Ferraro Defends Remarks About Obama as ‘Statement of Fact’ After She Leaves Clinton Team
Former vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro, who is stepping down from Hillary Clinton’s finance team after telling a California newspaper that Barack Obama has been aided politically by his race, said Wednesday evening that the remarks were nothing more than a “statement of fact.”
Ferraro told FOX News she’s leaving her unpaid post on the Clinton finance committee because she doesn’t want the flap to become a campaign distraction, but blamed the fallout on Obama’s operatives.
“Somebody must have seen this (article) and said, ‘Wow, this is really something — we go after Ferraro, we go after Clinton,” Ferraro said in an interview Wednesday night on FOX News’ “Hannity & Colmes. “They made this a divisive issue, not me.”
Ferraro, who also is a FOX News contributor, she said she was simply exercising her First Amendment rights: “It was a statement of fact — nothing more, nothing less.”
Word of Ferraro’s departure spread Wednesday afternoon following calls from Obama’s team to restore civility by not letting the debate devolve into race-based arguments.
Speaking to reporters in Chicago, Obama said he didn’t think the comments were racist, but he did call them “ridiculous” and “wrong-headed.”
“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,”Obama said.
Ferraro notified Clinton by letter that she would no longer serve on Clinton’s finance committee as “Honorary New York Leadership Council Chair.” She wrote that the Obama campaign “is attacking me to hurt you.”
Clinton Communications Director Howard Wolfson said Ferraro made the decision on her own to leave the campaign post.
And Clinton reiterated Wednesday evening during a forum in Washington, D.C., with the Black Press of America that Ferraro was not speaking for her.
“I said yesterday that I rejected what she said, and I certainly do repudiate it, and I regret deeply that it was said,” Clinton said. “Obviously she doesn’t speak for the campaign, or any of my positions, and she has resigned from being a member of my very large finance committee.”
A sign that she acknowledges some race-based comments have soured voters, Clinton also apologized at the Washington forum for comments made by Bill Clinton after Obama won the South Carolina primary. The former president said Jesse Jackson also won South Carolina when he ran for president in 1984 and 1988, a comment many viewed as belittling Obama’s success.
“I want to put that in context. You know I am sorry if anyone was offended. It was certainly not meant in any way to be offensive,” Hillary Clinton said. “We can be proud of both Jesse Jackson and Senator Obama.”
Clinton said she wants the campaign to stick to the issues, but added “we don’t control what is said by everyone who supports us.”
She brought up the resignation last week of Obama’s foreign policy adviser Samantha Power, who left the campaign after calling Clinton a “monster” in an interview with a Scottish newspaper.
The latest controversy began when the national media picked up on comments Ferraro made in an interview last week with the Daily Breeze 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 accused the media of being “sexist” toward Clinton.
Ferraro was unrepentant about her comments. She said she has a 40-year history of opposing all kinds of discrimination and that she was speaking from a historical context, noting that she would not have been chosen as Walter Mondale’s running mate in 1984 if she had been a man.
“I’m sorry, I said nothing negative,” she told FOX News earlier Wednesday. “I care about the black vote in this country. I really don’t think this is right that they should attack me as racist.”
Former Maryland Lieutenant Gov. Michael Steele, who is black, said that Ferraro’s comments are true, and the fact she can’t speak them “goes to the heart and ugliness of racism.” He said Obama’s candidacy is not diminished by her words, but an oversensitivity is harming debate in America.
“It just speaks to the fact that race, no matter how you slice and dice it,” is all too present in people’s minds, he said.
FOX News’ Aaron Bruns and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
As a matter of fact, Mrs Ferraro’s comments are indeed fact. Only the willfully ignorant or poliotically correct refuse to acknowledge the truth.
Ferraro is absolutely correct because that is why Alan Keyes won the republican nomination with the help of blacks who voted for him because he was black and he ran a campaign against Al Sharpton, who won with the help of blacks who overwhelmingly voted for him because he was also black. The comments she made is how she feels meaning you could basically take any black man from Congress or off the street and they would be in basically the same position as Obama. The reason Obama is in the position he is in is because he is a great speaker, charismatic, and he is running against one of the most hated person in the country. For years talk radio have made Clinton into a supervillian and now a lot of people will vote against her in order to “save the country” therefore bringing Obama to the forefront. Oh and you republicans should root for Hilary Clinton because there is no passion to stand and vote Mccain but there is a passion not to have Clinton in the white house.
Race will always play a role in our ociety as long as we have a biased liberal media stirring the pot just to hype the news and as long as affirmitive action is used as a form of reverse discrimination (where people of color get hired over the most qualified).
Let’s face it folks, Barack Obama is getting 90% of the black vote and Hillary Clinton is getting 70% of the women’s vote. Why do you think that is? Mainly because blacks are voting for Obama because he is black and women vote for Hillary because she is a woman. Those are the TWO basic reasons! Now there may be a small percentage that “may” be able to state otherwise but the facts are the facts. Problem is the media and the public won’t face up to the “facts”.
What really amazes me is that the media doesn’t pounce all over this! I suspect because they have picked Obama as their media darling. I mena they have to have somebody to support. It can’t be Hillary Clinton because then people wold say the media is biased and racist. They surely can’t support any Republican candidate because they are the left leaning biased media.
So the only choice left is Barack Obama! Imagine that?
I wouldn’t have a problem voting for a women or a person of color (regardless black, latino, asian, etc.) as long as that individual is for: lowering taxes for everybody (especially the middle class), supporting a strong military, stopping “illegal” immigration (by securing the border and going after those that hire the illegel immigrants), reducing the welfare state, and stopping the billions of $$ in aid this country gives to the rest of the world and started spending more of that money here on its own American citizens.
But you see the problem is that means I couldn’t vote for the candidate that runs on the platform for the Democrats because they are NOT for any of these things! It’s about issues with me! This is what ALL of the voters should be considering when they vote. It’s obvious that this is NOT happening in the black community or the with women voters.
Politicians have been making empty promises for many decades! That’s politics! But we the people have to be smart enough to know what promises they can and can not fulfill! Lip service and rhetoric is easy to get caught up in.
We can’t keep giving people a free ride in this country. We can’t let everybody who wants to live in America come here. But we can let those that apply and are accepted to come here legally based on our current laws.
I hope and pray that the majority of the voters will wake up and see the candidates for what they really are before the general election comes in November.
I have yet to see even one of my comments posted, I wonder if this one will make it?
Who cares what an over-the-hill hag says? Ask any old man. It’s easy to ignore them….just pretend to be asleep. It always works.
As for the statement, it’s both true and false:
True since Obama’s identity is the mystery attraction but he has run an excellent campaign, earning him the respect beyond the typical curiosity factor. Bill compared him to Jesse but unlike Jackson, Obama has gone beyond that. Affirmative action may get you in the door but it’s true talent that gets you moving up.
False that he did not get to where he is (almost crushing Clinton) just because he’s black. He got there through superb organization and consistent message. He also got great boost from the Clintons who seemed very chaotic and I wonder if it’s Hillary who’s getting a BJ now and too distracted to pay attention to her campaign.
The only one who got it right was ex Gov Michael Steele (from Maryland). Right or wrong, why can’t we talk about it? It would seen like it is on everyones mind. And the last time I checked as long as you don’t yell FIRE in a movie house you can say ANY thing you want in the good old US of A. There is still a big problem in the USA where race is concerned and the sooner be address it the better off everyone will be.
WOW! Keith Oberman said it all, no one needs to add anything. It was said accurately, fairly, without bias and without reservation. Right on! He even addressed Ferraro’s current effort to separate and keep talking, as if it is a planned ploy. Now if the Democratic Party, the superdelegates, would take it to heart and put this garbage to an end before the Party and November chances are ruined. Also hopefully the voters will see the Clintons for what they really are, for what they have exposed themselves to be. I don’t personally believe they are racists but I think they have clearly established that they will do anything, dirty, racist, dishonest, reprehensible, whatever, without conscience or hesitation. Similar to GWBush, very sociopathic, maybe even worse. And Keith kindly blamed the Clinton advisers but lets get serious, there is really too much consistency and literally the buck stops with Hillary!
condemning a person for speaking the truth? Press even, more or less, said it when they said they looked for Obama to win Mississippi because of the vast numbers of blacks in that state, draw a picture make it any more clearer? It’s the same for “Queen Hillary,” she would not get all the votes she’s getting if it weren’t for so many women voting just so they can get a woman in as a first president. She said we can be proud of both Obama and Jessie Jackson, I think what we have here folks is a very two faced woman who will say anything to look good and get votes, we didn’t learn a thing from “over hormoned Billl?”
“Shelia” (10:18) is truly delusional if she thinks blacks don’t have certain advantages because of their race.. Some years ago in Miami when I was applying for my first business loan (SBA) the bank officer looked at me with a blank stare and said, “Airborne, you are not black or Cuban. Why don’t you save us both the waste of time and just forget about getting the loan..” I was flabbergasted !! I had put my time in the Army Infantry, received a Purple Heart for wounds in combat, and now I was hitting a brick wall because I was white, and the bank had no time except for minorities.. It’s still hard for me to believe , but it is TRUE … — That is just a small example of what is happening with Obama on a large scale.. He is getting preferential treatment because of his race.. A white man in the same position would not be getting all the fawning admiration that Obama has received (so far)… America needs to wake up soon..
Wendy and Kevin are ABSOLUTELY CORRECT!!!–IT SHOULD BE ABOUT THE BEST PERSON FOR THE JOB-, AND IT SHOULD BE ABOUT ISSUES AND SOLUTIONS, NOT RACE AND GENDER!!!!!!!!
She might have been right, but you can’t claim something you base on assumption as “Fact.” No one really knows what things would be like if he weren’t black. You can guess all you want, but when the only thing you can think to say about your closest contender is that they are lucky because of his race, is wrong.
This is the first time I’ve heard someone say “He’s lucky he’s not white,” in American Politics.