Obama Says Ferraro Race Comments Are ‘Patently Absurd,’ Campaign Calls for Ouster
Barack Obama speaks at Jackson State University in Jackson, Miss., Monday. His campaign called on a prominent Hillary Clinton supporter to step down Tuesday for saying Obama wouldn't be enjoying positive attention if he were white. (AP Photo)
Barack Obama on Tuesday lashed out at Geraldine Ferraro, a prominent Hillary Clinton supporter who says Obama has been helped politically by his race. The former Democratic vice presidential candidate responded that she stands by her remarks.
Ferraro first made the controversial remarks to the Los Angeles-area newspaper The Daily Breeze last week, saying Obama would not be enjoying such positive media attention if he were white.
“If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position,” Ferraro said during an assessment of Obama’s treatment by the press that she attributes to an infatuation with the racial implications of his candidacy.
“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.”
Ferraro added that Clinton has suffered from a “sexist media.”
Obama labeled the comments as “patently absurd” after his campaign demanded Ferraro leave her post on Clinton’s finance committee. The Democratic presidential candidate told the Allentown Morning Call Tuesday: “I don’t think that Geraldine Ferraro’s comments have any place in our politics or the Democratic Party. … I think they were divisive.”
He added: “I think that anybody who understands the history of this country knows they are patently absurd. 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.”
Ferraro told FOX News Tuesday that she’s “sorry that people thought it was racist.” But she quickly turned the tables on Obama, claiming his supporters are too eager to cry race when faced with criticism.
“What I find is offensive is every time anybody says something about the campaign, you’re accused of being racist,” she said.
She then told The Daily Breeze on Tuesday: “Racism works in two different directions. I really think they’re attacking me because I’m white. How’s that?”
Clinton said in Pennsylvania Tuesday that she doesn’t agree with Ferraro’s remarks, but did not say anything about removing her from the campaign.
“I think it’s important we stay focused on the issues that matter to the American people. Both of us have had supporters and staff that have gone over the line and we’ve both had to rein them in,” she said.
The Clinton campaign also released a statement accusing Obama of trying to renege on an apparent pledge to leave the race issue alone.
“We reject these false, personal and politically calculated attacks on the eve of a primary,” said campaign manager Maggie Williams.
Voters headed to the polls in the Mississippi on Tuesday. The state offers 33 pledged delegates and the largest black electorate of any state. Polls there consistently favor the Illinois senator.
The race comments set off a back-and-forth similar to the one the campaigns shared last week, when former foreign policy adviser Samantha Power left the Obama campaign after calling Clinton a “monster” in an interview with a Scottish newspaper.
Obama chief strategist David Axelrod suggested the emphasis on race is part of an underlying effort that has continued for months. He noted other allegedly insensitive comments by Clinton supporters BET founder Bob Johnson and New Hampshire co-chairman Bill Shaheen.
“All this is part of an insidious pattern that needs to be addressed,” Axelrod told reporters on a conference call Tuesday. “When you wink and nod at offensive statements, you’re really sending a signal to your supporters that anything goes.”
Axelrod said the Obama camp has been “very firm” in dealing with such wayward comments — a reference to the campaign’s handling of Power’s remarks. He said Ferraro should be removed from her campaign positions.
Illinois Rep. Jan Schakowsky said that Clinton should call on her advisers to “change the tone” of the campaign.
“Any and all remarks that diminish Senator Obama’s candidacy because of his race are completely out of line,” she said. “We need to stop tearing each other down with personal attacks and focus on defeating Senator McCain in November.”
The issue of Obama’s race surfaces periodically, often when a southern state, rich in black voters, is on the line. Bill Clinton raised it in South Carolina, which went heavily for Obama with the help of black voters. Clinton suggested Obama only won because of his race by raising the point that Jesse Jackson also won there when he ran for president.
Click here to read the Ferraro interview in The Daily Breeze.
It’s Amazing to watch all these Hillary supporters coming on like the ku klux klan with their comments. Comment after comment about how Obama is a a receipent of “Black Privilege” and how black people all vote only for black people. These Democrats sound like - repressed , unrepentant racists. There IS a real undercurrent of racism that Clinton surrogates have been systematically stirring up since Bill clinton went after Obama’s “blackness” a few weeks ago.
Come on people! Forget the color. Forget the gender. Forget your selfish issue. Even forget which party. Start thinking about character and decide on the person who has the integrity, the honesty, the compassion, the strength of conviction, the discipline of conscience and the humility (yes humility, which is needed to reach others, to be real and to get things done), all of the qualities that are needed and that you want representing you. Remember what we got and what has happened over the last seven plus years when we didn’t demand those qualities!
If Obama had to reject someone calling Billary a Monster (which she is) then Billary needs to reject someone making that statement about Obama. I dont believe he is where he is because he is black, he earned it and not any other blacks made it this far.. so, her comment was wrong and ugly! Billary needs to take action as Obama has in the past. Fair is fair…
Hillary
Do you REJECT and DENOUNCE Geraldine Ferraro’s racist comments ???
I completely and totally agree with Mrs. Ferraro. She is honest and straight to the point. Mr Obama is the media darling and has enjoyed the spotlight, much of it positive, by the media. Everything Mrs. Ferraro was brave to speak the truth. Every since political correctness has come alive and started destroying this country, nobody has had the nerve to speak the truth. What has Mr Obama actually achieved to become President? Speak of change..WOW. Empty words with no backbone or substance. The media has made this guy into the contender. Being elected a Senator to the US congress for a single term does not qualify anyone to become President. Most of Mr Obama’s entire career he has voted present, and somehow his wife claims that is the same as a no vote. Actually it is not. It is a way to never vote and act like you did something. Not that Mrs. Clinton has achieved much more than Mr Obama, but neither deserve to be the nominee. The best candidate left the ticket a long time ago. Experience does count, voting yes or no does count. Simply charming the young uneducated voters and declaring yourself present during votes only makes Obama look less qualified than most adult Americans. I give Mrs. Ferraro an A+ for being honest. The rest of you should also.
It’s funny that it is not Obama’s camp bringing up the race card…it’s Clintons. There is a difference to stand up for yourself and playing the race card to get your way. It’s low handed tactics and he has every right to speak up agnist it.
For the MOrons who claim the N word or Don Imus’s comments are only reserved for blacks……. what are you whining about. If a white guy or gal used it it would be racist because what some of you morons use to call slaves in the past. How could you say it’s reverse racism? Get a god damn clue. Go to school and learn your history. I would never vote for an Old retarded bag like Mccain or a Billary in a million years simply because they are the old washington politics game. GET OVER IT!
Get over it Obama’s lovers including the media. It takes a woman to have the guts to tell the truth and alot of us have been thinking it. Go and whine some more about poor little Obama being picked on. I’m voting for McCain if Hussein wins the democratic ticket and I have voted Democrat since 1960.
Did Obama try to get a reporter fired because he didn’t like what the was written about his family? Hillary did. Is that reporter back on msnbc? Is that how she will control the press if she is elected? Hillary is treated differently because she is a woman, and she will use anything to point it out. She really has been given a pass. If Obama did not put out his tax records, she would make a big thing out of it. Where are hers? Oh yes, they will come out after the nominating elections. She will then use the gender factor–my husband wasn’t ready. Would we take that from a man?
Someone called Hillary a monster and she had to resign. I think bringing race into an election is just a little bit more serious.
Look Race has nothing to do with this guy running and winning against Clinton. What an idiot to claim that the media is sexist against Clinton playing the sex card and then going on the newspaper to raise a black issue. How desperate are these Clintons? How could they ever win against McCain in November? She’s shooting herself in the foot by having MORONS like this old bag claim he’s winning because of race. Also, Obama won Clinton’s base in many States which are white women. Is that racist? What about white men? He’s ahead because people think he’s the most qualified guy to take John McCain.