The Greatest Election Ever: A RetrospectiveWe recommend you explore the following slideshow while playing Barbra Streisand’s “The Way We Were” for an optimal viewing experience.
Clinton Supporters, Women at Large Not Coming Around to ObamaObama’s new pastor problem will likely add to the resentment that many Clinton supporters already feel because of the unfair treatment they perceive Clinton was given as a female candidate.
Jesse Jackson Touts Obama’s ‘Clear Vision’Jesse Jackson has, up until now, been somewhat muted in his support of Barack Obama. Likewise, Obama has kept him at arm’s length, even though the former Democratic presidential candidate is a pledged advocate. But today, just after Barack Obama made a speech attempting to lift the lid off and expose the simmering pot of American racial tension, Jackson suddenly emerged exuberant.
“I thought [the speech] was a culmination of tough-minded, tender-hearted and a clear vision,” Jackson told the Huffington Post. “It really was warm, filling, captive, reconciling and comprehensive and it displayed real true grit. He was forthright not evasive and used it as a teaching moment in American history: America’s struggle to overcome its past and become a more perfect union. And once he made the case about the past and the complexities of Reverend Wright’s life or [Geraldine] Ferraro’s for that matter, he made the case that we are here now, but this time we will go forward by hope and not backwards by fear.”
Jackson added that he thought “American saw an even deeper and more profound view” of Obama today. What he may mean is that Americans saw Obama, finally, as a large step in the long climb toward civil rights in the country. It was a role Obama had been reluctant to adopt, but it seems as though he’s finally accepted it.
Jesse Jackson: Obama Just Turned Crisis Into Opportunity [HuffPo]
Earlier: Jesse Jackson Does Not Give ‘Free Advice’ To Barack Obama
early and often
Geraldine Ferraro Does Not Go Gently Into the NightAmerica’s first female vice-presidential candidate, Geraldine Ferraro, has resigned from Hillary Clinton’s campaign in disgrace after she said that Obama “would not be in this position” if he were a white man. Except, according to her, there’s no disgrace at all. In fact, she’s owed an apology. After a liberal blog and media feeding frenzy over her comments, she stepped down from her position on the finance committee — but she refused to apologize for the flap. “If anybody is going to apologize,” she said defiantly, “They should apologize to me for calling me a racist.” She said she’s stepping down only so the campaign can move past this issue. Obama himself stopped short of calling her racist, but Hillary aggressively attacked her. “I rejected what she said and I certainly do repudiate it.” She rejects and repudiates? She’s making sure all her bases are covered. She’s also putting Ferraro in the same box as Louis Farrakhan. Ouch!
Ferraro Quits But Offers No Apologies [Campaign 08/Nation]
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Geraldine Ferraro Drags Race Back Into It, Maybe to Stay
Geraldine Ferraro apparently hasn’t paid attention to how the offensive-comment cycle has worked this election: Surrogate X says something offensive about candidate Y. General outrage ensues. Surrogate X backtracks, apologizes, and/or vanishes. Ferraro, a member of Hillary Clinton’s finance committee, is not backing away from her statement (to Torrance, California’s Daily Breeze) that “If [Barack] Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position.” Obama’s people charged it furthered a Clinton pattern of race-baiting; Clinton only said she “disagreed” with Ferraro. And Ferraro has refused to back down. Yesterday on Fox News she even claimed to be the victim of reverse racism, saying, “I really think they’re attacking me because I’m white.” And judging from what she told the New York Times, Ferraro has no intention of quietly slinking away. “If they think they’re going to shut up Geraldine Ferraro with that kind of stuff, they don’t know me,” she told the Caucus blog. Who else isn’t shutting up? The punditry, of course.