ZONE: Olbermann on the Ferraro Mess and the Clinton Campaign

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Olbermann on the Ferraro Mess and the Clinton Campaign

7 comments:

Mike McG... said...: Wow. It's 2:15 am in Chicago and I awakened literally sick, as I have been over the past 24 hours, over the Ferraro comments and the Clinton failure to denounce them. I desperately want to believe this is about ineptitude, cluelessness rather than pandering to white identity politics. I'm not finding the evidence to support my wish.

This is as a piece with the recent *repeated* Clinton comments that McCain has foreign policy experience, she has foreign policy experience, and Obama wrote a book. What contempt.

The Clinton self-absorption is breathtaking. Thanks to Olberman for the wisdom and the passion. Thanks to you, William, for the opportunity to view it. May it be played over and over and over again. May it demand profound self-searching among all of us, not just the Clinton campaign.; 3/13/2008 3:18 AM
Garpu said...: I'm really hoping this means more support for Obama's campaign, because any decent individual should be shocked at what's going on. If they aren't, then I'm really concerned for the rest of the country. (More concerned over that than the 23% who still think Bush is doing a good job.); 3/13/2008 2:44 PM
cowboyangel said...: Mike,

Thanks for dropping by.

I awakened literally sick, as I have been over the past 24 hours, over the Ferraro comments

Interesting. I've had similar experiences, and I know some others have to. What is it about this specific incident that has so many of us literally feeling sick?

I expect comments like this from the right-wing nuts. I'm a little shocked that it's coming from within the Party. But I think worst of all, it's that so many "liberals" don't have a problem with Ferraro's comments. And that she's acting so outraged herself. That's what really lies at the bottom of my own disgust and spiritual lament, I think. Suddenly, all the hand-wringing over global warming or FISA or even the war seems to be coming from people who stop and say, "What's wrong with what she said? She's right!" It's like you've been fighting together in the trenches and suddenly realize the person next to you doesn't actually share all of your concerns or priorities after all.

That's what's so damaging about what's happening - it's a civil war, a war within a larger family. And now you eye your comrades with slight suspicion. Very, very bad karma going into a general election.

Interestingly, the last Democratic civil war also involved the Clintons: the Nader candidacy in 2000. That was also a response by a section within the party to Bill Clinton's administration and where the Party seemed to be headed. And here we are again.

I desperately want to believe this is about ineptitude, cluelessness rather than pandering to white identity politics.

Perhaps. I think in some ways, it's like a bright light has suddenly been turned on some dark corners of the Democratic Party. Ferraro's comments about Jackson in the 1980s shows a consistently patronizing view of African-American candidates. I suppose one could call this "cluelessness," except that it's more damaging. Perhaps these kinds of attitudes have always lurked within certain segments of the party and it took an African-American candidate to bring them to light? How would they really come up when it's always been whites who've run the show?; 3/13/2008 3:52 PM
cowboyangel said...: Garpu,

any decent individual should be shocked at what's going on.

Yeah, that's what we all thought when the swift-boat ads came out. "This is so absurd. Who could possibly take it seriously.?"

If they aren't, then I'm really concerned for the rest of the country.

My advice: Be concerned. We're talking about a country that elected George W. Bush to a second term in office. Nothing is beyond a scared and freaked-out nation.; 3/13/2008 3:57 PM
Garpu said...: My advice: Be concerned. We're talking about a country that elected George W. Bush to a second term in office. Nothing is beyond a scared and freaked-out nation.

Yeah I know...trying to think positive, here, but it's getting harder and harder.; 3/13/2008 6:07 PM
cowboyangel said...: Garpu,

Thinking positively is good. Sorry I was being so cynical. It's a daily battle that I lose too often! I have to constantly remind myself that the future has just as much chance of being great as it does being bad, and my feeling good about it has some kind of effect, even if a small one.

Even the Ferraro mess can be positive, as it's obvious that people aren't going to fall for statements that once would've gone unchallenged.; 3/13/2008 6:36 PM
Jeff said...: Hate to be a wet blanket and let negative thinking creep back in, but evidence seems to indcicate that in some of the latest primaries, racial polarization is starting to set in, among Democrats, from Ohio to Mississippi.

I was hoping that Ferraro had been taken out of context, but when I saw the quotes about Jackson from decades ago... man. See, people often wonder in the progresive camp how the Reagan years even happened. They happened because of tin-eared and dimwitted people in the leadership of the Democratic Party like Geraldine Ferraro. It's sad now, to see some of these so-called party scions discredit themselves completely with cheap racism.

You know, this internecine warfare is getting very dangerous. Too many Democrats think that they have the November election in their hip pocket already. It ain't like that. They could still lose this thing, and if they keep this stuff up, they just might.; 3/14/2008 10:22 PM

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