Is Geraldine Ferraro racist? That is the wrong question. Is a campaign tactic calculated to exploit racial tensions worse than racist? That is the right question. The tactic employed by Hillary Clinton's surrogate, Geraldine Ferraro, was despicable. It was far worse than a display of personal bigotry. It deliberately injected toxic racial politics into a campaign that had been blessedly free of racial politics.

Apologists for Geraldine Ferraro would have us believe that Ferraro innocently thought that this would be a good time to discuss "affirmative action" in the context of Barack Obama's presidential run. "Why can't we have an open and honest discussion about race?", goes their refrain. Yeah, right. And let's start the discussion by asking if Barack Obama is an "affirmative action" candidate.

When Hillary Clinton said that John McCain was better qualified than Barack Obama to be Commander in Chief, I thought that was as low as the Clinton campaign could possibly go. But no, the Clinton campaign's well of poisonous bile is apparently bottomless. I expect that they will be going back to that well many times before this is over.

Obama 08!

well said, pwoxby. there's no doubt that this ferraro woman harbors some bigotry, and it is very tragic that she chose to share it unabashedly with the rest of us. instead of apologizing, she has the audacity to play the victim card.

clinton's campaign and her own tactics are getting more desperate and despicable by the day. i'm almost to the point where i agree with samantha powers' tasteless remark that clinton is a monster. perhaps she is. she's willing to destroy the democrat party to satisfy her ego even though mathematically she has no chance of winning in a remotely democratic manner.

Blessedly free of race?

Ummm, I hate to inform you, but Democrats have been showing quite brazenly that they are infested with both racism and sexism. It is obvious that this has come down to a black vs brown and inny vs outy match-up. Well, there is a third factor (dumb vs smart), but discrimination based on that is a bit more accceptable.

The sad thing it, these awful trends seem worse in blue states than red states.

I agree it is a wrong question. The fact is that Clintons along with their surrogates are repeatedly playing the race card trying to scare off the white and Hispanic voters now that they have written off the African American vote. This has been their strategy. Clintons will do anything, say anything now matter how blatantly false or outrageous to win and in process destroy the Democratic Party. Hillary has a history of demonising women her husband had sexually abused and then lied about that. Both have no shame. If Democrats are stupid to give her the nomination there will be firestorm of protest that will make the Vietnam War protests pale in comparison.

The comments were *so* unbelievably stupid, I am not even sure they were calculated. Or if they were, they need to get new calculators ;-)....

AFAICS, the issue is that Ferraro feels like she was picked as Mondale's running-mate because of her gender and that qualifications weren't considered at all. Hence she can't imagine that any non-white-male candidate could be there due to qualifications. I mean, it would be absurd if people voted for Hillary or Obama based on any reason other than gender or race, right?

These are times you just shake your head and walk away..... I still have trouble believing that anyone can be either that cynical or that stupid.