Keith Olbermann Denounces Ferraro & Clinton for their Racism

Brilliant political cartoon in response to Ferraro's racist remarks. Drawing by Nick Anderson in The Houston Chronicle.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/03/13/transcript-olbermann-ant_n_91330.html?view=print

Here's the transcript:

Text of Keith Olbermann's "Special Comment" delivered live last night on MSNBC, decrying Hillary Clinton for the tactics of her campaign and specifically for her failure to categorically reject the remarks of Geraldine Ferraro about Barack Obama. The video may be viewed here. Transcript below:

KEITH OLBERMANN: Finally, as promised, a special comment on the presidential campaign of the junior senator from New York. By way of necessary preface, President and Senator Clinton and the senator's mother and the senator's brother were of immeasurable support to me at the moments when these very commentaries were the focus of the most surprise, the most uncertainty and the most anger. My gratitude to them is unbiding.

Also, I am not here endorsing Senator Obama`s nomination, nor suggesting in it is inevitable. Thus I have fought with myself over whether or not to say anything. Events insist.

Senator, as it has reached its apex in their tone deaf, arrogant and insensitive reaction to the remarks of Geraldine Ferraro, your own advisers are slowly killing your chances to become president. Senator, their words and your own are now slowly killing the chances for any Democrat to become president. In your tepid response to this Ferraro disaster, you may sincerely think you disenthralling an enchanted media and righting an unfair advance bestowed on Senator Obama. You may think the matter has closed with Representative Ferraro's bitter, almost threatening resignation letter.

But, in fact, senator, you are now campaigning as if Barack Obama were the Democrat and you were the Republican. As Shakespeare wrote, senator, "that way madness lies." You have missed a critical opportunity to do what was right. No matter what Miss Ferraro now claims, no one took her comments out of context. She had made them on at least there separate occasions, then twice more on television this morning. Just hours ago, on "NBC Nightly News," she denied she had made the remark in an interview, only at a paid political speech.

In fact, the first time she spoke them was 10 days before that California newspaper published them, not in a speech, but in a radio interview. On February 26, quoting, "if Barack Obama were a white man, would we be talking about this as a potential real problem for Hillary. If he were a woman of any color, would he be in this position that he's in? Absolutely not."

The content was inescapable. Two minutes earlier, a member of Senator Clinton's finance committee, one of her Hill-Raisers had bemoaned the change in allegiance by super delegate John Lewis from Clinton to Obama and also the endorsement of Obama by Senator Dodd; "I look at these guys doing it," she had said, "and I have to tell you, it`s the guys sticking together."

A minute after the color remark, she was describing herself as having been chosen for the 1984 Democratic ticket purely as a woman politician, purely to make history. She was, in turn, making a blind accusation of sexism and dismissing Senator Obama`s candidacy as nothing more than some equal opportunity stunt.

The next day, she repeated her comments and a reporter from the newspaper in Torrence, California heard them; "If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position. 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 when this despicable statement, ugly in its overtones, laughable in its week grip of the facts, and moronic in the historical context, when it floats outward from the Clinton campaign like a poison cloud, what do the advisers have their candidate do? Do they have Senator Clinton herself compare the remark to Al Campanis (ph) talking on "Nightline" on Jackie Robinson Day about how blacks lack the necessities to become baseball executives, while she points out that Barack Obama has not gotten his 1600 delegates as part of some kind of affirmative action plan?

Do they have Senator Clinton note that her own brief period in elected office is as irrelevant to the issue of judgment as is Senator Obama's, while she points out that FDR had served only six years as governor and state senator before he became president? Or that Teddy Roosevelt had four and a half years before the White House? Or that Woodrow Wilson had two years and six weeks?

Or Richard Nixon 14? And Calvin Coolidge 25?

Do these advisers have Senator Clinton invoke Samantha Power, gone by sunrise after she used the word monster, and have Senator Clinton say, this is how I police my campaign, and this is what I stand for, while she fires former Congresswoman Ferraro from any role in the campaign? No, somebody tells her that simply disagreeing with, then rejecting the remarks is sufficient. She should then call regrettable words that should make any Democrat retch.

And that she should then try to twist them, first into some pox on both your houses plea to stick to the issues, and then to let her campaign manager try to bend them beyond all recognition into Senator Obama's fault. And thus these advisers give Congresswoman Ferraro nearly a week in which to send Senator Clinton`s campaign back into the vocabulary of David Duke; "anytime 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. Racism works in two different directions. I really think they are attacking me because I'm white. How's that?"

How's that? Apart from sounding exactly like Rush Limbaugh attacking the black football quarterback Donovan McNab, apart from sounding exactly like what Miss Ferraro said about another campaign nearly 20 years ago, quote, "President Reagan suggested Tuesday that people don't ask Jesse Jackson tough questions because of his race. Former Representative Geraldine A. Ferraro said Wednesday that because of his, quote, radical views, if Jesse Jackson were not black, he would not be in the race."

So apart from sounding like insidious racism that is at least two decades old, apart from rendering ridiculous Senator Clinton`s shell game about choosing Obama as vice president, apart from this evenings resignation letter; "I am stepping down from your finance committee so I can speak for myself and you can continue to speak for yourself about what is at stake in this campaign. The Obama campaign is attacking me to hurt you."

Apart from all that, well, it sounds as if those advisers wanted their campaign to be associated with those words, and the cheap, ignorant, vile racism that underlies every syllable of them, and that Geraldine Ferraro has just gone freelance.

Senator Clinton, that is not a campaign strategy. This is a suicide pact. This week alone, your so-called strategists have declared that Senator Obama has not yet crossed some commander in chief threshold, but he might still be your choice to be vice president, even though a quarter of
the previous 16 vice presidents have become commander in chief during the greatest kind of crisis this country can face, a midterm succession, but you only pick him if he crosses that threshold by the time of the convention.

But if he does cross that threshold by the time of the convention, he will only have done so sufficiently enough to become vice president, not president? Senator, if the serpentine logic of your so-called advisers were not bad enough, now thanks to Geraldine Ferraro and your campaigns initial refusal to break with her, and your new relationship with her, now more disturbing still with her claim that she can now speak for herself about her vision as Senator Obama as some kind of embodiment of a quota if she wishes.

If you were to seek Obama as a vice president, it would be to Miss Ferraro some called of social engineering gesture, some kind of racial make good. Do you not see, senator?

To Senator Clinton`s supporters, to her admirers, to her friends for whom she is first choice and to her friends for whom she is second choice, she is still letting herself be perceived as standing next to and standing by racial divisiveness and blindness. Worse yet, after what President Clinton said during the South Carolina primary, comparing the Obama and Jesse Jackson campaigns, a disturbing but only border line remark, after what some in the black community have perceived as a racial undertone to the 3:00 a.m. ad, a disturbing but only borderline interpretation, and after the moments hesitation in her own answer on "60 Minutes" about Obama's religion, a disturbing but only borderline vagueness -- after those precedents, there are those who see a pattern. False or true, they see it. After those precedents, there are those who see an intent. False or true, they see it. After those precedents, there are those that see the Clinton campaign`s anything but benign neglect of the Ferraro catastrophe, falsely or truly, as a desire to hear the kind of casual prejudice which still haunts the society voiced, and to not distance the campaign from it.

To not distance you from it, Senator. To not distance you from that which you, as a woman, and Senator Obama, as an African-American, should both know and feel with the deepest of personal pain, which you should both fight with all you have, which you should both ensure has no place in this contest ever.

This, Senator Clinton, is your campaign and it is your name. Grab the reigns back from whoever has led you to this precipice before it is too late. Voluntarily or inadvertently, you are still awash in this filth. Your only reaction has been to disagree, reject, to call it regrettable. Her only reaction has been to brand herself as the victim and resign from your committee and insist she will continue to speak. Unless, senator, you say something definitive, the former congresswoman is speaking with your
approval.

You must remedy this and you must reject and denounce Geraldine Ferraro. Good night and good luck.

Mass Resistance to An American Tradition

The following articles from today's New York Times describes the fierce public response to, and the political fallout from, the blatantly racist remarks by the former fundraiser for the Clinton campaign, Ms. Geraldine Ferraro, who resigned yesterday when a tidal wave of public protests called for her to apologize and step down from her role in the Clinton campaign. What is especially noteworthy about the articles is that they also describe just how outraged and disgusted the national African American community is by Ferraro's remarks and Hillary Clinton's initial lukewarm response to them. Clinton seems today however to have changed her tune. Ummmmm...I wonder why...

The other noteworthy aspect of these articles is that they also chronicle just how "racially divided" voting trends are becoming in the Democratic primaries by citing the wide disparity between African Americans giving 90% of their votes to Obama and white voters responding by only casting 26% of their votes for Obama in the recent Mississippi primary. Of course this happened in a state which has always had a notorious reputation (and justly so) for historically being the most violently racist state in the entire country. So it's not exactly a fully accurate barometer of national voting trends where issues of "race" are concerned. But I'm certainly not naive or pollyanna about these matters. I get the general point various observers and pundits are trying to make...Stay tuned...

Kofi


http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/13/us/politics/13dems.html?_r=1&nl=pol&oref=slogin&emc=pol&pagewanted=print


March 13, 2008
Democrats Face Racial Issue Again

By PATRICK HEALY and JEFF ZELENY

After the Democratic primary in South Carolina turned racially divisive in January, Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama essentially declared a truce and put a stop to fighting between their camps. But this week, race has once again begun casting a pall over the battle between the two.

On Wednesday a close ally of Mrs. Clinton, Geraldine A. Ferraro, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee in 1984 who was on the Clinton finance committee, resigned from the campaign after being criticized by Mr. Obama’s advisers, among others, for her recent comments that “if Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position” as a leading presidential contender.

Ms. Ferraro did not disavow that remark. Mrs. Clinton called it regrettable but did not take any action.

At an event in Washington after Ms. Ferraro's resignation, Mrs. Clinton addressed Mrs. Ferraro's comment: "I certainly do repudiate it and I regret deeply that it was aid. Obviously she doesn't speak for the campaign, she doesn't speak for any of my positions, and she has resigned from being a member of my large finance committee."

Mr. Obama, speaking to reporters on Wednesday, said he did not believe that there was “a directive in the Clinton campaign saying, ‘Let’s heighten the racial elements in the campaign.’ I certainly wouldn’t want to think that.”

He said he was puzzled at how, after more than a year of campaigning, race and sex are at the forefront as never before.

“I don’t want to deny the role of race and gender in our society,” he said. “They’re there, and they’re powerful. But I don’t think it’s productive.”

Yet race, as well as sex, have been unavoidable subtexts of the Democratic campaign since the two candidates began seeking to be the first African-American or the first woman to lead a party’s presidential ticket. In the primaries and caucuses this winter, too, Mrs. Clinton has enjoyed substantial support from women, while Mr. Obama has increasingly drawn overwhelming votes from blacks.

The Tuesday primary in Mississippi, a state where the electorate has historically been racially polarized, generated one of the most divided votes. Mrs. Clinton received 8 percent of the black vote, and Mr. Obama received 26 percent of the white vote, according to exit polls by Edison/Mitofsky for The Associated Press and television networks.

Mrs. Clinton’s advisers said Wednesday that they were concerned about her standing among blacks, once a core constituency for her and her husband, but that they also believed that black support for Mr. Obama was a foregone conclusion at this point.

They said they were wrestling with ways to make inroads with blacks in Pennsylvania, which holds the next primary, on April 22.

Mrs. Clinton’s reluctance to sideline Ms. Ferraro, who made her comments last week to The Daily Breeze in Torrance, Calif., left the specter of race hanging over the Democratic contest.

That decision drew a sharp rebuke on Wednesday from the Rev. Al Sharpton, the black political leader in New York and a former presidential candidate, who questioned whether Mrs. Clinton’s campaign was keeping the issue alive as a way to win white votes in Pennsylvania.

In addition to Ms. Ferraro’s remark, Mr. Sharpton cited Mrs. Clinton’s decision not to fire her top ally in Pennsylvania, Gov. Edward G. Rendell, for saying in February that some white voters there were “probably not ready to vote for an African-American candidate.”

“When you hear the lack of total denunciation of Ferraro, when you hear Rendell saying there are whites who will never vote for a black, one has to wonder if the Clinton campaign has a Pennsylvania strategy to appeal to voters on race,” Mr. Sharpton said in an interview. “I would hope Mrs. Clinton would make it clear that she is not doing that.”

Mr. Sharpton ran against Ms. Ferraro in 1992 in New York in a primary for a Senate seat.

Howard Wolfson, the Clinton campaign’s communications director, said in response: “She has made it clear. She makes it clear all the time.”

From virtually the start of the contest between Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama in January 2007, they have sought to move beyond race and sex, acknowledging that their possible nominations would be historic, yet saying they were running on their qualifications.

At the same time, each has used the issue against the other. Mr. Obama’s advisers suggested that Mrs. Clinton was playing the sex card last fall after a brutal debate where several male contenders criticized her.

Mrs. Clinton’s advisers and former President Bill Clinton suggested that black candidates like Mr. Obama had done well in South Carolina because of support among African-Americans there.

Although Mr. Obama did not directly call on Ms. Ferraro to quit the campaign finance committee, his aides worked to keep the issue alive. They set up a conference call with reporters to draw attention to the comment.

On Wednesday, Mr. Obama called the remark wrongheaded but said he did not believe that Ms. Ferraro intended it to be racist.

“The Clinton campaign has talked more during the course of the last few months about what groups are supporting her and what groups are supporting me and trying to make a case that the reason she should be the nominee is that there are a set of voters that Obama might not get,” he said. “And that seems to track in a certain racial demographic.”

Mr. Obama’s advisers noted that his support among whites in Mississippi increased, to a small degree, over that in South Carolina, when some Democrats had feared that Mr. Obama could be called a candidate who appealed just to black voters.

Race has been a defining feature of the primary contests. Beyond Mississippi, Mrs. Clinton was backed by 5 percent of black voters in Illinois, Mr. Obama’s home state; 8 percent in Wisconsin, where black voters made up 8 percent of the Democratic primary vote; 9 percent in Delaware; 10 percent in Virginia; and 11 percent in Georgia, all states Mr. Obama won.

Mr. Obama’s 26 percent support among whites in Tuesday’s primary was one of his worst performances with this group.

He had previously been supported by 16 percent of white voters in Arkansas; 23 percent in Florida, where the candidates did not actively campaign; 24 percent in South Carolina, where John Edwards was still competing; and 25 percent in Alabama.

Dalia Sussman contributed reporting.


http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/12/clinton-addresses-ferraro-backlash/index.html?ref=politics


March 12, 2008

Clinton Addresses Ferraro Backlash

By ARIEL ALEXOVICH


WASHINGTON — On the hot seat in front of a largely African-American media audience, Hillary Rodham Clinton again rejected comments made by Geraldine Ferraro, the former vice presidential nominee whose repeated remarks in the past week have ignited another round of racial identity politics.

Senator Clinton was asked Wednesday night – though it wasn’t the first question — about the Ferraro contretemps and whether she had “done enough” to address comments some have interpreted as racist. Senator Barack Obama deemed them divisive just yesterday.

Ms. Ferraro, a former vice presidential candidate, has repeatedly said in recent days that Senator Obama wouldn’t have been in the position he’s in now if he wasn’t black. Outcry from the Obama camp and the greater public led her to resign from the post she held on the Clinton campaign finance team earlier today.

“I said yesterday that I rejected what she said, and I certainly do repudiate it,” said Senator Clinton at the forum sponsored by the National Newspaper Publishers Association, a group that represents more than 200 African-American papers. “And I regret deeply that, you know, it was said. Obviously she doesn’t speak for the campaign, she doesn’t speak for any of my positions. And she has resigned from being a member of my very large finance committee.”
Senator Clinton added:

“You know, both Senator Obama and I have throughout this campaign had to take occasion to remind our supporters and our staff that we want to run this campaign based on our issue differences, our records, our qualifications, our experience.

I think, I recall, it was in one of these debates maybe in January where both of us said, ‘Look, we know that we don’t control what is said by everybody who supports us.’ One of his top advisers had to resign about something she said about me.

So we are aware that this happens, but we are particularly sensitive to it because of the nature of this campaign and who each of us is. So we do stand against it, we repudiate it, we try to take action wherever we can, and we will continue to do that.”

When another audience member brought up Bill Clinton’s characterization of Senator Obama’s popularity during the South Carolina primary, when the former president likened his support to that of the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s years ago in a way that seemed to minimalize Mr. Obama’s candidacy, she said, “I’m sorry if anyone was offended. It was certainly not meant, in any way, to be offensive.”

Mrs. Clinton again said that she’s proud to be in this election, and that she would urge her supporters to vote for Mr. Obama if he made it through to the general election.

The other questions she fielded dealt with Hurricane Katrina victims – she said as president she’d appoint a staff member just to deal with the situation – and racial profiling. She also reiterated her commitment to fighting AIDS and improving health care in low-income communities.

Tomorrow night, Senator Obama is to be honored by the media organization as newsmaker of the year. This will be the second time he has received this award from the organization. The first was in 2005.


http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/12/ferraro-quits-clinton-post/


March 12, 2008, 5:17 pm

Ferraro Quits Clinton Post
By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE

Updated | 8:25 p.m.

After a two-day firestorm, Geraldine Ferraro has quit Senator Hillary Clinton’s finance committee, saying that Senator Barack Obama’s campaign was twisting her words to make her appear racist and that this was hurting Mrs. Clinton.

“I am stepping down from your finance committee so I can speak for myself and you can continue to speak for yourself about what is at stake in this campaign,” Ms. Ferraro wrote in a letter to Mrs. Clinton. “The Obama campaign is attacking me to hurt you. I won’t let that happen.”

For the last two days, Ms. Ferraro has been sharply criticized for comments she made last week, but which surfaced only recently, that suggested Mr. Obama had succeeded as far as he had because he was black.

“If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position,” she told the Daily Breeze, a newspaper in Torrance, Calif.

While critics, including Mr. Obama, pounced on her, a defiant Ms. Ferraro defended her remarks, saying they were accurate and not racist. She has said that she herself benefited from being a woman because otherwise, she would not have been the vice presidential nominee in 1984.

But by mid-afternoon, she resigned from her membership on the finance committee.

Senator Clinton addressed Ms. Ferraro’s remarks at a forum sponsored by the National Newspaper Publishers Association.

There was no immediate comment from the Clinton campaign, but Howard Wolfson, a spokesman, said that Ms. Ferraro had decided to leave on her own.

Ms. Ferraro continued to speak out and press her point, telling NBC News after her resignation: “This is the last time the Obama campaign is going to be able to play this kind of race card. They should apologize to me for calling me a racist.”

Bill Burton, a spokesman for the Obama campaign, said the campaign had not twisted her words. “I find that notion to be completely ludicrous,” he said.

He added: “As Barack Obama has repeatedly said, it is time to move beyond the politics that slices and dices the electorate by race, region, or gender so that we can finally come together and focus on the challenges that unite all of us as Americans.”

Mrs. Clinton said yesterday that she “rejected” Ms. Ferraro’s original comments. But questions persisted about why she had not denounced them more sharply and whether they actually worked to the Clinton camp’s advantage with white voters.

On a conference call this afternoon with Clinton officials, before Ms. Ferraro stepped down, Andrea Mitchell of NBC News asked why Mrs. Clinton had not been more emphatic and if there hadn’t been a pattern by the Clinton campaign of exploiting such remarks.

Howard Wolfson, Mrs. Clinton’s spokesman, replied that the campaign was “completely unaware” of Mrs. Ferraro’s remarks before she made them. “We did not in any way encourage them,” he said.

He noted that when Mrs. Clinton responded to a question about the comments, she “made clear she disagreed with them and she rejected them.”

Ms. Mitchell persisted, noting that in previous cases where people associated with both campaigns had made problematic remarks, the campaigns had taken aggressive action.

Mr. Wolfson said that Mr. Obama had not always removed people from his campaign, citing the cases of David Geffen, the Hollywood mogul, and General Gen. Merrill A. McPeak, both of whom had sharply criticized Mrs. Clinton but neither of whom were removed.

“Each circumstance is different,” Mr. Wolfson said. “Geraldine Ferraro is not an adviser, she is not a member of the staff and we have made clear that we reject her comments, that we disagree with her comments, that she was not speaking on behalf of the campaign.”

Mr. Obama was asked about the matter this morning on NBC’s “Today.”

“Part of what I think Geraldine Ferraro is doing, and I respect the fact that she was a trailblazer, is to participate in the kind of slice and dice politics that’s about race and about gender and about this and that, and that’s what Americans are tired of because they recognize that when we divide ourselves in that way we can’t solve problems.”

Ms. Ferraro went on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” where she was asked if she was sorry for what she had said. “Absolutely not,” she responded.

She was also asked whether the Clinton campaign might actually agree with her but could not say so publicly.

“That’s not of concern to me,” Ms. Ferraro said. She said that the Obama campaign was spinning her as a racist and “doing precisely what they don’t want done.”

Since Ms. Ferraro was named to the Democratic ticket in 1984, she has said she would not have been picked if she had not been a woman. In 1988, she said of Jesse Jackson that if he were not black, “he wouldn’t be in the race.”

This interview in February on Fox Radio’s John Gibson show gives you a good flavor of Ms. Ferraro’s view that race is playing a big role in this campaign. She was talking about Representative John Lewis, the Georgia Democrat who is a superdelegate and who switched his endorsement from Mrs. Clinton to Mr. Obama.

“I’m very disappointed,” she said. “When I see John Lewis. He’s turning around _ this is a civil rights leader. What in God’s name did he change his vote from Hillary to Barack Obama? I’ll tell you why. Because he faces, he’s not going to lose a Democratic primary in his district in two years, but he sure as hell will face one if he sticks it to Barack Obama when he has a greater majority of blacks in his district. So he’s looking at, he’s not going to lose. I’m so disappointed in him, I could die. I look at Rosa DeLaura up in Connecticut. She represents New Haven. Tell me, I mean I don’t care what she says, tell me why she’s endorsing Barack Obama and came to his defense on an issue like choice when he voted six times maybe? When he voted present? I’m a lunatic about this stuff. I can’t believe people are doing it.”

Mr. Gibson asked her if it was possible that Mr. Obama had a wave behind him and that politicians wanted to reflect the views of their constituents.

“John,” she said, “between me and you and your millions of listeners, if Barack Obama were a white man, would we be talking about this as a potential real problem for Hillary? If he were a woman of any color, would he be in this position that he’s in? Absolutely not.”

Mr. Gibson then asked, “Geraldine, are you playing the race card?”

“No, and that’s the problem,” she said. “Every time you say the truth — I’m the first person, John, and you know how honest I am — I am the first person who will say in 1984, if my name were Gerard instead of Geraldine, I would never have been picked as the vice presidential candidate.”

An American Tradition Continues--Thanks to Geraldine Ferraro

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/03/13/ferraro_leaves_clinton_camp_over_remarks_on_oba

All,

The brazen infantile behavior displayed by Ferraro is what you ALWAYS get from racists (or people who make racist remarks and/or engage in racist actions) in a truly racist society like the 'United Hates'. This behavior is characterized and informed by the following telltale, even highly predictable signs:

Pathological lying, willful distortions of fact, bad faith, blatant irrationality masquerading as sound logic, massive insecurity, fear-mongering, insults, contempt, malice, condescension, posturing, self-pity, fake innocence, indifference to others, victimizers pretending to be victims, ridicule, and ignorance. Usually pervasive violence is not far behind as well. These attitudes and values are what has allowed and continues to allow millions of white Americans to defend and justify 250 years of chattel slavery and another 145 years of massive racial discrimination, oppression, segregation, disfranchisement, profiling and surveillance, exploitation, murder, sexual and psychological abuse, social terror, and theft.

White racists were like this in the 18th century. They were like this in the 19th century. They were like this in the 20th century. And they haven't changed in the 21st century. Of course just like in previous centuries when racists categorically refused to take intellectual, moral, social, and ethical responsibility for their racism, racists today continue that sordid and murderous tradition. This is the historical legacy that Ms. Ferraro has inherited and that she proudly continues to advance today. Is she now going to admit that simple fact and critically examine herself and her motives in that light? Of course not. But if there's one thing that racists almost NEVER DO under any circumstances whatsoever--especially when prompted to do so by an inferior--er, excuse me, I mean "black person", and that is to simply admit they are WRONG. Because if they did that they could then begin to seriously question and dismantle the gigantic structure of racism itself. However, how could a racist live without their racism? It's unthinkable, isn't it?

Kofi


Ferraro leaves Clinton camp over remarks on Obama
Comments shine spotlight on race and gender

By Globe Staff And Associated Press / March 13, 2008

Geraldine Ferraro stepped down from Hillary Clinton's national finance committee yesterday, but not before a controversy over remarks she made about Barack Obama exposed the politics of race and gender in the Democratic presidential race.

'It was a statement of fact,'
Ferraro said over her remarks
that suggested Obama wouldn't be in the lead if he were not black.

Apology, and a defense

Ferraro told CNN that she was not asked by the Clinton campaign to make the move, but decided it would be best.

In a letter obtained by CNN, Ferraro wrote Clinton: "I am stepping down from your finance committee so I can speak for myself and you can continue to speak for yourself about what is at stake in this campaign. The Obama campaign is attacking me to hurt you. I won't let that happen."

Earlier yesterday, the 1984 vice presidential nominee apologized to those who thought it racially insensitive for her to suggest that Obama wouldn't be the Democratic front-runner if he were not black. But she then declared: "It wasn't a racist comment. It was a statement of fact."

On ABC's "Good Morning America," she also accused the Obama campaign of twisting her words, saying that "every time" someone makes a negative comment about Obama they are accused of racism.

Tuesday night, Ferraro had even stronger words about Obama's camp for the Daily Breeze, the newspaper in Torrance, Calif., whose interview with her last week started the controversy. "Racism works in two different directions," she said. "I really think they're attacking me because I'm white. How's that?"

The Obama campaign had called on Clinton, who had distanced herself from Ferraro's comments and called them "regrettable," to remove Ferraro from her finance committee.

Before Ferraro's resignation, Obama admonished her yesterday, saying that if someone in his campaign had suggested that Clinton "is where she is only because she is a woman," people would "take great offense, and rightly so."

"Part of what I think Geraldine Ferraro is doing, and I respect the fact that she was a trailblazer, is to participate in the kind of slice-and-dice politics that's about race and about gender. . . That's what Americans are tired of because they recognize that when we divide ourselves in that way we can't solve problems," Obama said on NBC's "Today" show.

At an afternoon news conference in Chicago, Obama, who would become the first black president if elected, said he did not believe that the Clinton campaign was deliberately stirring racial divisions or that Ferraro's comments were racist.

"I think that her comments were ridiculous. I think they were wrongheaded," he said. "The notion that it is a great advantage to me to be an African-American named Barack Obama and pursue the presidency, I think, is not a view that has been commonly shared by the general public."

The Illinois senator also expressed frustration that racial issues keep arising, asserting that his primary victories across the country have proven he can draw support from all races and regions. "We keep on thinking we've dispelled this," he said. "And it keeps on getting raised once again."

Obama said he believes that the vast majority of voters will base their decisions on substantive issues. "I have absolute confidence that if I'm doing my job, if I'm delivering my message, then there are very few voters out there that I can't win," he said. "If I'm not winning them over, then it's my fault."

The controversy comes as the Democratic electorate appears more racially polarized. Obama won the support of more than 90 percent of black voters in Mississippi on Tuesday, while Clinton won about three-fourths of white voters, according to exit polls.

Before Ferraro's resignation, the Clinton campaign stoked the fight a little more, buttressing Ferraro's comments that Clinton has been treated unfairly as a female candidate by highlighting remarks by an Obama adviser last month.

Retired Air Force General Merrill A. "Tony" McPeak told the Los Angeles Times that Obama has "real gravitas" and "doesn't go on television and have crying fits," an apparent reference to Clinton's much-publicized emotional moment on the eve of the New Hampshire primary.

The Obama campaign had immediately repudiated the comments, and McPeak quickly said he had "high regard" for Clinton. But the Clinton camp pointed out that he is front and center in vouching for Obama's national security credentials, including a news conference yesterday.

McPeak said Obama had the right judgment and steady temperament to be commander in chief, praising him for opposing a "dumb war" in Iraq and calling him "No-shock Barack" and "No-drama Obama."

© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.

The Ugly Politics of Clinton/Ferraro

At last Ferraro resigns from the Clinton campaign--too little too late though. The damage has been done as Ferraro's racist comments were allowed to linger and Clinton's weak rejection of them showed her tacit support (i.e. sanction). Clearly, Clinton wanted Ferraro's comments to remain at the forefront of media attention and make an impact on primary voters. I would have expected such dirty politics from the Republicans (Willy Horton, anyone?) but not from within the Democratic Party, which is, after all, trying to wrest the presidency from eight long disastrous years of George Bush. I also find it rather remarkable that Ferraro had the nerve to say to the New York Times that she had no role in the Clinton campaign. This is rather implausible deniability on her part.

Now that we have a truly viable black candidate, his opponents have decided to use the politics of fear to turn voters against him. I was in the grocery store checkout line the other day and saw a headline in the gossip rag Star saying that Obama has terrorist ties. So here we are, 20 years after Willie Horton and George H. W. Bush, except that it's not Willie Horton that's being used to play on white fear, it's simply fear of a black man. In light of this, FDR's famous quote from his first inaugural address in 1933 has particular resonance, especially when read in full, instead of the truncated version that's usually quoted:

"So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance."

Chuleenan

The Clintons Are Political Scumbags!

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

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...