BoomerGirl Diary

People who watch politics like hawks have been chattering indignantly about Clinton-supporter Geraldine Ferraro’s remarks about Barack Obama and race. In an interview with a Torrance, California newspaper (the Daily Breeze), Ferraro opined: "If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position. And if he was a woman (of any color) he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept."

On one level, the remark represents yet another pernicious interjection of race into the campaign, and is uncalled for. And Hillary Clinton’s response to the remark was outrageous, particularly in light of hercampaign’s reaction to Samantha Powers’ moment of unscripted candor.

While the Clinton campaign demanded that Powers, a Pulitzer-Prize-winning foreign policy expert, resign from her unpaid-advisor position, she had only the mildest words of reproach for Ms. Ferraro.

But I have to say that Ferraro comments were, technically, correct. Barack Obama probably would not be in this position if he was a White man. I am an Obama supporter, and I do so because he IS a Black man. And a White man. With an Asian sister. And a Kenyan grandmother. And a childhood spent in another country. These things are not unimportant to me. For eight years, we have been paying a horrible price for an arrogant, tone-deaf foreign policy, engineered by a president with absolutely no experience in and no curiosity about the wider world. We MUST put a new face to our foreign policy, one that represents the possibility of a different way of doing business or, at the very least, an understanding of other cultures.

So when Matt Drudge, abetted or not by the Clinton campaign, publishes a photo of Obama in traditional Somali garb, in the hope of raising the suggestion that he is not a loyal citizen of the United States, or Hillary, in response to a question, states that her Democratic opponent is not Muslim, “as far as I know” (when actually, she knows damn well that he has been going to the same Christian church for 20 years), they are bringing out the worst in our politics. Again. In Drudge’s case, it’s probably because he , like Rush Limbaugh, wants to help Hillary, the more beatable Democrat in November (Limbaugh’s encouragement of Republicans to cross over and vote for Hillary in caucus and primary states that allow that has not been successful thus far).

But for Hillary, it represents a scorched-earth politics in which anything goes, as long as she can win the nomination.

For many months, I have been saying that I could be happy with just about any of the Democrats running for the presidency. And while I am an Obama supporter, I was also a huge fan of Hillary Clinton (a photo of she and I, taken when she was First Lady, in the White House, is displayed in my office). But no more. These next words will undoubtedly be music to Red, but say them I must: if Hillary Clinton wins the Democratic nomination for President, I will be voting for Ralph Nader. And if someone like me is turning their back on Hillary, not even Rush Limbaugh can save her.