Keith also discusses this in his blog at the DailyKos:
My point tonight is that the resignation of Geraldine Ferraro from the Finance Committee of Senator Clinton’s campaign is a lost opportunity for the candidate to do simply do the proverbial, cheesy, cornball, ‘right thing.’
(snip)
There is much in the decisions made by the Senator and her strategists that was obvious, mistaken, and damaging.
And there is the grimmer prospect. That these, as Howard Fineman suggested on Countdown last night, were not mistakes at all.
Walter Mondale’s 1984 Vice Presidential candidate, Geraldine Ferraro, resigned from her post on Clinton’s finance committee today. Ferraro has stuck by her comments that Barack Obama is lucky to be black, and that people were attacking Ferraro because she is white.
Ferraro’s resignation letter to Hillary Clinton:
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.
Placid of demeanor but pointed in his rhetoric, Jackson struck out repeatedly today against those who suggest his race has been an asset in the campaign. President Reagan suggested Tuesday that people don’t ask Jackson tough questions because of his race. And former representative Geraldine A. Ferraro (D-N.Y.) said Wednesday that because of his “radical” views, “if Jesse Jackson were not black, he wouldn’t be in the race.”
Asked about this at a campaign stop in Buffalo, Jackson at first seemed ready to pounce fiercely on his critics. But then he stopped, took a breath, and said quietly, “Millions of Americans have a point of view different from” Ferraro’s.
Discussing the same point in Washington, Jackson said, “We campaigned across the South . . . without a single catcall or boo. It was not until we got North to New York that we began to hear this from Koch, President Reagan and then Mrs. Ferraro . . . . Some people are making hysteria while I’m making history.”
Clinton supporter and former Vice President Geraldine Ferraro defended her comments on Barack Obama’s race.
“Any time anybody does anything that in any way pulls this campaign down and says let’s address reality and the problems we’re facing in this world, you’re accused of being racist, so you have to shut up. Racism works in two different directions. I really think they’re attacking me because I’m white. How’s that?”
The Clinton camp, through spokesperson Howard Wolfson, has distanced themselves from her comments, saying “We disagree with her.”
