Thoughts on Ferraro's Comments

Comments made by former Vice Presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro have stirred up some controversy as well as brought race back into the race. Ferraro claimed that the only reason Obama is the democratic front runner is that he is a black man.

I personally believe that these comments are racist, although Ferraro has denied that and defended her claims. I'm not saying that Ferraro is a racist, merely that her comments are racist. I don't believe that the reason that Barack Obama is in the position that he is in has that much to do with his race. Does his race play some part of it? Sure, it's possible that part of the appeal of Obama is in the fact that he is a black man, but it is far more then that. I've spoken fairly extensively in this blog the reasons why I (a white male) support Barack Obama, and none of those reasons have anything to do with the color of his skin.

Earlier in the campaign, Bill Clinton compared this run by Obama to the 1984 run of Jesse Jackson (coincidently the same election in which Ferraro was chosen as the Vice Presidental mate to Walter Mondale). That comment raised some racial concerns as well and was quickly repudiated by both sides. I bring it up again to show the diferences between Obama's run for the nomination and that earlier run by Jackson. Jesse Jackson, like many people who run without much hope of winning, was running to bring notice to a particular issue. Barack Obama is running to win. His being black has nothing to do with it. Jackson, on the other hand, probably ran, in part, to show that a black man could run for president.

If there was truth to Ferraro's comments, then any particular black man could have been, and in fact would be had they run, in this exact position. This strikes me as "patently absurd" to use Senator Obama's words. Barack Obama is the right person at the right time. He's saying the right things and striking a cord with the American people that needed to be struck. The fact that he also happens to be black is not what has put him in this position and to imply that such is the case is a racist thing to do. I don't think that Ferraro is a racist, but her comments most certainly were.