Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton camps are bumping heads once again over controversial comments that some have called "racist". The New York Times is reporting that Geraldine Ferraro has quit her position on Hillary Clinton's finance committee.
Geraldine Ferraro has left Senator Hillary Clinton’s finance committee, saying that Senator Barack Obama’s campaign was twisting her words to make her appear racist and that this was hurting Mrs. Clinton, a campaign official confirmed after CNN reported the development. source
Geraldine Ferraro said the following statement about Barack Obama's presidential candidacy.
"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 distances herself from Ferraro
"My comments have been taken so out of context and been spun by the Obama campaign as racist," she said on ABC's "This Morning America." "That, you know is doing precisely what they don't want done -- it's going to [divide] the Democratic Party and dividing us even more."
Watch ABC's Good Morning America: CLICK HERE TO WATCH RAW STORY: BARACK OBAMA/ GERALDINE FERARRO ON ABC GOOD MORNING AMERICA
Click here to watch Geraldine Ferraro on a YouTube video with Fox host John Gibson on Feb. 27 making similar comments about race being Barack Obama's only qualification for being a presidential candidate on the same day as her interview with the Daily Breeze:
Geraldine Ferraro appeared on Fox and sent a message to Barack Obama Threatening him by saying "Don't Antagonize Me"
Former Democratic Vice Presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro defended controversial comments she made about Senator Barack Obama (D-IL), saying that she was being attacked because she was white. Ferraro, a prominent Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) supporter who sits on Clinton's finance committee, told the Daily Breeze, a Los Angeles-area newspaper:
"Any time anybody does anything that in any way pulls this campaign down and says let's address reality and the problems we're facing in this world, you're accused of being racist, so you have to shut up," Ferraro said. "Racism works in two different directions. I really think they're attacking me because I'm white. How's that?"
Ferraro also told the New York Times that the Obama campaign had "twisted" her words:
"Every time that campaign is upset about something, they call it racist," she said. "I will not be discriminated against because I'm white. If they think they're going to shut up Geraldine Ferraro with that kind of stuff, they don't know me."
Countdown with Keith Olbermann breaks it all down in this video clip:
Both Senator Barack Obama and Geraldine Ferarro made the rounds on the morning news shows Wednesday, a day after Obama's Mississippi primary win.
IN THE OBAMA CAMP: Sen. Barack Obama called the comment "patently absurd."
"I don't' think Geraldine Ferraro's comments have any place in our politics or in the Democratic party. They are divisive," he told the Allentown Morning News.
"I think anybody who understands the history of this country knows they are patently absurd. And I would expect that the same way those comments don't have a place in my campaign, they shouldn't have a place in Senator Clinton's either," he added.
The Obama campaign's senior adviser David Axelrod said Ferraro should be removed from her position with the Clinton campaign because of her comments:
"The bottom line is this, when you wink and nod at offensive statements, you're really sending a signal to your supporters that anything goes," Axelrod said in a conference call with reporters on Tuesday.
"There's no other way to send a serious signal that you want to police the tone of this campaign," he added. "And if you don't do those things then you are simply adding to the growing compendium of evidence that you really are encouraging that."
Axelrod said Senator Hillary Clinton has encountered problems because people view her as a "divisive and polarizing force."
"The best way to address those concerns is to not allow divisiveness and negativity to flourish among your supporters," he said. "And this is an opportunity for her to address that."
MEANWHILE: Obama's leading foreign policy adviser Susan Rice also called for Clinton to fire Geraldine Ferraro after her comments.
IN THE CLINTON CAMP: Senator Hillary Clinton said Monday that she disagreed with Ferraro's comments:
Clinton said, "I do not agree with that," and later added, "It's regrettable that any of our supporters_on both sides, because we both have this experience_say things that kind of veer off into the personal."
LAST WEEK: Samantha Power, who was a senior foreign policy adviser to Barack Obama resigned after she was quoted calling Hillary Clinton "a monster." The adviser, Samantha Power, was speaking to The Scotsman newspaper when she asked to make an "off the record" comment about Barack Obama's opponent Senator Hillary Clinton. Power called Clinton a "monster" who "is stooping to anything" to win the campaign. In a statement, Power apologized and said her comments were inexcusable. She had widely been seen as a pick for a senior position in an Obama White House.
I watched Geraldine Ferraro last night and I think she is a courageous elegant woman. She says what she believes and will not back down from her principles for any one. Wouldn't it be wonderful if the Obama supporters did the same.
Like Geraldine I will have to think about it before I vote for Obama too.
Posted by: MaryAnn | May 29, 2008 at 04:07 PM