Ferraro/Clinton's strategy of appealing to white resentment continued today as she hit the media circuit, including Bill O'Reilly's show, home of white people who hate affirmative action.
O'REILLY: This crossed the wire. Apparently you told the Daily Breeze newspaper in Torrance, California, quote, "If Obama were a white man, he would not be in this position. If here were a woman of any color, he would not be in the position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is in a country who's caught up in the concept." Did you say that?
FERRARO: Yeah, but I also said a lot before that.
O'REILLY: Right, but you know you're gonna get hammered on that.
FERRARO: I was not speaking – no, I was speaking to – it was a paid speech. I was not representing a campaign. I go out and give speeches. I don't –
O'REILLY: Oh, I understand that.
FERRARO: You know, like you do.
O'REILLY: I absolutely know they can take you out of context, but do you believe that Barack Obama, if he were a white mean, white senator, would not be in the position?
FERRARO: Absolutely
She was "taken out of context", but asked directly if that's what she meant, she says "absolutely". So what the hell is she talking about? But she did get this, music to Ferraro's (and Clinton's) ears:
O'REILLY: I got it. I got it. I got it. No, listen, I mean, I'm not saying you're wrong [...]
but you're gonna get hammered by it, but if anybody does, let me know, and I'll take care of them. Geraldine Ferraro, everybody. Geraldine's too nice, see.
This is what the Clinton campaign is reduced to. Taking a candidate who has inspired hope and passion, and working overtime to turn him into the "black candidate" even though she has no hope of winning the nomination absent a coup by super delegate. Now there's a legacy for Clinton. Congrats to her on pulling that one off.
And it's clear as day, given their refusal to ask for Ferraro's resignation, that the Clinton campaign is as complicit and pleased with Ferraro's words as they are with her media strategy. African American blogger dnA (click on the link above) states the obvious:
If the Clinton campaign was truly embarrassed or disagreed with Ferraro's comments, they wouldn't be tossing her into the media frenzy to shout her message from the mountaintops that Barack Obama's success is due only to his blackness. And they would not be utilizing the most effective means of doing so--the Right Wing smear machine that nearly destroyed Bill Clinton's presidency.
The aim here is to evoke racial resentment on the part of white voters over issues like Affirmative Action, and cast Obama as a talentless hack who excels only because our country is held victim by political correctness. The hope is that this will drive a permanent wedge between Obama and white voters that will sway Superdelegates to ultimately go with Hillary at the convention. At worst, Obama will be so damaged in the general that he can never be a threat to their ambitions again.
I see that Ferraro just resigned the campaign so she can conveniently spew this bullshit without being directly linked to Clinton, but the two are now inseparable. The Clinton campaign didn't ask for a resignation, and they looked the other way as Ferraro ramped up the racial rhetoric for political gain.
It's inexcusable, and whatever Ferraro says from here on out will be on Clinton's head.