Hillary, Barack… ponder the wisdom of Shaquille.
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The blogosphere is in a collective tizzy over the latest round of he-said-she-said between the campaign supporters of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
The latest has to do with this woman, former NY congresswoman and running-mate-to-Walter-Mondale-as-VP-in-’84, Geraldine Ferraro. In an interview with the Daily Breeze to promote an upcoming talk in Torrance, CA Ms. Ferraro made a series of comments that were troubling to supporters of the Obama campaign, many of whom felt were racist in tone.
This is an excerpt of the piece. You be the judge:
“I think what America feels about a woman becoming president takes a very secondary place to Obama’s campaign – to a kind of campaign that it would be hard for anyone to run against,” she said. “For one thing, you have the press, which has been uniquely hard on her. It’s been a very sexist media. Some just don’t like her. The others have gotten caught up in the Obama campaign.
“If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position,” she continued. “And if he was a woman (of any color) he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept.” Ferraro does not buy the notion of Obama as the great reconciler.
“I was reading an article that said young Republicans are out there campaigning for Obama because they believe he’s going to be able to put an end to partisanship,” Ferraro said, clearly annoyed. “Dear God! Anyone that has worked in the Congress knows that for over 200 years this country has had partisanship – that’s the way our country is.”
Understandably, chief Obama strategist David Axelrod was incensed:
“The bottom-line is this, when you wink and nod at offensive statements, you’re really sending a signal to your supporters that anything goes,” Axelrod said in a conference call with reporters on Tuesday.
“There’s no other way to send a serious signal that you want to police the tone of this campaign,” he added. “And if you don’t do those things then you are simply adding to the growing compendium of evidence that you really are encouraging that.”
The idea here is that if anyone from the Obama camp had tried to make the argument that the only reason there is traction behind Sen. Clinton’s campaign is because she’s a strong, embattled woman, that the PC police would come for that person’s head.
(See: Samantha Power and her ensuing “Hillary’s a monster” furor.)
For this, I defer to the immortal wisdom of Shaquille O’Neal.
After his Miami Heat team defeated the Portland Trailblazers, he was asked by a reporter if his team still would have won if then-injured forwards Darius Miles and Shareef Abdur-Rahim would’ve been in the lineup for Portland. This was his response (courtesy of Shaqquotes.com):
“Doesn’t matter. If I would’ve had a beer before the game, I would’ve been drunk. So I don’t believe in ‘if.’”
Truer words have yet to be spoken.
Obamaniacs, don’t take the bait. Denizens of Hillaryland, quit playing the ‘if’ game. Focus on the issues.
Personal foul, half-the-distance-to-the-goal-line.
Repeat third down.
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