Geraldine Ferraro Leaves the Clinton Campaign

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Last updated on December 24th, 2012 at 03:03 am

Geraldine Ferraro sent a letter to Hillary Clinton this afternoon informing her that she was stepping down from her post on Clinton’s finance committee. “I am stepping down from your finance committee so I can speak for myself and you can continue to speak for yourself about what is at stake in this campaign,” Ferraro wrote. “The Obama campaign is attacking me to hurt you. I won’t let that happen.” I think Ferraro’s characterization of this being an Obama attack is ridiculous, because this whole thing started because of statements that she made.

There was no story here until Ferraro tried to minimize Obama as the black candidate. Ferraro didn’t help herself or the campaign when she made the rounds on the morning shows today and defended her previous statements as fact. Ferraro also told the Daily Breeze newspaper on Tuesday night that anyone who attacks Obama is accused of being a racist. “Anytime anybody does anything that in any way pulls this campaign down and says let’s address reality and the problems we’re facing in this world, you’re accused of being racist, so you have to shut up,” Ferraro said. “Racism works in two different directions. I really think they’re attacking me because I’m white. How’s that?”

When someone says that Obama is in the position he is in because he is black, and makes no mention of issues as Ferraro did, it is difficult to not say that she was bringing up the topic of race. I am not aware of anyone calling her a racist, but I think that she is her own worst enemy. What really happened today was that Ferraro made the media rounds trying to spin the story, and when she saw that her comments actually made things worse, she had no choice but to leave the campaign. The really troubling part of her past two days was that she has never missed a chance to label Obama as the black candidate.

I don’t think that the Clintons know how to be positive. All they and their campaign surrogates know how to do is divide people and bring them down. I don’t support either candidate, but I am tired of the kind of politics that the Clinton campaign has practiced. Ferraro’s comments were meant as a cheap shot at Obama, but they backfired. You would think that they would have learned after the debacle created by Bill Clinton in South Carolina, but this campaign seems to have no clue and is getting increasingly desperate as the Democratic nomination is slipping away.