So sorry to post this. It is my belied that Geraldine Ferraro has received far more attention and publicity than she deserves, and the more we talk about her, the longer it will take for her to fade back into irrelevancy, where she belongs. That being said, I have come to a conclusion about this, which may sound paranoid, but given the Rovian nature of the Clinton campaigns tactics of late, really seems to make sense. Join me after the jump:
Geraldine Ferraro was not just some "out-of-control" campaign staffer making a blunder. This was orchestrated. And while it may "look bad" for someone on Clinton's staff to make racially-insensitive remarks, this will probably end up turning to their advantage. Let's look how this plays out.
- Gerry spews out some claptrap about Barack being "lucky" he's black. This plays to the a lot of the "blue-collar dems" that are supporting Hillary, who may feel they have been victimized by affirmative action. "You know, I hate to say it, but she has a point." Throw in the gender card while you are at it and play to the women who believe gender is a bigger barrier than race. "A black man becoming president before a woman? That's not right somehow."
- The Obama camp hits back and Hillary "disagrees" with the comments, but takes no action. She can disassociate herself from the remarks without throwing her loyal friend - a pioneer in women's politics, a democratic icon, the first female VP candidate - under the bus.
- So now another news cycle - Gerry hits the morning show and fights back - "hey, I'm the victim here! You can't say anything anymore without being called a racist." This talking point gets repeated and discussed ad nauseum by the Tweety, Wolfie and the gang.
- Then she comes up with the comparison of her VP selection and Barack's campaign: "hey I benefited from being a woman when Walt chose me as his running mate, so what's so bad about saying the same thing about him." More discussion by the pundits on the topic, as if her point had the slightest merit.
- Finally, defiant to the end (you go girl!) Gerry resigns from the campaign, continuing to play the victim by martyring herself for Hillary: "those mean Obama people were using me to get to you. Now I can speak my own mind without you taking the heat." Brilliant! Gerry will get another cycle in the news media, let out some more insane rants that get reprinted and discussed some more, and Hillary is free from any taint of perceived racial bias.
I do not believe for a second that any of this is by accident. The best thing we can do about Gerry is to ignore her. So what do I do? I write a diary about her!