Kyle Bell

Former 1984 female Vice Presidential candidate (and Hillary Clinton supporter) Geraldine Ferraro backed herself into a corner today by refusing to apologize for the racist comments she told a California newspaper last week. “If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position. And if he was a woman, 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.” Ms. Ferraro assumes that voters are voting based on race (and this somehow benefits Obama in a white majority country).

She fails to mention that Hillary Clinton led among black voters before she started using racial comments against Obama before and after Iowa. Obama has not been the one playing the racial/ethnic card. Doing so does him no good, anyway. White voters are turned off by it. It has been the Clinton campaign with their drug use references, leak to the Drudge Report of Obama wearing native garb on a trip to Africa, use of his middle name, blatantly misleading people about him attending a “secular” madrasa (how can a religious school be secular?), comparing him to Jesse Jackson and so on.

Despite this, Ferraro continued her rant into this week. On Tuesday, she told the Daily Breeze of Torrance, California, “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. Racism works in two different directions. I really think they’re attacking me because I’m white. How’s that?” Nice, I’m glad you think that way. Just shows how out-of-touch you really are to turn yourself into the victim.

Let’s give Ms. Ferraro a little history lesson. The United States, having declared independence in 1776, is 232 years old this July 4. In that time period, how many black presidents have there been? Unless you count Bill Clinton as one of them, 0. Zero. Such a great advantage? Doesn’t seem to be. We’ve had 42 presidents (43 if you count Grover Cleveland’s two non-consecutive terms twice). None have been black. How about black governors? We’ve had to have several, right? Actually, we’ve only had two elected black governors. How about senators? Barack Obama, having been elected in 2004, was only the third in modern times.

I might also add that Ferraro’s comments are even more absurd when you consider the fact that Hillary Clinton has consistently counted on female voters (who in most states make up a majority of voters). Would it then be fair to say, based on Ferraro’s twisted logic, that without female white women, Hillary Clinton would not have won the states of California, New York, New Jersey, Ohio and many others? Afterall, white men supported Obama by more than 10% in California.

It comes as no surprise that the Old Democratic Party of Ferraro, Mondale and McGovern all back Hillary Clinton. With a losing record like theirs, it is no surprise that they support one of their own. The Democratic Party does not – and should not – be the party of Ferraro, Mondale and McGovern. Let me remind Democrats that it was Walter Mondale and Geraldine Ferraro who in 1984 lost to President Ronald Reagan by 20%, had the largest Electoral College landslide in the nation’s history and won only the state of Minnesota. Not to be outdone, George McGovern lost in 1972 with a single state as well – Massachusetts. President Nixon beat him by 23%. If Democrats want to take their cues from people like Ms. Ferraro, be my guest. Republicans will dominate the next elections like they did in the 1970s and 80s.