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.
First, let us list the characteristics of an accepted Black man; 1.He must be humble. 2. Must never even look a white woman in the eye. 3, Always present himself as in confused thought, saying yesum and nomum to questions no matter how simple they are. 4 Must work harder and longer than a white man for the same assignments. 5. Must be able to assist his white superior without being visible ir looking for credit. 6. Always walk a few steps behind his white counter part. 7. Be constantly in pray for his oppressor. 8. Always know his place in mixed groups. 9. For his skin color; if you are white all right, if you are brown say around, if you are Black get back. 10.
But in the end the “Bubba” code is, “You are small your a small a n—–r, and when you get bigger your just a bigger n—-r. If you are educated your just an educated n—-r. If your rich your just a rich n—-r. When your dead your just a dead n—-r but you never stop being a n—-r. (Most Blacks have heard and understood this code all of our lives).”
As you will notice the most important qualities of a Black man that causes Bubba to dislike him is his color. Color is the most permanent part of the Black human being.
Therefore, a change of all other Black characteristics will not get Bubba off his ground. A Black man is a Black man is a Black man and it s God’s will that he carries the mark of Cain!! Only a change of Bobba’s prejudice heart can save Obama. This is because Bubba’s feeling about Balk people is a belief based in the dogma of “reasonless prejudice.” whether Bubba wants to beleive it or not… HE IS AFRAID OF THE BLACK MAN
Comment by Maryland. You are absolutely incorrect. “If Obama was a hispanic he would get 90% of their vote.”
Far from the truth. When Richardson was in the race (being hispanic) wasn’t getting 90% of the hispanic vote. Unlike some other minority the hispanics will not vote for a candidate based on race or skin color. We will vote who we know is the better candiate. That’s why Clinton has always received the bulk of the hispanic votes. Please do not compare our race to being so gullible.
Any of you who say that Ferraro is terrible for what she said…you are foolish. No one can state the obvious because of reverse racism. That’s what’s ridiculous!
It is pure ignorance to think that 92% of blacks voted for Obama based on merit and not skin color. Are your minds so crippled by political correctness that you are blind to the obvious? I think Ferraro hit the bull’s eye and the amount of backlash she recieves is proportional to the truth of her comment.
Ferraro shouldn’t have resigned. She spoke the truth. I am so sick that if anyone says anything about Obama it is racist. Yet the african american people that Sean Hannity has interviewed refuse to say Louis Farrakhan is a racist. I don’t know about you but I read stuff that he says: “White people are potential humans…they haven’t evolved yet.”
It’s like the african americans can cry foul and everyone else has to shut up. Unbelievable. Keep at it up Sean Hannity people are beginning to hear you. Louis Farrakhan, Jeremy Wright and Obama. Like my daddy use to say “birds of a feather flock together.”
Let’s be serious for one moment about this presidential election.
The politicians know what are are stake this election.
It’s the Supreme Court and our juducial system!
The Democrats knew going in that if they had a black candidate and a woman candidate they would increase their odds of winning with either one. Why because the woman candidate would the majority of the women’s vote and the black candidate would get the majority of the black vote.
The Democrats and the Republicans know the greater stakes here is to capture the White House this year because there are several judges currently sitting on the supreme court (not so conservative ones) that are getting up there in age. The winner of this election will definitely have 4 years and maybe even 8 years to have an affect on shaping the Supreme Court for several decades when selecting their replacements.
I think allot of people of missing the big picture for this years general election!
Of course I’m looking down the road to November and our futures years where the media and allot of people want to have the voters focused on here and now.
Please wake up people! This is a land of laws and if we don’t stop putting judges on the Supreme Court that are too liberal the secular progressives will use them to further their agenda!
Did Ferraro get orders form Maggie Williams to do the interview and make these statements? After all, people are coming out and saying that Hillary has padded her resume. A leader in Ireland said she was not part of the negotiation for peace. Sinbad said that her trip to Bosnia was not that dangerous. It was a USO trip, and he never felt danger. By the way, would you send your daughter into a war zone. Maybe a spouse, but never a child. What judgement is that? So now, instead of looking at the candidates’ experience, we are looking at race. Have people noticed that since Maggie William has taken over, how mean the Clinton side has become?
Let me start by saying that I really don’t like any of the candidates we have available to vote for this year….. this is the best we can muster here in the US ? That being said, you people here that are supporting what Ferraro said and saying the only reason Obama is where he is, is because of the black vote. The man just won Wyoming …. he won Iowa … that’s about as white as you get. Obama himself is the only one that handled this whole thing with class … he said the statement wasn’t racist …. it was just stupid !
So I guess Ms. Ferraro would also state that the only reason Hillary is has a chance at the nomination is because she is the wife of a former president. Hillary’s legislative accomplishments in the term and 1/2 she has been a senator are non-existent. Her only real leadership in the country was over the abysmal failure of nationalizing health care. Her foreign policy leadership is limited to being a featured speaker at a UN women’s conference in China.
Bringing your sons to the park is not an achievement. It’s normal for a father.
The media keeps hyping Obama like hyping a fahter who brings his sons to the park. It’s sad that Americans bought into it.