The Clinton Machine is letting out all the stops in what is quickly turning into the dirtiest, most racist, most manipulative and dishonest campaign in modern democratic party history. Check out the latest flap involving Geraldine Ferraro's vicious racist remarks about obama yesterday. After being criticized severely by obama and most of the media Ferraro still insists on defending these remarks. Meanwhile Clinton pretends she is not really aware that Ferraro is doing such things and says she "doesn't agree with Ferraro's remarks" and that "it's regrettable that people on both sides are saying things that unfortunately become personal" (though it's obvious the Clinton camp deliberately put Ferraro up to this and then acts like it's the "regrettable result" of both campaigns engaging in such rhetoric which of course is a patent lie). It's a clear case of a racist version of 'good cop/bad cop' role playing by the Clintons and Ferraro...who in the hell do these cretins think they're fooling...
In other words: it's all a racist ploy by the Clinton machine to play into the racist fears of white working class voters in the upcoming Pennsylvania primary on April 22. Check out the following articles on all this for the transparent evidence of these rancid 'dirty tricks'
Imo the Clintons are nothing but scum as well as utterly corrupt liars and thieves. I wouldn't put anything past them. Their entire mindset is absolutely criminal and if this criminality is allowed to prevail into the democratic party convention and Clinton is elected by the superdelegates the entire democratic party should be destroyed and African Americans should seriously boycott the election. I really mean that to the very core of my being. This is beyond vicious. I think the Clintons are also putting Obama in real danger by their constant racist ploys and antics and are willfully creating an incredibly hostile environment for him and his campaign. Nothing good will come of these vile tactics and if the dp goes into the convention with this horrific cloud hanging over its head the party will implode and splinter into a million bitter pieces and McCain will reap the benefit and be elected president of the United Hates
I blame not only Billary, inc, for this looming catastrophe but the Latino voting bloc (especially their opportunist national leadership), white racist workers who wouldn't know how to vote in their own self interest if their lives depended on it, and pampered, self indulgent racist white women like Ferraro who think their gender is entitled to the presidency just because another white woman is running.
Mark my words folks: all the filthy chickens are coming home to roost in this race and the only victor in this debacle will be john Mccain. But if the democratic party doesn't stop the Clintons now the party would deserve their fate for allowing the Clintons to willfully attack Obama's humanity while trying to turn American hatred and fear of black males into votes...
Kofi
In other words: it's all a racist ploy by the Clinton machine to play into the racist fears of white working class voters in the upcoming Pennsylvania primary on April 22. Check out the following articles on all this for the transparent evidence of these rancid 'dirty tricks'
Imo the Clintons are nothing but scum as well as utterly corrupt liars and thieves. I wouldn't put anything past them. Their entire mindset is absolutely criminal and if this criminality is allowed to prevail into the democratic party convention and Clinton is elected by the superdelegates the entire democratic party should be destroyed and African Americans should seriously boycott the election. I really mean that to the very core of my being. This is beyond vicious. I think the Clintons are also putting Obama in real danger by their constant racist ploys and antics and are willfully creating an incredibly hostile environment for him and his campaign. Nothing good will come of these vile tactics and if the dp goes into the convention with this horrific cloud hanging over its head the party will implode and splinter into a million bitter pieces and McCain will reap the benefit and be elected president of the United Hates
I blame not only Billary, inc, for this looming catastrophe but the Latino voting bloc (especially their opportunist national leadership), white racist workers who wouldn't know how to vote in their own self interest if their lives depended on it, and pampered, self indulgent racist white women like Ferraro who think their gender is entitled to the presidency just because another white woman is running.
Mark my words folks: all the filthy chickens are coming home to roost in this race and the only victor in this debacle will be john Mccain. But if the democratic party doesn't stop the Clintons now the party would deserve their fate for allowing the Clintons to willfully attack Obama's humanity while trying to turn American hatred and fear of black males into votes...
Kofi
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rj-eskow/geraldine-ferraros-ugly-_b_91075.html
Geraldine Ferraro's Ugly Words - Accidental, or Campaign Ploy?
Posted March 12, 2008 | 12:47 AM (EST)
Geraldine Ferraro, once a beacon of hope for the possibility of a new era in American politics, has now disgraced herself for a second time. Today's 'clarifying' comments regarding last week's racist remarks were, if anything, even more offensive. They, and now Ms. Ferraro herself, symbolize a dark and ugly political era that belongs firmly in the past. And by allowing her to remain with her campaign in an official capacity, Hillary Clinton has brought the shadow of Ms. Ferraro's disgrace upon herself.
I remember the pleasure my then-wife and I felt when Rep. Ferraro was nominated as the Democratic Party's Vice Presidential candidate. As parents of a small girl who was already showing leadership traits, we -- and many others -- saw her as the harbinger of a better and more inclusive politics, the politics of the future.
What a disappointment yesterday, then, to read of Ms. Ferraro's ugly and bigoted comment that Barack Obama is "lucky" to be black, and that he would not be where he is today "if he were a white man" or "a woman." Make that ugly, bigoted -- and incorrect. There are no serious political observers of any political orientation who doubt Sen. Obama's political skills, including Republicans or the Clintons themselves.
Ms. Ferraro's comment may be offensive and wrong, but that doesn't mean it's stupid. On the contrary: It looks pretty shrewd. Her words play very well into white resentment of affirmative action, by harping on the notion that less-qualified black people are getting jobs that should go to hard-working and experienced white people.
Ferraro's words suggest a coded play for the bigot vote, with the "woman" reference thrown in to somehow link Obama with the oppression of women (a little something for the Erica Jong set.) It fits in nicely with the "accidental" darkening of Obama's skin in a Clinton campaign photo, or Sen. Clinton's recent statement that Sen. Obama isn't a Muslim -- "as far as I know."
If that weren't bad enough, Geraldine Ferraro went back to the well today: "I really think they're attacking me because I'm white," she said. "How's that?"
How "that" is, Ms. Ferraro, is offensive and shameful. You have dishonored the country that has given you so much.
Still, are her statements the uncensored ravings of a bigot -- or yet another example of the Clinton campaign playing the race card and then saying "who, me"? Comments like Ms. Ferraro's play into the fears and resentments of some lower-income white voters -- the same voters who just so happen to be Sen. Clinton's strongest voting bloc.
Before Hillary's devoted followers weigh in, they should consider this: Geraldine Ferraro still has a position with the Clinton campaign. Clinton's waffling rejection of Ferraro's comments stands in sharp contrast to Samantha Power's immediate resignation. (And the Powers comment was personal in nature, not a play to bigotry.)
Here's what Senator Clinton had to say today: "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," she said. "We ought to keep this on the issues." Apparently she can't resist exploiting the victim role, even when an official in her campaign has transgressed the bounds of political decency.
And Ferraro isn't just some "supporter." She has an official role with the campaign as finance chair. She speaks as a Clinton surrogate. By allowing Ferraro to keep her role in the campaign, Sen. Clinton is giving Ferraro's remarksher tacit approval. She's confirming the worst fears of those who believe she will stoop at nothing to become President.
Do I believe that Sen. Clinton has a secret command center dedicated exclusively to transmitting coded messages of racial bigotry? Of course not -- er, I mean, not as far as I know. Do I think she and her staff use coded appeals to bigotry when it's convenient? Put it this way: A pattern of "accidental" racial slurs has persisted throughout the campaign, despite all the controversy, and has yet to be explained. (And, as a commenter noted, Ferraro used the same line in 1988.)
It's still possible, given enough public pressure, that Ferraro will resign from the Clinton campaign. That would be appropriate. But given the waffling today, even that would now leave the suspicion that this was an example of a time-worn and dirty political tradition: Have a surrogate inject hateful ideas in the campaign, then let them take the fall for it once the ugly message has been set loose.
Either way, it's time for Geraldine Ferraro to retire from the public stage. At this point she's no longer just an embarrassment to the Clinton campaign. Her continued presence as a Democratic figure tarnishes the entire party. At a time when American politics needs to lift its sights toward higher purpose, she is a reminder of its ugly past - one that, sadly, is apparently still alive and well in some quarters.
Oh, and one last question: Is Geraldine Ferraro by any chance a superdelegate?
ARTICLE # 2:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/12/us/politics/12campaign.html?ex=1362974400&en=383fb32d4747da9f&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
Ferraro's Obama Remarks Become Talk of Campaign
NEW YORK TIMES
By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE and JULIE BOSMAN
Published: March 12, 2008
PHILADELPHIA - The Democratic presidential contest was jolted Tuesday by accusations surrounding race and sex, set off by remarks from Geraldine A. Ferraro that Senator Barack Obama had received preferential treatment because he is a black man.
Geraldine A. Ferraro said Barack Obama was getting preferential treatment because he is a black man.
Ms. Ferraro, the former congresswoman and vice-presidential candidate who backs Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, told The Daily Breeze, a newspaper in Torrance, Calif.: "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."
She made the comments last week, but on Tuesday, the Obama camp latched on to them, calling them outrageous and demanding that Mrs. Clinton repudiate them.
In an interview on Tuesday night, Ms. Ferraro defended her comments and said she was furious with the Obama campaign, accusing it of twisting her words.
"Every time that 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."
Despite calls that Ms. Ferraro step down from the Clinton campaign, where she is a member of the finance committee, there was no indication on Tuesday that she would.
The Ferraro comments overshadowed an increasingly bitter dispute between the campaigns about the candidates' qualifications to serve as commander in chief. On Tuesday, Greg Craig, a former official in the administration of President Bill Clinton, and now a vocal supporter of Mr. Obama, issued a blistering rebuttal to Mrs. Clinton's assertions that she had been deeply involved in her husband's foreign policy successes.
"She never managed a foreign policy crisis, and there is no evidence to suggest that she participated in the decision-making that occurred in connection with any such crisis," Mr. Craig said. Referring to her "red phone" commercial, he said, "As far as the record shows, Senator Clinton never answered the phone either to make a decision on any pressing national security issue - not at 3 a.m. or at any other time of day."
The Clinton campaign said that Mr. Craig's memorandum was baseless and that the Obama campaign had been unable to make a positive case for Mr. Obama's experience.
Mr. Obama and the Clintons campaigned Tuesday in Pennsylvania, opening up a new front in the long-running and increasingly bitter contest for the Democratic presidential nomination. The state does not vote until April 22, and there are no contests before then, leaving the candidates six full weeks to try to make news here while their surrogates proceed to eviscerate the opposition.
Mrs. Clinton, of New York, delivered an intensely populist speech here and at a rally earlier in Harrisburg, blasting the oil companies and promising to create jobs and make college affordable. She also reprised her past complaints that Mr. Obama, of Illinois, did not always say what he meant. She said that while he had suggested that, as president, he would renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement and withdraw troops from Iraq in 16 months, for example, his top advisers had indicated otherwise.
Mr. Obama, in his first campaign visit to Pennsylvania, did not hold one of his usual big rallies. Instead, he appeared before a few dozen people at a factory in Bucks County that makes wind turbines, reprising glimpses of his plan to expand health care, create more environmentally friendly jobs and provide tax breaks to working families.
But Ms. Ferraro's comments dominated the day. Reached at her home in Manhattan on Tuesday evening, she said that, in her original remarks, she was asked why there had been so much excitement about Mr. Obama's candidacy. "And I said, 'I think part of it is because he's black,' " she said. "People are excited about this historic candidacy. I am, too."
But the Obama campaign "twisted" her remarks, she said. "I am livid at this thing," she said. "Any time you say anything to anybody about the Obama campaign, it immediately becomes a racist attack."
The Clinton campaign did not contact her on Tuesday, Ms. Ferraro said. "I don't want them to reach out to me," she said. "I'm exercising my First Amendment rights. If they don't like it, tough. I don't intend ever to have anybody tell me that I can't say what I want to say."
Ms. Ferraro said her involvement with the Clinton campaign had been vastly overstated. When asked what her role is, she said: "None. None."
Last fall, Ms. Ferraro also indicated that she thought Mr. Obama was getting preferential treatment from the press. "It's O.K. in this country to be sexist," she said then. "'It's certainly not O.K. to be racist. I think if Barack Obama had been attacked for two hours - well, I don't think Barack Obama would have been attacked for two hours," she said, referring to a Democratic debate.
As the day went along, the Obama campaign grew increasingly angry over the remarks, and in the late afternoon, Mr. Obama himself called them "divisive" and "patently absurd."
Mrs. Clinton later distanced herself from Ms. Ferraro's comments, telling The Associated Press that she did not agree with what Ms. Ferraro had said.
"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," Mrs. Clinton said.
Katharine Q. Seelye reported from Philadelphia, and Julie Bosman from New York. Jeff Zeleny contributed reporting from Fairless Hills, Pa.
ARTICLE # 3:
http://www.reuters.com/article/vcCandidateFeed2/idUSN1216129120080312
Geraldine Ferraro defends remarks about Obama
Wed Mar 12, 2008 9:16am EDT
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro on Wednesday stood by her comment that Democrat Barack Obama is only where he is because he is black and said the reaction by his campaign was dividing the party.
"My comments have been taken so out of context and have been spun by the Obama campaign as racist that it's doing precisely what they don't want done -- it's going to the Democratic Party and dividing us even more," Ferraro said in an interview with ABC's "Good Morning America."
Ferraro, the Democratic vice presidential candidate in 1984 and the only woman ever nominated by a major party for either of the top two U.S. political offices, ignited a flap by telling a California newspaper that "if Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position."
"And if he was a woman 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," Ferraro said.
Ferraro, who is supporting Hillary Clinton's campaign to become the Democratic nominee in November's presidential election, told ABC she believed that was true and that she was hurt by reaction by the Obama campaign that she said painted the comments as racist. She said she has fought against discrimination for 40 years.
"My concern has been over how I've been treated as well and hurt, absolutely hurt by how they have taken this thing and spun it to imply that in any way, any way I am racist," she said.
When asked about Ferraro's remarks, Obama said that being an "African American man named Barack Obama" was not the quickest path to becoming U.S. president.
"Anybody who knows the history of this country I think would not take too seriously the notion that this has been a huge advantage, but I don't think it's disadvantaged either," Obama said.
Obama, who would be the first black U.S. president, rode a wave of heavy black support to victory on Tuesday in a primary race in Mississippi and extended his lead over Clinton in pledged delegates to the August nominating convention. The Illinois senator also won on Saturday in Wyoming.
Clinton, who would be the first woman U.S. president, said on Tuesday she did not agree with the comments and called them "regrettable," but the Obama camp accused her of a double standard for refusing to rebuke Ferraro and remove her from her finance position with the campaign.
An Obama foreign policy adviser resigned last week after telling a British newspaper Clinton was "a monster."
(Reporting by Donna Smith, editing by Eric Walsh)
© Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
ARTICLE # 4
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/03/11/ferraros-remarks-about-o_n_91008.html
Ferraro's Remarks About Obama Decried
ANN SANNER | March 11, 2008 05:22 PM EST |
WASHINGTON - Hillary Rodham Clinton said Tuesday she disagrees with Geraldine Ferraro, one of her fundraisers and the 1984 vice presidential candidate, for suggesting that Barack Obama only achieved his status in the presidential race because he's black. In a brief interview with The Associated Press, Clinton was questioned about Ferraro's remarks.
The Obama campaign has called on the New York senator to denounce them.
Ferraro told the Daily Breeze of Torrance, Calif.: "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."
The newspaper published the interview last Friday.
Clinton said, "I do not agree with that," and later added, "It's regrettable that any of our supporters _ on both sides, because we both have this experience _ say things that kind of veer off into the personal."
"We ought to keep this on the issues. there are differences between us" on approaches to health care, energy, experience.
Ferraro is a former New York congresswoman and was Walter Mondale's running mate when he was the Democratic presidential nominee in 1984. She has endorsed Clinton and raised money for her campaign.
Obama called Ferraro's comments "patently absurd."
"I don't think Geraldine Ferraro's comments have any place in our politics or in the Democratic Party. They are divisive. I think anybody who understands the history of this country knows they are patently absurd," he told the Allentown Morning Call. "And I would expect that the same way those comments don't have a place in my campaign they shouldn't have a place in Senator Clinton's either."
Obama senior adviser David Axelrod said Ferraro should be removed from her position with the Clinton campaign because of her comments.
"The bottom line is this, when you wink and nod at offensive statements, you're really sending a signal to your supporters that anything goes," Axelrod said in a conference call with reporters on Tuesday.
"There's no other way to send a serious signal that you want to police the tone of this campaign," he added. "And if you don't do those things then you are simply adding to the growing compendium of evidence that you really are encouraging that."
Axelrod said Clinton has encountered problems because people view her as a "divisive and polarizing force."
"The best way to address those concerns is to not allow divisiveness and negativity to flourish among your supporters," he said. "And this is an opportunity for her to address that."
Jan Schakowsky, an Obama supporter and Illinois congresswoman, said Democrats should not tear each other down, and instead focus on defeating John McCain, the Republican nominee-in-waiting.
"I respect every person's right to promote his or her candidate, but any and all remarks that diminish Senator Obama's candidacy because of his race are completely out of line," Schakowsky said on the conference call.
Ferraro also said Obama has it easy because of a "very sexist media."
"I think what America feels about a woman becoming president takes a very secondary place to Obama's campaign _ to a kind of campaign that it would be hard for anyone to run against," she said. "For one thing, you have the press, which has been uniquely hard on her. It's been a very sexist media. Some just don't like her. The others have gotten caught up in the Obama campaign."
Last week, a former adviser to Obama resigned after calling Clinton "a monster."
___
ARTICLE # 5
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/11/opinion/11patterson.html
OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR
The Red Phone in Black and White
By ORLANDO PATTERSON
Published: March 11, 2008
Cambridge, Mass.
ON first watching Hillary Clinton's recent "It's 3 a.m." advertisement, I was left with an uneasy feeling that something was not quite right - something that went beyond my disappointment that she had decided to go negative. Repeated watching of the ad on YouTube increased my unease. I realized that I had only too often in my study of America's racial history seen images much like these, and the sentiments to which they allude.
I am not referring to the fact that the ad is unoriginal; as several others have noted, it mimics a similar ad made for Walter Mondale in his 1984 campaign for the Democratic nomination. What bothers me is the difference between this and the Mondale ad. The Mondale ad directly and unequivocally played on the issue of experience. The danger was that the red telephone might be answered by someone who was "unsure, unsteady, untested." Why do I believe this? Because the phone and Mr. Mondale are the only images in the ad. Fair game in the normal politics of fear.
Not so this Clinton ad. To be sure, it states that something is "happening in the world" - although it never says what this is - and that Mrs. Clinton is better able to handle such danger because of her experience with foreign leaders. But every ad-maker, like every social linguist, knows that words are often the least important aspect of a message and are easily muted by powerful images.
I have spent my life studying the pictures and symbols of racism and slavery, and when I saw the Clinton ad's central image - innocent sleeping children and a mother in the middle of the night at risk of mortal danger - it brought to my mind scenes from the past. I couldn't help but think of D. W. Griffith's "Birth of a Nation," the racist movie epic that helped revive the Ku Klux Klan, with its portrayal of black men lurking in the bushes around white society. The danger implicit in the phone ad - as I see it - is that the person answering the phone might be a black man, someone who could not be trusted to protect us from this threat.
The ad could easily have removed its racist sub-message by including images of a black child, mother or father - or by stating that the danger was external terrorism. Instead, the child on whom the camera first focuses is blond. Two other sleeping children, presumably in another bed, are not blond, but they are dimly lighted, leaving them ambiguous. Still it is obvious that they are not black - both, in fact, seem vaguely Latino.
Finally, Hillary Clinton appears, wearing a business suit at 3 a.m., answering the phone. The message: our loved ones are in grave danger and only Mrs. Clinton can save them. An Obama presidency would be dangerous - and not just because of his lack of experience. In my reading, the ad, in the insidious language of symbolism, says that Mr. Obama is himself the danger, the outsider within.
Did the message get through? Well, consider this: people who voted early went overwhelmingly for Mr. Obama; those who made up their minds during the three days after the ad was broadcast voted heavily for Mrs. Clinton.
For more than a century, American politicians have played on racial fears to divide the electorate and mobilize xenophobic parties. Blacks have been the "domestic enemy," the eternal outsider within, who could always inspire unity among "we whites." Richard Nixon's Southern strategy was built on this premise, using coded language - "law and order," "silent majority" - to destroy the alliance between blacks and white labor that had been the foundation of the Democratic Party, and to bring about the Republican ascendancy of the past several decades. The Willie Horton ad that George H. W. Bush used against Michael Dukakis in 1988 was a crude manifestation of this strategy - as was the racist attack used against John McCain's daughter, who was adopted from Bangladesh, in the South Carolina Republican primary in 2000.
It is significant that the Clinton campaign used its telephone ad in Texas, where a Fox poll conducted Feb. 26 to 28 showed that whites favored Mr. Obama over Mrs. Clinton 47 percent to 44 percent, and not in Ohio, where she held a comfortable 16-point lead among whites. Exit polls on March 4 showed the ad's effect in Texas: a 12-point swing to 56 percent of white votes toward Mrs. Clinton. It is striking, too, that during the same weekend the ad was broadcast, Mrs. Clinton refused to state unambiguously that Mr. Obama is a Christian and has never been a Muslim.
It is possible that what I saw in the ad is different from what Mrs. Clinton and her operatives saw and intended. But as I watched it again and again I could not help but think of the sorry pass to which we may have come - that someone could be trading on the darkened memories of a twisted past that Mr. Obama has struggled to transcend.
Orlando Patterson is a professor of sociology at Harvard and the author of "The Ordeal of Integration: Progress and Resentment in America's 'Racial' Crisis."
This kind of racist fear mongering by the Clinton Machine is going to continue and it's GOING TO GET WORSE. The entire national black community better raise their voices in loud and relentless PROTEST at the sheer injustice of all this very soon because these loathsome attacks on Obama are ALSO ATTACKS ON THE AFRICAN AMERICAN POPULATION AS WELL. I CURSE THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY AND ESPECIALLY THE DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE FOR ALLOWING THE SCUMBAGS KNOWN AS THE CLINTONS TO GET AWAY WITH ALL THIS...
