You Might Be A Racist, If..

"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." Geraldine Ferraro

Is it too late to rescind my vote for Geraldine Ferraro for Vice President in '84? I believed she had some damn sense at the time, and I voted for her because she was a woman trying to make history, running against the "Cinemascope" Reagan production. But her latest comments on behalf of the Hillary Clinton campaign are so repugnant, that as a person of color, I find them to be ghastly offensive. Never mind that my color these days is a translucent, pinkish tan. Hillary managed to call the statements "regrettable," but did not totally repudiate them, just as she said that Obama was not a Muslim, "As far as I know."

When confronted about her remarks concerning Obama and asked to apologize, Ferraro said she not only "stands by her statement," but added this:

"I have to tell you that what I find is offensive is that every time somebody says something about the campaign, you're accused of being racist."

Examine Ms. Ferraro initial words carefully. When you opine that a person has accomplished his achievements only because of race, and he could not have reached that high place but for his race, if you're not speaking of the President of the NAACP or Clarence Thomas, then you might be a racist. And,in Maureen Dowd's words, the "shoulder pad feminists," including Gloria Steinem, have rallied to her defense.
These are not idle words, and if the Clinton campaign is in control of their message, as they say, someone should wrest control of the attack machine before they start a gender war and elect John McCain by default. Hillary's bloodletting and ruthless march through the primaries may well allow the criminal presidency of Dubya to enter its' third term, with a geriatric fighter pilot at the switch.

I am continually baffled by Hillary Clinton's sway over women past 60. I know it's the truth, because after my vocal support for Obama, neither my mother nor my sister would tell me who they voted for in the Tennessee primary. And there's a growing trend that says if you dislike Clinton, you're anti-feminist. Here's some breaking news: Hillary Clinton is no feminist. Her hawkish war views and the enabling of President Zero to threaten Iran, along with her co-sponsorship of a constitutional amendment about flag burning, were all political calculations designed to appeal to the most machismo quasi-patriot and characterize her as another Maggie Thatcher. But after seven years of the Moronic Chucklehead, people are tired of militarism, fear, distortions, and lies and Hillary finds herself, like so many other sucker Democrats, with her faulty judgement that followed the false drumbeat of the Bush regime into an immoral war, on full display.

Bill Clinton's presidential campaign was remarkable because he usurped all the Republican party's election tactics. He raised more money, took more contributions from PACS, infatuated Hollywood to part with enormous sums, and co-opted the GOP's pet whipping boys; welfare, rap music, free trade, and law and order, until he could present himself as a "New" Democrat and get elected. But that was then and this is now, and after this last food fight of a presidency, I want an "Old" Democrat, not Joe Lieberman lite. Clinton's slash and burn politics are of the past and are beginning to smell of rot. It's not that Clinton is opposed because she is the first woman to run for the nations' highest office, it's because she's a lousy candidate, worse than John "Lurch" Kerry, pandering and pontificating, desperate and derisive.

Bill's hatchet job on Obama in South Carolina, comparing his candidacy to Jesse Jackson's, and the recent Ferraro outburst, are intentionally designed to marginalize and diminish the Senator in the eyes of the electorate. Ferraro's indignant defense that it is "she" being attacked, demonstrates the mentality of otherwise "good" people encapsulated in their own privileged worlds. To paraphrase the comedian Kat Williams, "She needs to get her some Negro friends." No one appears more ridiculous than someone making an overt racist statement and then trying to explain how some of their best friends are black. Ask Don Imus.

The complete implosion of Governor Eliot Spitzer is, to me, mainly a New York story that proves that hypocrisy knows no party and arrogance has no gender. But I am sure there are others, like me, who are reminded by the Spitzer episode of exactly why they don't want Bill Clinton back in the White House. Spitzer proved he is just another Jimmy Swaggart in a starched shirt and should have nothing to do with the election. Only these New Yorkers; Spitzer, Clinton, Ferraro, Giuliani, Bloomberg, Kerik, have collectively lowered the national discourse to such a gutter level, that Barack Obama seems like St. Jude in comparison. And, let's face it, the despicable tacticians behind the Clinton campaign, Mark Penn and Howard Wolfson, are an embarrassment to the Jews. Spitzer, however, might really be a stealth civil rights pioneer, who's blatant stupidity made way for the first black governor of New York.

Hillary's staunchest supporters don't get it, or don't want to get it. Like Clinton, they believe it is her turn and her time. But that time has past while she was pandering to the right. She had the money, the organization, and the media ready to coronate her as the candidate, but from DAY ONE, when she entered the Senate, every vote and every speech was designed to advance her political career, regardless of her personal principles. She figured that if she positioned herself as a "new" Democrat, which means demonstrating all the false patriotism and jingoism of the GOP, she would be palatable to Republican voters and merely assume all the Democratic votes were hers for the asking. But she figured wrong. Time and tide wait for no woman either, and Hillary Clinton has landed on the wrong side of history. In fact, without any further election shenanigans or manipulation of "Super Delegates," Hillary, herself, is history, and, hopefully, the era of blood sport politics along with her.