Letters to the Editor
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The problem is...
I live in Pennsylvania. I'm inundated.
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Oh wow
You say "the response was overblown" and then I have to keep scrolling and scrolling and scrolling and scrolling down the page to see just how passionately you feel the response was overblown and how much evidence you can assemble to prove it.
Maybe the response to the response is a little overblown too?
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wow!
So, because Ferraro said the same thing about herself, that makes it okay to say about Jesse Jackson and Barack? So, if I call myself crazy, then clearly I can call you crazy too? What kind of logic is that?
Ferraro is not Jesse or Barack, because she can speak for her particular circumstances of undeserved accomplishment does not mean she can diminish other people's accomplishments.
You said that her initial comments taken in context were not so bad, but she added the context for her remarks when she was defending herself, if she was not clear before, her subsequent statements made it very clear that she was making racist statements.
Personally, I am not sure if she is sincerely a racist (I have spent enough time in the NE to know there are many of them up there) or is this was some "clumsy" strategy by the Clinton campaign to get the "racist" vote in PA. Either way, it made me sick to my stomach as a Black professional in this country.
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Not Obama's fault, but I can see who you now prefer
Sheesh, Alex, your writing is as shoddy as your reasoning. I will cut to the chase. Since you blame Obama or Obama's supporters to why Ferraro was unjustly attacked, please provide a link that supports this line of reasoning instead of a run on paragraph that overblows everything.
Is Salon run by a bunch of Hillary supporters?
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Ferraro and Koppelman
You certainly wasted a lot of space for your twisted arguments. In STATECRAFT, do you really believe that Mr. Obama is better, than Mr. Biden? But Mr. Biden is out, because he did not get 91% of the vote of the white folks! So, who played the race card?
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My reason for writing
I wrote one of those letters asking why the story wasn't being covered. My reason had little to do with what you perceive as the standard "tit-for-tat" news cycle that we're going to be engaged in. On that front, you're entirely right, this is going to be a long six weeks. And I wouldn't want you to get bogged down.
HOWEVER - the story here is one of dramatic comparisons in campaigns, and the opportunity to explore it is something that not just you, Alex, but the entire staff of Salon were neglecting. The firing of Samantha Power - instantly, and with no attempt to create political hay - says something about the campaign that Senator Obama is running.
Now, we agree that the congresswoman's comments were ill-advised, though perhaps devoid of the overt maliciousness of "monster". And perhaps she really isn't trying to dog-whistle. At first I was more than willing to offer her the benefit of the doubt.
But her subsequent statements threw that out the window. And, more damning by far, rather than taking decisive action, Senator Clinton's campaign manager issued a statement blaming Senator Obama's camp for causing a fuss.
With Senator Clinton's campaign, I'm noticing a great deal of "do as I say, not as I do." She expects concession speeches, but will not give them. She expects anyone insulting her to be fired, but will not reciprocate in kind. She expects Senator Obama to take his name off the balot in Michigan, but will not do the same. Some states matter, others don't.
She's playing street-fighter? Fine. But you can't do that and at the same time demand Senator Obama play by the Marquis of Queensbury's rules. She is holding her opponent to a higher standard than she holds herself to. That is not what great leaders do.
This is the conversation I was hoping Salon could begin. Because it IS a story. Not one you yourself have to cover, but one that I would be interested in Salon's take on.
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part of clinton strategy
Frankly I think Ferraro's remarks were very bad. Even worse were her denials. The Hillary campaign and is just furious that someone took the steam out of her run for president. Obama is doing well because he is the best candidate.
It's really absurd that the Clinotn campaign is making such a Big deal of TX and Oh especially since Obama won more delegates in TX and her OH win is now down to 10pt lead. Face it HRC supporters Obama is the LEADER. He has won more states by bigger % pts than Hillary. Obama is ahead in pledged delegates. Obama has gotten 7 new Super delegates since OH contest. He is gaining Super delegates she has lost them. In all the state she has gotten just as many white votes. Even is she wins PA she still can't catch him. But she'll keep stomping ans screaming until she gets her way.
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@McGee re: smokin'
"Gosh, I hope there aren't any old photos around of Barack Obama smoking. Then we'll have President McCain for sure."
Why do you think SNL showed "Obama" with a cigarette in his mouth?
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Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, but this was not one of those occasions
Whether one thinks Geraldine Ferraro's comment was racist (and I think is was pig-ignorant, racist and stupid) it certainly was an important event in the Democratic Campaign -- and give that War Room's apparent purpose is to cover major issues affecting the campaign, its neglect of this story, and for that matter Alex Koppelman's is a signal failure. Put simply, a dud decision, a lousy one.
Mr. Koppelman can criticise Olbermann's polemic and furious response, but the very fact that Geraldine Ferraro's comment attracted such a response in of itself establishes the significance of the event, which somehow passed beneath a level of significance sufficient for Mr. Koppelman to notice. Indeed, her comments were the subject of 3,698 news articles according to Google News, at least some 3,600 before Mr. Koppelman deigned to see it as worth commenting on.
A lot of people have asked how so many, Messrs Koppelman, Greenwald, Benjamin, Cole and Madden, and Ms Traister, Walshe, etc could ignore a front page story for so long. Now more will ask how Mr. Koppelman could fail to mention in this article that Geraldine Ferraro made the same verbatim statement 3 times, twice to press and once to radio in as many days, which makes it sound very much like a thought out statement and not a momentary gaff that his suggestion that she said it only once would indicate.
I have my own conclusions, but to be blunt, anyone who suggests that this was blown out of proportion or too minor to report on in a column which is supposed to track campaigns is being at best wilfully obtuse. It is hardly surprising that most readers of Salon decided that the silence of so many writers, for so long, can only be explained by an editorial decision. Given the laughable explanation in this column, perhaps someone could actually explain what Salon was thinking, as the case may be, in a manner designed not to leave readers incredulous. Meanwhile, I'm afraid Salon's credibility, and Mr. Koppelman's are very very impaired.