This whole Ferraro tempest in a teapot ought be put in a time capsule and opened up when people try to figure out what went wrong with the Democratic Party.
What went wrong that allowed McCain to win in 2008.
The Obama supporters are so paranoid that they fly off the handle when one 70-year old liberal makes a statement that reflects her age and the attitude of the majority of over-45 year old white Dems and non-committeds.
Which statement was, to get back to basics:
If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position.
Now aside from all the guesses as to “why” Ms. Ferraro might have said this, from Machiavellian Clintonista plots right on through unconscious racism to sheer fatigue, the still-standing fact of the matter is that she was quite correct.
If Barack Obama was a white man, he would be (in the U.S. political world as it stands today)…ohhh, Russ Feingold or some other also-ran liberal with a good dose of political talent. Which is in NO WAY to denigrate his achievements OR those of Senator Feingold, but rather to say that, as the late, great, strangely honest crook George Washington Plunkitt (A Tammany Hall hustler of the late 1800s ) said:
I seen my opportunities and I took ’em.
Obama’s political genius is to have seen earlier than anyone else that his blackness…just the right amount of it, and leavened with a solid dose of mainstream academic and political achievement…his “otherness” might propel him right to the White House. That the disadvantages of his race…which go without saying in racist America…might actually be outweighed in terms of his NOT being part of the almost totally corrupt white-dominated political system. (Need I mention any names? Like…ohhh, it seems like every 2nd goddamned politician in America these days, regardless of party.) Not being quite so visually identifiable as part of that system, anyway.
Read on for more.
Looka here, folks.
Is it really any surprise that in image-dominated 21st Century America the two most-likely-to-be-successful candidates (if they don’t finish each other off before the election, of course) to be running against an absolutely, totally corrupt administration of 60-ish white men are two people who if they were put in a picture with a group of powerful Neo-Cons and then given to even a class of 6th graders who were asked “Which people do not belong in this group” would be picked out by about 110% of that class?
Come ON, people.
Obama knows what he is doing.
He is a world-class political hustler.
And maybe the Messiah as well. I really don’t know, and only time will tell.
But this fucking tempest in a teapot?
THIS sort of shit is what is going to have caused him to lose, if lose he does.
Lose the nomination OR the election.
The kneejerk leftinesses reflexively kicking away at any and every sign of opposition to Obama’s crowning as the new saviour of humankind.
He is often compared to JFK.
Well, if a Geraldine Ferraro of THAT day had said of Kennedy “If Jack Kennedy was a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant he would not be in this position”, how factually wrong would THAT have been?
Not very. His inherited position in the world was predicated on Irish politics (And Irish crime…or is that needless repetition?) in Boston through several generations.
How about someone saying “If Hillary Clinton was a man, she would not be in this position?”
You think?
Again, not to disparage her talents OR her sex.
She also seen her opportunities and took ’em.
She too has taken what is popularly considered to be a disadvantage in the political world and turned it into an effective advantage. And face it…had she not been married to Bill Clinton, it is doubtful that she would be able to make a real run at the Presidency now.
What we have here is two political visionaries. BOTH have seen a hole in the system. Too many venal, white, middle-aged male motherfuckers who don’t take care of business coupled with an image-based media machine that sells EVERYTHING by its outward appreance rather than its content.
From Coke to Cadillacs, from Popcorn to Presidents.
They seen their opportunities, and they done TOOK ’em.
And here y’all are, infighting to beat the band!!!
THERE IS VERY LITTLE SUBSTANTIVE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THESE TWO CANDIDATES, YOU STUPID SONS OF BITCHES!!!
Neither is a “peace” candidate.
Neither is a racist.
And either of them would be about 1000% better than the kleptocracy through which we…and the rest of the world…have so severely suffered over the preceding 8 years or so.
Bet on it.
So…where’s the beef?
It’s in your heads, fools.
In your heads.
And you are now squarely in the process of losing the 2008 election.
Stop.
Step back.
Let them fight it out using their own tactical weapons.
If there is some peace on the Dem front, maybe whoever wins the nomination will actually be able to win an election.
Wouldn’t THAT be nice!!!
But if this continues to escalate into a full-blown war?
McCain is LOVIN’ it.
Yes he is.
Cool out.
Please.
Just cool out a little.
Thank you and goodnight.
AG
P.S. Keith Olbermann and his special comment regarding the Clinton campaign after this Ferraro brouhaha?
Olbermann is just another media hustler with talent.
And a growing case of hubris.
If he isn’t already the left’s Limbaugh, should a Dem actually win in ’08 he WILL be.
Watch him slide smoothly into the Clinton camp should she win the nomination.
The good ol’ Commentator Two-Step.
Bet on that as well.
He seen his opportunities, too.
I don’t want to be just another smart-ass sports commentator. I am WAY better than that.
What to do, what to do…
OH!!!
Yup.
This whole “She’s a racist” thing is getting tiresome.
As is the seemingly eternal Dem deathwish.
I just saw this ad for musicians in New Zealand…
I’m thinkin’ on it.
I really am.
If we blow ’08…I’m gonna go duck for cover.
Yup.
Later…
AG
your usual self AG
but this time you’re really tongue in cheek.
The ole Brits would dub you plain fresh and cheeky.
What?
Youi think that I am somehow kidding here?
Exaggerating?
Feeling a little…whimsical or ironic?
This is our ASSES on the line, idredit.
You’d best start “dreading it” for real, and soon.
We are about one fucked-up convention away from losing in ’08.
And then…the shortest “100 Years’ War” in history.
Bet on it.
AG
not the Merriam Webster AG.
It’s a Brit colloq. so only the Oxford Dictionary will do :
saucy speech, cool confidence, effrontery
anyhow, the Dems may not have a nominee in this election.
We’ve entered a period of destruction, so as in ITAL, I’m dredding it. I’ve prepared a bunker with water and food to survive the next 4 years.
I.dred.it
Oh.
OK.
And I thought I was an anglophile.
AG
Let’s review the record, as it now stands:
1) Assertion: Obama is where he is today largely because of his race.
(One would assume that the same “logic” would apply to any sizable minority of the general population.)
2) Fact: A male WASP finding himself in the same circumstances would be in that position largely because of (the advantages of) his race.
Summary: Being a black male (or any minority), an advantage. Being a white male, an advantage. It’s all good. There really is no one disadvantaged by the politics of presidential campaigns. (cough, cough)
You write:
Let us look at the three remaining viable candidates.
Hmmmmm…
Guess you’re right.
“Cough cough” my ASS!!!
Snark sucks.
Especially when it bites youi back
AG
Don’t bite it back, just surrender to it.
Where is the snark? According to Geraldine, minorities have an advantage. And it’s accepted that WASP males have an advantage. So according to this line of deep thinking, many, if not most, people would have an advantage.
Of course, this is all crap as you demonstrate in your comment directly above.
Thanks AG! I’ve been spouting the same thing to anyone who will listen. The Democrats are cutting their own throats. ALL Dems including the nominees should be peeling off the crimes of the bushies/republicans every time they get in front of a microphone.
THERE IS VERY LITTLE SUBSTANTIVE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THESE TWO CANDIDATES, YOU STUPID SONS OF BITCHES!!!
So how to choose between them?
By trying to determine who they are, what they have done, and how they did it?
By trying to puzzle out where their loyalties lie, by how they have compromised to be where they are, by looking at the company they keep, by comparing words and actions?
And we’re trying to do this in in the confusion of media and information smoke and mirrors. I kind of wonder what their astrological signs are or what numerology might have to say – divination.
So what are we seeing in all the discussions? All the unexamined, suppurating wounds of our collective histories – and, as with many injuries, when touched we respond from pain with anger.
Really AG – If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position. how do you think this plays in the defunct mill, mining, and manufacturing towns of PA?
To paraphrase Aldous Huxley: The ends cannot justify the means used for the simple reason the means used determine the nature of the ends achieved.
THERE IS VERY LITTLE SUBSTANTIVE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THESE TWO CANDIDATES, YOU STUPID SONS OF BITCHES!!!
So how to choose between them?
From the heart, I guess.
When the mind lies (or is confused by lies and contradicting pieces of information/disinformation) the heart is all that is left.
And although I naturally ally with Senator Obama in a number of ways, here is what my heart of hearts is telling me.
I want ONE of these two to win.
And I do not much care which one.
Why?
Because I cannot predict which one will be more effective.
But I CAN predict that either will be better than McCain and a continuation of what is happening now.
Thus my position.
Clear?
I hope so.
AG
P.S.
Been in any of those towns over the last couple of years?
I have.
Bethlehem, PA to be precise.
About 20 times.
Maybe 20% Hispanic, 10% black, 30% college town, 40% old-line (mostly out of good work) white working class.
Do not underestimate the denizens of down and out America.
They may surprise you.
The 40% white working class?
90% Republcan these days. The ones with brains and heart enough left to give a shit one way or another, anyway.
The rest?
Hmmmmmm….
We shall soon see.
Later..
AG
And although I naturally ally with Senator Obama in a number of ways, here is what my heart of hearts is telling me.
I want ONE of these two to win.
Oh, I hear you.
Been in any of those towns over the last couple of years?
I live here. Demographics are definitely changing…but head out from the college towns, head further west…Ferraro’s words tap right into the belief system, as did her phrase “he’s lucky” – not intelligent or hardworking or with a support network, but lucky.
I think PA is one of the top states for hate groups. My concern is that the covert racism of not just PA, but all the northern states is being underestimated. I believe many Clinton votes in those states have been anti-Obama votes. To be wrong would be wonderful!
So, what do you think of Obama heading to Pittsburgh March 17th and pubbing from one Irish bar and club to another, reminding all he is also a son of Ireland? And if he wants to go negative, he can just remind folks that Clinton’s roots are…English.
Ah the cosmic absurdity of it all – ain’t it grand?
AG