Geraldine Ferraro, former Democratic VP nominee said recently in an interview with the Daily Breeze, that, "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."
Hillary Clinton has distanced herself from the comments while Ferraro, though unapolegetic, has left her campaign.
But what of the comments? Are they racist? Are they wrong? I don't think they are necessarily either. Obama's race has, frankly, certainly made a huge number of American's curious about his campaign. In addition to this, there has probably been less scrutiny of his positions and claims by voters eager for change than is warranted. However, having said this, I don't think there has been an appropriate level of scrutiny of Clinton either. As for racist, I don't think so. Geraldine may be many things, but I don't think racist is one of them.
Then came the revelation of statements by the (former) pastor of Barak Obama's church. The rev. Jeremiah Wright has been quoted as saying some apparently terrible things that Obama has been expected to distance himself from, which he has done. However, a quick review of those statements tells me Obama's distancing himself from them makes me less, not more likely to vote for him. In fact, his distancing himself from the statements confirms for me that he is nothing more than the establishment candidate that I have suspected him of being.
Here's some samples of Wright's interesting comments (from the ABC News link above):
"The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing 'God Bless America.' No, no, no, God damn America, that's in the Bible for killing innocent people."
"God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme."
"We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye."
And, regarding 9-11...
"We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America's chickens are coming home to roost."
Sounds pretty accurate to me. The only thing I would add is that the "coming home to roost" comment, a colloquialism referring to 'blowback', suggests taking the official government conspiracy theory about 9-11 starring Osama Bin Laden seriously. The truth is that version is full of holes and the truth probably lies closer to the much-ignored conspiracy theories that claim some degree of government collusion in the attacks of 9-11.
I know it sounds strange, but I think both Ferraro AND Wright are, um, right.