What’s saddest to me about Geraldine Ferraro’s remarks? I won’t say they’re “racist,” since she has a right to make a claim about a candidate without being, in effect, censored in the face of such accusations. But they’re certainly “racially charged,” and definitely inappropriate coming from a Democratic “leader” of her stature. If anything positive comes out of this, it’s that everyone can now see just how tied to the past the Clinton campaign is. Ferraro is speaking as if nothing has changed since 1984. I’m sorry, but she obviously hasn’t spent much time with anyone under 30–or even 40–recently. Hell, she apparently hasn’t even gotten over the Cosby show.
I remember being 11 years old and staring at the electoral map, disappointed that only Minnesota and DC voted for Mondale-Ferraro. (Yeah, I was already a politics dork.) I’m sorry, but Reagan wasn’t reallyall that. A lot of the blame lies with his opponents. Democrats have got to stop running candidates so willfully unaware of the regretfully divisive effects of their astoundingly unthoughtful words. Hillary’s said too little too late. Gerry’s left her mark, and done her damage. It’ll be rough, but now we’re even more morally obligated to win.
Every once in a while, Olbermann’s soap box does it for me:
Tangents for the Chasing
