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News Roundup, 3/13/08: Ferraro In The News Again

Yesterday may prove to be one of those days that we'll all look back on as one of the decisive days in this year's primary race that nearly passed us over.

Former congresswoman and vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro stepped down from Clinton's finance committee yesterday in the aftermath of statements she made last week in the California newspaper The Daily Breeze. She was quoted as saying:

"I think what America feels about a woman becoming president takes a very secondary place to Obama's campaign - to a kind of campaign that it would be hard for anyone to run against," she said. "For one thing, you have the press, which has been uniquely hard on her. It's been a very sexist media. Some just don't like her. The others have gotten caught up in the Obama campaign.

"If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position," she continued. "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."

Clinton stated that she did not agree with Ferraro's comments and called it "regrettable" that such personal comments were made. Obama advisor David Axelrod called for Ferraro's resignation, citing their own high-level staffer, Samantha Power, who was let go after calling Clinton a "monster."

In her resignation letter, Ferraro made it clear that she was stepping down of her own volition to speak about the issues she raised, saying, "The Obama campaign is attacking me to hurt you. I won't let that happen." (The full text of the letter is in the link above.) Ferraro later clarified that she was not rescinding her statements, saying that though she was "sorry that people thought [the comment] was racist," she was "absolutely not" sorry for making it, and clarifying:

"I was talking about historic candidacies," she said. "In 1984, if my name were Gerard Ferraro instead of Geraldine Ferraro, I would never have been chosen as the vice president."

And she had a final salvo for Axelrod's comments:

But, she added, referring to Axelrod, "He shouldn't really antagonize people like me." If Obama is nominated, Axelrod "is going to come to me and ask me to raise money for Barack Obama, and I will do it for him, too, if he stops doing this kind of horrendous attack."

In other campaign news, CNN has called the Texas caucus results for Obama, and Clinton is looking to have a sizeable lead in Pennsylvania, at least for right now. And McCain got a good chuckle at the idea of having Mitt Romney as his vice president.

Before moving on from presidential politics, I should note that Josh's column yesterday on personal experiences and how they define your politics — and how much that should mean — is a must-read for anyone who considers themselves interested and involved in this year's primaries.

New York Governor Eliot Spitzer tendered his resignation yesterday, ending the tender situation that started earlier this week when he was named as a client of a prostitution ring under federal investigation.

There were some protests at an Ohio hospital which is considering naming their new emergency room the "Abercrombie & Fitch Emergency Department and Trauma Center" in response to Abercrombie & Fitch's pledge of $10 million for the center. The hospital is Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus; they renamed themselves after Columbus-based Nationwide Insurance pledged a donation of $50 million to the hospital over ten years. The protests are particularly strong because of complaints against A&F that its quarterly catalogs ran "sexually suggestive photographs."

And finally, we have an interview this week with Chris Turner, running for State Representative in District 96. He's got some interesting things to say regarding the political climate in Tarrant County, as well as his focus on education. Check it out.

Race-baiting

"The Obama campaign is attacking me to hurt you. I won't let that happen."

So THAT'S what we're calling getting roasted for race-baiting these days. Good to know.

Ferraro's pontificating on Obama's race-based success is equally as ridiculous as Chris Matthews' twittering about Hillary.

Attack and resign

How many more Clinton surrogates will make such comments and then resign?

Hillary Gaining Ground....bugging some Obama supporters.

"pontificating"...are you sure you want to use that strong of wording? If so, why?...because she is female? Search deep down, take a few deep breaths and tell me you would say the same thing, if it were John Edwards saying what Ferraro said...come one tell me Mr. McLeod. Would you? No. You would not.

BTW, who is Cousin Pookie and Cousin Ray Ray that Obama talks about in his speeches to the "Black people?"

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