time has passed.

I was born the week of Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Had a Dream" speech. Here I sit 44 years later and I read someone today spewing the same ignorance that was prominent a lifetime ago - "if we give the blacks any power they are gonna get us!". That a supposedly educated human being can in 2008 be so paranoid about the success of a HALF-black candidate is shocking and disgusting. No one who has paid any attention at all to the Obama campaign could not possibly interpret it as a "we are gonna get whitey" movement.

With all due respect Ms. Ferraro, your attitude is disgraceful. You can call it "racial resentment" but that is just a euphemism and we all know it. Your editorial shows without doubt that your stance in this primary campaign has been far less about a woman standing up for another woman, than a white person standing against a HALF-black person. No, Ms. Ferraro, Obama does not have "less than six months to make the case" to people who think the way you describe. Such thoughts, no, such unthinking emotions of hate-driven fear, are probably beyond the reach of reason and reality.  There are none so blind as those who refuse to see. Such deeply entrenched prejudice cannot be turned around in six months nor should Obama try. That you would suggest that Mr. Obama cater to such prejudices is appalling. No person, black or white, male or female, has to justify themselves to bigots.