The fact that Geraldine Ferraro refuses to apologize for racially insensitive remarks and that Hillary Clinton will not denounce them, shows this is part of a deliberate strategy to divide our the voters along racial lines. The Clintons have repeatedly tried this race-baiting strategy throughout the campaign:
Geraldine Ferraro stood by her controversial comments about Sen. Barack Obama's presidential candidacy today.
"I am sorry that people think this was a racist comment," Ferraro said in an interview with ABC's Diane Sawyer on "Good Morning America."
She declined to apologize directly for the firestorm she created when she told a newspaper last week that "if Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position."
She told Sawyer she was "absolutely not" sorry for what she said.
Ferraro, a former 1984 vice presidential candidate, also told Sawyer she has no intention of stepping down as a member of Sen. Hillary Clinton's finance committee.
She told Sawyer she was trying to say it's a good thing that Obama was where he was. Ferraro said she was saying that "the black community came out with ... pride in [Obama's] candidacy. You would think he would say 'thank you' for doing that, instead, I'm charged with being a racist."
Now notice the parallel between the Ferraro comments and those by the former presidential candidate in endorsing Clinton in December:
"It's probably not something that appeals to him, but I like the fact that his name is Barack Hussein Obama, and that his father was a Muslim and that his paternal grandmother is a Muslim," said Kerrey, a former governor and the current president of the New School in New York City. "There's a billion people on the planet that are Muslims, and I think that experience is a big deal."
Kerrey's mention of Obama's middle name and his Muslim roots raised eyebrows because they are also used as part of a smear campaign on the Internet that falsely suggests Obama is a Muslim who wants to bring jihad to the United States.
Here is Hillary's lame attempt at distancing herself from the comments:
"I do not agree with that," Clinton said Tuesday in an interview with The Associated Press, and later added, "It's regrettable that any of our supporters - on both sides, because we both have this experience - say things that kind of veer off into the personal."
"We ought to keep this on the issues. There are differences between us" on approaches to health care, energy, experience, Clinton said.
Why doesn't Ms.Clinton fire Ferraro the way the Obama campaign forced out Power for her "monster" comment. In November Obama realized that Hillary would try to swift boat him. He was right:
Obama accused Clinton of “'swift boat’ politics” and vowed he will not be intimidated.
“I am prepared to stand up to that kind of politics, whether it's deployed by candidates in our party, in the other party or by any third party,” Obama said. “The cause of change in this country will not be deterred or sidetracked by the old ‘Swift boat’ politics. The cause of moving America forward demands that we defeat it.”
Ferraro made similar comments 2 weeks ago on--guess which--FOX news. And she was accused of using the race-card by the host:
FERRARO: If Barack Obama were a white man, would we be talking about this as a potential real problem for Hillary?
If he were a woman...
GIBSON: You mean if he were John Edwards?
FERRARO: If he were a woman of any color, would he be in this position that he's in, absolutely not.
GIBSON: Geraldine, are you playing the race card?
