A great article in the Atlantic: "The Unfulfilled legacies of Elizabeth Taylor and Geraldine Ferraro: A look at how gender politics changed, and stayed the same, during the careers of two iconic women.”

Geraldine Ferraro died today, Saturday, March 26

It’s with sadness that I post the announcement of Geraldine Ferraro’s death today. I never met her personally, but during her candidacy as Walter Mondale’s running mate in 1984, I was painfully aware of the misogynist and anti-Italian-American attacks she and her family endured from her opponents and our still mostly ignorant, regrettably uninformed, and biased media.

The Roll Call’s Christine Bellantoni reports:

The family said in a statement that she {Ferraro} died at Massachusetts General Hospital as a result of complications from a blood cancer that she had fought for 12 years.

"Geraldine Anne Ferraro Zaccaro was widely known as a leader, a fighter for justice, and a tireless advocate for those without a voice. To us, she was a wife, mother, grandmother and aunt, a woman devoted to and deeply loved by her family," her family said in a statement. "Her courage and generosity of spirit throughout her life waging battles big and small, public and personal, will never be forgotten and will be sorely missed."

The family will announce details about a funeral service and wake.

Erik Ose Smears Nobama Democrats: Ferraro, Pro-Hillary Deadenders, PUMA, Just Say No Deal, etc.

Where else but at the Huffington Post would PUMA have made a list of “ten chumps who helped elect Barack Obama?” In compiling his list, Erik Ose manages to smear Geraldine Ferraro and a good many other devoted Clinton supporters:

‘“Geraldine Ferraro - The most prominent member of the Nobama Democrats, she gave credibility to the divisive, time-wasting efforts of pro-Hillary deadenders who clung to PUMA, Just Say No Deal, and other faux-grassroots groups after Obama clinched the nomination. Ferraro was forced to step down from her official role with the Clinton campaign in March after claiming, ‘If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position,’ similar to comments she made in 1988 about an earlier black presidential contender (‘If Jesse Jackson were not black, he wouldn't be in the race’). She reared her head again in May, quoted by the New York Times as saying she might not vote for Obama in the fall, because ‘I think Obama was terribly sexist.’

“Yet by refusing to cede her role as a Hillary surrogate, and tirelessly fanning the fames of party disunity, she helped keep media attention on the myth that there were legions of disaffected Hillary voters whose allegiance was available for harvest by any candidate in a pantsuit. Without Ferraro's efforts to keep the gender pot stirring, Sarah Palin might not have presented such a tempting opportunity for Team McCain to make a play for women voters.”

Read more:

Contact Erik Ose at thelatestoutrage@gmail.com.

MSNBC’s Today Interview with George H.W. Bush and Geraldine Ferraro (video)

If you’d like a great warm up for tonight’s vice presidential debate between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden, then watch this video of MSNBC Today’s interview with George H.W. Bush and Geraldine Ferraro who debated one another as vice presidential candidates 24 years ago.

Geraldine Ferraro’s Advice to Sarah Palin

Unlike the screaming crowd of left-wing feminists eagerly joining the good old boys in tearing Sarah Palin to shreds – in the manner of those who assaulted Hillary Clinton during the Democratic primary – Geraldine Ferraro assumes a supportive mentoring role for the first female governor of Alaska and the first GOP VP candidate. Published in Glamour Magazine, Ferraro advises Palin:

Always Make Your Own Rules

"When I was running, I was deciding how things were going to go for a woman campaigning for vice president. I never wore pants, but now it's done all the time. When Hillary Clinton ran for president, she made pantsuits famous! People have compared [Palin's] clothing to Michelle Obama's and Cindy McCain's and they shouldn't. Sarah Palin dresses like a governor; that's what she should dress like. She needs to make her own choices in that area. I remember going to a rally in San Antonio, Texas. It was 120 degrees, but someone inside my campaign told me that I couldn't wear short sleeves, because all of the men were going to be in jackets. I said, 'Forget it. It's 120 degrees. I am not wearing a jacket.' And that was that."

Ignore All the Talk About Your Family

"Comments about the way that Governor Palin organizes her family are ridiculous. We'd never ask Senator Obama how he organizes his family, because we assume that his wife is taking care of it. How many of us have been working mothers all of our lives? Millions of us! When [Congresswoman] Pat Schroeder was asked by one of the more senior members of Congress how she could be a mother and run for office, she said, 'Because I have a brain and a uterus, and I use both.' I always loved that.

We should not be denied the opportunity, or the ability to participate in any field, just because we use the parts that we came with. Can Sarah Palin do both jobs? She wouldn't be here if she couldn't. Having been there, done that, I can tell you, yeah, she can."

No Matter What, Always Stick to the Party Line

"When you run for vice president, you're part of a ticket, and your views are the views of the campaign; they have to be aligned. You can't look as if you're at odds with the campaign. If you can't do that, you shouldn't have been chosen."

Don't Get Caught Up in the Hype

"When I was running, I always had bigger crowds than Walter Mondale [her running mate]. I gave speeches to the largest crowds since JFK. The sheer number of Secret Service people was incredible. These people weren't there to hear me speak; they were there because of the historic aspects of the campaign. The impact of these kinds of races goes far beyond the candidates themselves."

Not Everybody Is Going to Like You--Get Used to It

"I was a popular politician in my home state--just like Palin is. But when I ran for vice president, people would shout at me in the streets and tell me they didn't like me or the things I stood for. My husband just said, 'Gerry, not everyone's going to love you.' That was important for me to learn--you can't satisfy everybody. If you can't take up an issue where some people aren't going to like you, you're not doing your job."

Read more.

Newsweek Exclusive: Geraldine Ferraro on Palin, Clinton, and the Campaign

In a Newsweek exclusive by Pat Wingert, Geraldine Ferraro is the voice of experience in her response to gender on the campaign trail. Ferraro’s professional take on the sexism long endured by Hillary Clinton and what Sarah Palin now faces as the first Republican vice presidential candidate offers helpful insights in the final weeks of the 2008 race.

(Lest we forget, Ferraro’s words are also a painful reminder of how the Obama camp smeared her and both Clintons as racists in that brutal primary.)

Here’s the introduction to Wingert’s interview with Ferraro:

“Republican nominee John McCain's poll numbers have soared and his crowd sizes have surged since he announced he was adding Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to his ticket. But Geraldine Ferraro, the nation's first female candidate for vice president, says all the post-convention hoopla over Palin sounds very familiar. NEWSWEEK's Pat Wingert, who covered Ferraro for a Chicago newspaper when the New York congresswoman made her historic run in 1984, spoke with Ferraro late Friday.”

Excerpts from the interview begin as follows:

NEWSWEEK: The new NEWSWEEK Poll shows a 9-point swing for white women from Barack Obama to McCain since the Republican convention and the addition of Sarah Palin to McCain's ticket. What do you make of that?

Geraldine Ferraro: In 1984, when [Democratic presidential nominee] Fritz [Mondale] gave me the nomination, he was 15 or 16 points behind, and his announcement brought us dead even with [President Ronald] Reagan in the polls that were done after the convention. … We drew huge crowds. The Secret Service told me that we had the largest crowds they'd seen since JFK. But many of those people came to bring their daughters to see the first woman nominated for a national office. I would see these men in the audience with their little girls on their shoulders, saying, "You got to see the first woman nominated. This is historic." Hillary [Clinton] saw the same thing, and Palin will too. It was exciting and people wanted to be a part of the candidacy. But it doesn't necessarily translate into votes. The polls will flip up and down and it doesn't necessarily translate into making a difference on Election Day and who becomes president."

So you don't think having a woman run as vice president will inspire more women to vote for McCain?

People never vote for vice president. ...With Hillary at the top of the ticket, I think it would have made a difference. Women would have seen this as a historic moment that they would have carried through to the voting booth. But with the vice president, I don't think it works that way. People vote for the presidential candidates, not the vice president. In 1983, they were voting on how they felt about the economy and the cold war and national security, and they happened to like Ronald Reagan. In order to turn out an incumbent, voters have to feel that they haven't done a good job, and that was hard to do with Ronald Reagan. People loved him, and voted for him, including women, even though our policies were better for women. The truth is, Ronald Reagan was terrible for women.

Did you ever think it would take 24 years before another woman appeared on a national ticket?

No, I didn't. Remember, we have had a lot of women run for president during the time since 1983: We had Pat Schroeder and Elizabeth Dole and Carol Moseley Braun and, of course, Hillary Clinton, who ran the kind of race and raised the kind of money that allowed her to go toe-to-toe with these guys. I thought we'd see a woman run for president and win before we'd see another woman nominated for vice president.

Through much of Hilary's run, and now during Sarah Palin's race, there have been charges of sexism. Would you characterize the way the media, and or the public, treated you in 1984, as sexist?

Yeah, it was, but I couldn't speak about it then. When I was watching that interview between Palin and Charlie Gibson [on ABC, Thursday, Sept. 11], I felt like it was deja vu all over again. Only in my case, it was Ted Koppel and "Meet the Press" and "Face the Nation," and each of them felt like they had to give me a foreign policy exam, and ask me if I was strong enough to push the button. These were questions they never asked men. But in 1984, I couldn't say, "Stop it," because I couldn't look like I was whining or upset about it. Even when [the media was] so sexist to Hillary, and we said something about it, they still thought we were whining or acting like sore losers. It wasn't until independent people like the Paley Center [for Media] said the campaign was sexist, then all of a sudden, people act concerned about it. It was fascinating to me to watch Anderson Cooper, before asking a question, make the point that he would ask the same question of a man, and act so nervous about it. But I never thought we'd have the opportunity to see another woman go through it, this same election cycle, after the press had been put on notice. Personally, I thought Charlie Gibson was very sexist.

Read more.

Geraldine Ferraro On McCain's VP Pick Sarah Palin (Video)

Fox News contributor, and former Democratic vice presidential nominee, Geraldine Ferraro dicusses McCain’s choice of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. Watch video.

Let’s Hear It for Geraldine Ferraro

Presidential candidate Walter Mondale and his running mate, Geraldine Ferraro

Thank you, Geraldine Ferraro, for your post today in the NY Daily News titled What Hillary Clinton’s Women Want.

After all the abuse Ferraro suffered during the Democratic primary from the Obama team, it’s good she has the courage to continue to speak her mind. Need I remind you that the Obama team managed to smear Ferraro, the first female vice presidential candidate on a national party ticket, and both Clintons as racists?

In her post, Ferraro gets to the point and concisely sums up where Hillary Clinton’s supporters are on the closing day of the Democratic convention:

“Hillary Clinton's speech before the convention on Tuesday night was brilliant. It reminded me of the one that Jesse Jackson gave in 1984 after a very contentious primary, when his name would be put into nomination the next evening and his 465-1/2 delegate votes would be recorded in the history books. His speech soared with reminders of a historic campaign, thanked supporters and recognized it was time to move on as a unified party.”

“Hillary's remarks, however, went even further than Jackson's did 24 years ago - by pressing for support, over and over, for her former opponent, Barack Obama, and urging party unity as the only way to defeat John McCain in November.

“She could not have done more. And despite what some of Obama's supporters seem to feel, responsibility for a contentious campaign does not rest solely on her shoulders.”

“It seems to me there are now three distinct groups of Hillary Clinton supporters.”

“The first are the PUMAs - which, as everyone now knows, stands for "Party Unity My A--." For them - and over the last two weeks I have received hundreds of letters from women who consider themselves PUMAs - nothing Hillary could say or do would move them. They are livid at the sexist way that Hillary was treated by the media, and even angrier at the Obama people, the Democratic National Committee and Howard Dean as chairman, for not speaking up against it.

“They believe that sexism is larger than this presidential race, that it seeps into the fiber of our country and must be stopped. They are convinced that if the media had been racist against Obama, Howard Dean would have been shouting from the hilltops - and so would have Hillary. They feel the party accepted a double standard, and many have indicated that they will either vote for McCain, write in Hillary's name or just not vote for President.
“Those people were outside of Hillary's reach on Tuesday night.

“A second group of Clinton supporters is those who chose her over Obama but who consider themselves good Democrats and will vote for the nominee. They also would never think of voting for McCain, primarily because of two vital, closely related issues of their concern: the Supreme Court and abortion.

“That leaves the middle group. These are the women (and in smaller numbers, men) to whom Hillary was reaching out in her speech. They were on the fence; some of them remain there. They were disappointed when she didn't win the nomination and let down further when she wasn't chosen, apparently wasn't even seriously considered, to be Obama's running mate.

“They were not only a significant number of the delegates in the convention hall on Tuesday night, but they are also the blue-collar ethnics and older voters in Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Florida, who came out in large numbers for her toward the end of the campaign.

‘“These are the ones of whom she asked, after recounting the stories of three people in various parts of the country who were having problems with health care or trouble making ends meet: ‘Were you in this campaign just for me?" And then, again referring to those people, she rhetorically asked, or "Were you in it for all the people in this country who feel invisible?’
“She then went on to point out that Obama was the person who could meet those tough challenges. And that he was the leader we need.

“Hillary has done her part. Now it's Obama's turn. Some of that third group at the convention were swayed by Hillary's speech. Some are still waiting for Obama to assure them about his experience and ability to handle the job. Some of them are waiting to hear if he really does understand them and their needs.

‘“They want to be sure that when Obama said so frequently in the primaries that ‘Our time has come,’ that it didn't mean their time had passed.”’
“Thursday night, we will find out.”

Amen to that, Ms. Ferraro, amen.

One last word: The Obama campaign has received a lot of kudos for its savvy, its efficiency, it’s organizing prowess, etc., etc., but labeling Geraldine Ferraro, Bill Clinton, and Hillary Clinton as racists, while not speaking out against the prolonged abusive sexist, misogynyous assault endured by Hillary Clinton throughout the Democratic primary was not evidence of superior wisdom or outstanding leadership. As Ferraro pointed out above, some of us remain unconvinced that Barack Obama is The One.

Note: Ferraro, former U.S. representative from Queens, in 1984 became the first female vice presidential candidate on a national party ticket.

Women’s Group Requests Study on Sexism, Racism, and Media Bias in Democratic Primary

In her cogent, well-written op-ed in Friday’s Boston Globe titled Healing the Wounds of Democrats’ Sexism, former vice-presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro has some breaking news for the Obama camp and its media allies.

Ferraro writes:

“Here we are at the end of the primary season, and the effects of racism and sexism on the campaign have resulted in a split within the Democratic Party that will not be easy to heal before election day. Perhaps it's because neither the Barack Obama campaign nor the media seem to understand what is at the heart of the anger on the part of women who feel that Hillary Clinton was treated unfairly because she is a woman or what is fueling the concern of Reagan Democrats for whom sexism isn't an issue, but reverse racism is.

“The reaction to the questions being raised has been not to listen to the message and try to find out how to deal with the problem, but rather to denigrate the messenger. Sore loser, petty, silly, vengeful are words that have dominated the headlines. But scolding and name calling don't resolve disputes. The truth is that tens of thousands of women have watched how Clinton has been treated and are not happy. We feel that if society can allow sexism to impact a woman's candidacy to deny her the presidency, it sends a direct signal that sexism is OK in all of society.

“In response, a group of women - from corporate executives to academics to members of the media - have requested that the Shorenstein Center at Harvard University and others conduct a study, which we will pay for if necessary, to determine three things.

“First, whether either the Clinton or Obama campaign engaged in sexism and racism; second, whether the media treated Clinton fairly or unfairly; and third whether certain members of the media crossed an ethical line when they changed the definition of journalist from reporter and commentator to strategist and promoter of a candidate. And if they did to suggest ethical guidelines which the industry might adopt.”

To read Ferraro’s entire op-ed, go here.

Merit Badges Due Both Geraldine Ferraro and Earl Ofari Hutchinson

Photo credits: www.middlepassagepress.com

The Huffington Post is well known for its Hillary-bashing and Obamania, so when an article appears on its Web site that offers strong support to the first serious female presidential candidate in American history - or to one of her beleaguered supporters - it's time to take note. Earl Ofari Hutchinson posted a fine piece today over at Huffpost that addresses the firestorm evoked by Geraldine Ferraro’s recent comment about Barack Obama’s standing in the Democratic primary.

Hutchinson begins:

“Fire former Democratic VP candidate and Hillary Clinton advisor Geraldine Ferraro? She ought to get a merit badge pinned on her for having the guts to tell the truth. Ferraro got it right on both counts when she said that race has made a difference with Barack Obama. He has gotten a virtual free ride from much of the media. His paper thin voting record, lack of experience, zig zag stances on foreign policy issues, Republican lite positions on health care and the sub prime housing crisis, repeated subtle going negative against Hillary Clinton while giving himself a plausible deniability out and insuring that Clinton gets dumped on when she hits back has been blatantly obvious. The media and much of the public have kept hands off him in part out of sheer terror of being branded racist and in part out of hatred for Clinton. And that's the other thing that Ferraro got right. She flatly called the media sexist and said that many Americans, she really said America, has a huge problem with a woman running for president.

Displaying courage equal to that of Ferraro, Hutchinson continues:

“The Obama camp screamed bloody murder at Ferraro's brave and very accurate remarks. They went through tortured gyrations in demanding that Clinton fire Ferraro by comparing her to the justly released Obama aide Samantha Power. There is no comparison. Power should have gotten a swift boot for her personal, slanderous and mud sling name call of Clinton as a "monster." Ferraro did not engage in personal name calling against Obama but rather made a blunt political comparison between the double standard treatment Clinton's campaign has gotten versus Obama's.

“That double standard should rankle anyone who believes in at least some fair play in what's arguably the dirtiest business around, namely American politics. But that's been a moot point when it comes to dealing with Clinton. From the instant she tossed her hat in the presidential ring back in January 2007 she's had to deal with a relentless barrage of gender tinged wisecracks and outright insults on the campaign trail. At one rally, hecklers yelled to her to iron their shirts. Other gender taunts and slurs were even less flattering. Radio host Rush Limbaugh told listeners in one of his nationally syndicated shows, "Will this country want to actually watch a woman get older before their eyes on a daily basis?" Clinton has been taunted in some online websites with fake ads for toilet brushes labeled, "First Cleaning Lady" and a Clinton nutcracker was also for sale. It cracked nuts between her legs. Hillary Clinton's hairdos, ankles and even her cleavage did not stir any sustained protests or outrage from either men or women.

“A female in the White House would shatter the frozen in time mindset that the first lady isn't the president but the emotional helpmate to the president. That notion, though, is still a foreign concept to many men. In February, the Associated Press and Yahoo News found that 40 percent of Republicans said they would be reluctant to vote for a woman. A much smaller percentage said they would be reluctant to vote for a black.
“More than three decades before Clinton made her run for the White House, then New York Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm the only other woman to make a spirited run for the presidency as a Democrat quipped that "Of my two 'handicaps' being female put more obstacles in my path than being black. I've always met more discrimination being a woman than being black." Chisholm got a frosty reception from the male members of the Congressional Black Caucus. Thirty six years and nine presidential elections later some things haven't changed as Ferraro noted for a woman that seeks the highest office in the land.

“The politically correct view is that Clinton's entrance into and drive for the presidency will permanently alter the hostile mindset of many men that a woman is not equipped to hold the highest office. That's been the biggest myth of all. In Democratic primaries in January and February Obama held his own or surpassed Hillary's vote total with white men. He did it in some of the most traditional bastions of white male voter resistance to backing a black candidate in elections past.

“The votes he got from the men didn't necessarily mean that these men were enthusiastic backers of Obama. It likely meant that when it was a head to head contest between a man and a woman, they backed the man. Many liked Obama's message of change, but there were undoubtedly other men that simply didn't like Clinton, or rather the thought of a woman in the highest office. As Ferraro accurately put it lots of men fit that bill.

“Clinton will be under intense pressure to dump Ferraro. She should mightily resist it. After all, no one should lose their job for telling the truth.”

In my opinion, both Earl Ofari Hutchinson and Geraldine Ferraro are due merit badges for speaking the truth.