The columnist Michael Kinsley once defined a "gaffe" as an occasion when a politician accidentally tells the truth. In our age of political correctness, some would place Geraldine Ferraro's remarks into this category. Long known for speaking candidly, Ferraro recently remarked that "if Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position."
There's a molecule of truth in this. Obama's appeal is that he is an African American who doesn't sound one bit like Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton. Blacks are inspired to see one of their own have a serious shot at the presidency. Whites are relieved that Obama doesn't seem to be motivated by the kind of chronic resentment that seems all too prevalent in black America.
Taken this way, Ferraro is stating the obvious. It's equally obvious, by the way, that if Hillary was male--and not married to Bill Clinton--she wouldn't be in her position. Hillary came to national prominence not through her own efforts but through the success of her husband. Virtually all her "experience" prior to being elected Senator is in fact Bill Clinton's experience. She wouldn't even have been elected to the Senate without Bill. So she too owes a great deal to her gender and her "first wife" position.
In a deeper sense, though, Ferraro's insinuation is completely wrong. In reality Obama's political success is due to far more than race. He brings some unique and very attractive qualities at a time when the country wants and needs them. Obama is a man of unquestionable intelligence and grace, and this is why the affirmative action label seems especially unjust when applied to him.
To me Ferraro's comments illustrate two things. First, they show the depths to which Hillary flacks are willing to go. It's typical of the Hillary camp that a sidekick like Ferraro attempts to plunge the knife into Obama while Hillary feigns ignorance and plays nice. Second, Ferraro's attack illustrates how some prominent liberals deep down think that all blacks are only capable of advancing because they are black.
In a way liberal support for racial preferences can be understood as an attempt to cope with this situation. We often hear liberal activists say, "If it wasn't for affirmative action there would be virtually no blacks in top universities." The implication of course is that blacks on their own merits are incapable of getting into Harvard and Berkeley.
The cruel irony of affirmative action is that it reinforces and strengthens liberal perceptions of black inferiority. Athough Obama seems smart enough to have gotten into Harvard, it's quite possible that affirmative action policies were partly responsible for his admission. Consequently policies of racial preference have the effect of placing an invisible question mark alongside the achievements of all persons of color.
When Clarence Thomas was nominated to the Supreme Court, it wasn't the Ku Klux Klan or the skinheads who said, "He's just there because he's black." It was the liberal Senators and activist groups that said this. Now Ferraro is saying the same thing about Obama.
Perhaps the day is not far when African Americans will wake up and start asking, "Do these politices of racial preferences actually hurt more than they help?" and "Isn't it time we stopped assuming that liberal Democrats like Ferraro and Hillary are our natural allies?"
Reader Comments ( Page 5 of 12)
61.
Ferraro is right on. The only reason Obama is a viable candidate is "white guilt". Perhaps we should actually look at the record, especially his 20 year membership in the Trinity United Church of Christ and his relationship with a truly scary minister named Rev. Jeremiah Wright. One has to question Obama's judgment when he calls Wright his "mentor and moral compass."
I. Green at 10:54PM on Mar 14th 2008
62. One the only way to get into office is to get voted in. Every person in the U.S. is guilty of what ever an elected person has done. As a voter did you do everything possible to keep the person out of office that you didn’t want in? Did you rally your neighbors, made sure they got to the polls? Did you pray to your god, or wave your sign every day to get your favorite to office. Did you as a constituent go to your representative’s office and tell them they wouldn’t get reelected if they voted for the war or any thing else you didn’t like? So how can you bitch about Bush, or any other elected person? The Wrongs and blood of this Nation is on all of us. Any one that is in this county that’s over 18 is responsible. Even Obama is responsible for the war even though he said, “he’s always stood against it”. He didn’t do enough to stop it. No one Has! Don’t stand under words and try to wash the blood, and the wrongs of the Nation off.
How can a person that’s been a member of a church that is so Anti American, and so self righteous be a leader of our nation. The same church that evidently should be taxed for preaching political propaganda, and governmental views. If Obama gets voted in office then I can not wash my hands of the wrongs that he may bring. For as an American I have not done everything possible to keep him from office.
thesourc at 11:00PM on Mar 14th 2008
63. Goddess - When did you liberal/progressives become the big law and order types? So Bush got convicted for drunk driving three decades ago? The man grew up. Some ex-presidents never do. And have you ever broken the law? I'm thinking you probably have.
What, exactly would you like him to do about energy? It is people on your side of the aisle that have shot down every effort to develop our domestic oil supply. Would you like Bush to sign price controls? Get ready for gas lines.
Bush's grades were far better than genius Al Gore, who flunked out of college. And I suppose you think they just hand out Harvard Business School MBA's without actually doing any work. If you think that's true, try getting an MBA there sometime.
But facts didn't matter with you people. You've got GW Bush obsession. What is it about this guy that bugs you so much? Is it that he's respectful and polite to Democrats, doesn't make a play for anything in a skirt, is funny and conducts himself like a civilized human being? Awful, isn't it?
John - Bob Woodward is hardly infallible. And yes, Bush was and is stubborn on Iraq, but he was also right about the surge. And he did admit our strategy was failing, changed course and the surge has clearly succeeded, by the admission of many Democrats. And for that people like you will never give him credit because it doesn't fit into your neat little template.
People other than Bob Woodward who have met with Bush personally can attest to the fact that he's funny, speaks well extemporaneously and thinks well on his feet. And so what if the man doesn't always use the King's English, at least he says what he means instead of parsing words, trying to re-define simple words like "is", or making a bunch of flowery, sugar-coated promises that he has no intention of keeping.
The fact that this blog is supposed to be about Obama and you've used it to bash Bush just illustrates the fact that anti-Bush mania has become a cottage industry (the late Molly Ivins comes to mind) and even a psychosis to some. And if Bush is such a dunce, how dumb must Democrats be if he beat them twice? Honestly, I think this preoccupation with GW Bush can become injurious to one's mental health.
Dave at 11:49PM on Mar 14th 2008
64. Ferraro is an also ran.Obamma is running.The race is not over.Ferraro's comments are the reason why she did not make the cut.She is not revelant with those comments,she is now doomed forever.Without affirmative action ALL opressed people will stay at the same level particularly those peoples that have been colonialised/suppressed either in their own country or brought in as slaves for commercial exploitation.
Kevin at 11:50PM on Mar 14th 2008
65. Dinesh... your excellent observation and analyses of the behaviors of these power hungry egoist is right on the money. I believe the once great "land of the free and home of the brave" has degenerated into " one nation under the influence with liberty and justice for sale"
I see no end to the political upheaval and just more division no matter who is elected whether it be the inexperienced and somewhat nieve afro American...the female political hack...or the shot down fly boy that thinks he's owed the presidency.
Our days as the leader of the "free?" world are numbered my friend...and the number is shorter than one would believe.
Our value system as any family unit which extends to the higher order of bureaucratic BS is just about "kaput" and our moral compass is sadly in need of a new needle. The fabric of the society is in complete and total decay with no hopes except for maybe 1: The Second Coming of Christ (not)
2: The Aliens finally reveal themselves and turn our core belief system 180 degrees
3: A very large asteroid hits the Atlantic causing a mass extinction event.
It's "all over but the cry'in" bro!!
My advice...learn to speak Chinese :)
Ben Michalski
www.benmichalski.com
ben at 1:40AM on Mar 15th 2008
66. The way I see it ben, is the next president will be a sort of Judas Iscariot type...to bring the nation into further decline! And I am NOT voting for McCain either!...I have completely changed my mind about him...
Bridget at 3:56AM on Mar 15th 2008
67. Mr. Green, Rev. Wright is right on!
Bridget at 4:08AM on Mar 15th 2008
68. Do you think Mr. Obama will be voted in if he disagrees with Rev. Wright? LOL
Bridget at 4:31AM on Mar 15th 2008
69. You're welcome, Dinesh.
Paul at 6:06AM on Mar 15th 2008
70. Dinesh...
Now that you've fixed your "if Hillary was white" fumble, you won't mind going back and doing the right thing by removing your sadistic joke about AIDS sufferers, will you?
C'mon! We know you can do it! Be a man! Swallow your pride and remove that insensitive, trite, pointless joke.
Paul at 6:24AM on Mar 15th 2008
71. I agree with you totally and the fact that you are hispanic is instructive i am black and i hate affirmative action it should be thrown away,obama doesn't go through the racial path at all knowing fully well that they can hurt him but the clinton camp seems to like that path.
Ferraro whom i admire is so wrong on the issue,he has laid it all for the piblic to see,he knows that he doesn't have the experience and he says it but his candidacy is based on judgement everything he said about the iraqi war turn out to be true,he has courted the young votes,indepedents and republicans and they are responding americans want a less partisan washigton and that is why they have sign him on not because he is black,going by ferraro's argument jesse jackson should have been successful as well as al sharpton they were not.
ifeanyi odigwe at 6:55AM on Mar 15th 2008
72. Unfortunately, Dinesh.. it wasn't "liberal perceptions of black inferiority" that prevented blacks from getting into Universities or running for public office. It was the bedrock American belief system that blacks were inferior and subhuman that created a second class citizenship and a smaller parallel separate society where they were forced to make their lives and carry out their dreams. Dinesh's continued antagonism towards African Americans relies on total ignorance of the past 150 years of American history. Imagine if you tried to explain the economic progress of women by pointing out that very little has been accomplished by female Princeton University graduates in American history WITHOUT knowing that Princeton didn't admit women until 1970? This is the sort of intellectual shell game Dinesh plays in his nonstop jihad against affirmative action and the "chronic resentment that is all to prevalent among blacks".. Too bad Dinesh doesn't find a fresh scrubbed white Tucker Carlson type to voice his arguments Cyrano De Bergerac style like Michele Malkin's husband or Rush Limbaugh's brother because the example of political and ethnic strife in his native India gives lie to the notion that it's just pesky black folk who have centuries long grievances against a society more committed to enforcing separateness and social hierarchy than getting things done and achieving social justice and social progress. While Dinesh comes here not to bury Obama, but to praise him, while sticking a knife into Hillary and Gerry, his colleagues on the right are beginning their full fledged attack against Barack for his association with Jeremiah Wright. Anyway... to break this down simply... "old fashioned traditional American racism, which led to segregation, discrimination, and the exclusion of blacks from educational institutions, financial participaion, and employment opportunities did the MOST damage to black aims before 1965.. the lingering effects of this discrimination have frustrated the movement of blacks post 1965... attempts to remedy centuries of anti black racism even imperfect ones like affirmative action and set asides can do something towards moving oppressed groups towards the economic mainstream. Just LOOK at what it did for white women? I mean.. white men don't believe their wives and daughters are incompetent in the job market do they?? And if one agrees that white women are NOT inherently incompetent.. then why were they discouraged from participating before? Was it just an immoral and ignorant belief in FEMALE inferiority?
Petey Wheatstraw at 10:08AM on Mar 15th 2008
73. greetings
must say that you seem to echo the same sentiments of the new age bigots...your suggesting that Black people in America are "chronically resentful" and how Obama is 'refreshing'because he does not discomfit white folk by addressing race in ways, seemingly, more comfortable for them, is sad for white folk.
to suggest that Hillary got all of her experience from being Bill's wife is ridiculous, because how then could you explain Ronald Reagan???
further, affirmative action was instituted to "level the playing field". if all things were equal from the beginning, it wouldn't be newsworthy about a Black, Brown, Red, or Yellow person being first anything...and again, what would be the excuse of a George W Bush as he was no ace at school...if he weren't part of a good, ol' boy network, he would have been selling "streetwise" like so many other Americans are having to do, or lucky to get an entry level, municipal job with health benefits...
donna rose at 10:03AM on Mar 15th 2008
74. WHEN IS ALL THE PREDIGESTS AGAINST EACH OTHER GOING TO STOP. IF BECAUSE OF THE GARBAGE COMING OUT ABOUT OBAMA PASTOR. OBAMA IS A GOOD MAN. I BELIEVE HE CAN HELP BRING A UNITY TO OUR COUNTRY. IT SEAMS TO ME WHEN YOU ARE OBAMA'S FRIEND HE WILL NOT THROUGH YOU TO THE WIND.WHAT DOES IT MEAN GOOD CHARACTER. ALL THIS GARBAGE CAME FROM FOX NEWS HANITY.
chippie448 at 12:53PM on Mar 16th 2008
75. Chippie, you are right about the character aspect! Who out of all of them has the character to stand up and not be such a corrupt person? Chippie, he just threw his pastor to the wind!
Bridget at 11:29AM on Mar 15th 2008