Ferraro resigns as Clinton fundraiser

By Glenn Thrush
Newsday

March 13, 2008 10:56 am

— WASHINGTON — Geraldine Ferraro, the newest member of the 2008 Foot-in-Mouth Club, stepped down from a fundraising role in Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign Wednesday but refused to recant controversial comments about Barack Obama’s race being a factor in his success.
Ferraro, the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 1984, sparked a firestorm earlier this week by suggesting Obama’s race had helped propel him to the front of the pack.
“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,” Ferraro wrote to Clinton. “The Obama campaign is attacking me to hurt you. I won’t let that happen.”
Clinton has distanced herself from the remarks. Her staff said Ferraro’s decision to step aside was voluntary.
Earlier in the day, Ferraro said on ABC’s “Good Morning America” that the Obama campaign has cried racism every time a negative comment is made about him.
Ferraro made a similar comment in 1988, when Jesse Jackson was a Democratic primary candidate: “If Jesse Jackson were not black, he wouldn’t be in the race.”
Obama told reporters in Chicago on Wednesday, “I don’t think that there is a directive in the Clinton campaign, ‘Let’s heighten the racial elements in the campaign.’” He added that Ferraro’s remarks were “wrong-headed” but not racist.
“If you pulled out a handbook of how to weigh your assets and liabilities in a presidential race, I don’t think my name or my skin color would be in the asset column,” he said.
A fiery Clinton, seeking to put the episode behind her, suggested she might accept rerunning primary elections in Florida and Michigan, rejecting calls by some party officials to stage low-cost caucuses instead.
Clinton won both primaries, but the state’s delegates won’t be seated at the August party convention because both states violated rules preventing them from holding their contests before Feb. 5.
Wednesday, Obama’s advisers rejected a plan to use mail-in ballots for a do-over vote, citing problems with a similar system used in Oregon.
Clinton, speaking to the National Hispanic Chamber of Commerce here, argued forcefully for accepting the original Florida and Michigan results while leaving the door open for new primaries.
“The results of those primaries are fair and they should be honored,” Clinton said. “We have a basic obligation to make sure that every vote in America counts.”