After the controversy her remarks about Barack Obama generated, Geraldine Ferraro stepped down from her position on Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign finance committee yesterday. The first - and only - female vice-presidential candidate sent Clinton a letter:
Dear Hillary –
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.The Obama campaign is attacking me to hurt you.
I won't let that happen.
Thank you for everything you have done and continue to do to make this a better world for my children and grandchildren.
You have my deep admiration and respect.
Gerry
Ferraro's actions come after a day where she and the Obama campaign were waging a war of words. Ferraro, who had suggested Obama's success was due to the fact that he's black, attacked the Obama campaign ("Every time somebody opens their mouth [in the Clinton campaign], Bill Clinton, racist; Ed Rendell, racist") and made comparison to herself in 1984, "I was talking about historic candidacies...in 1984 if my name was Gerard Ferraro instead of Geraldine Ferraro, I would have never been chosen as a vice presidential candidate."
On the Today show yesterday, Obama criticized Ferraro (after acknowledging her trailblazer status), saying she was participating in "slice and dice politics" and "Americans are tired of" it. Later in the day, he added, "The notion that it is a great advantage to me to be an African American named Barack Obama and pursue the presidency, I think, is not a view that has been commonly shared by the general public."
There are a number of articles about race in this campaign given the recent remarks. The Wall Street Journal's editorial board wonders, "Is it just us, or does Barack Obama seem a mite too quick to play the race card when facing criticism from political opponents?"
Photograph of Geraldine Ferraro pin from the Hudson Library
