Spin Cycle

The two Democratic campaigns have gradually descended into harsh, sodden trench warfare, with hand to hand combat every day over what was said the previous day. Today, the primary subject was Geraldine Ferraro's comment yesterday that Obama wouldn't be ahead if he was white, and was lucky he was black instead of a woman:

"If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position. 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."

The back and forth was pretty tedious. It's compiled here. In sum: Obama and his camp said it was part of a pattern of insults, and called on Clinton to denounce Ferraro and fire her from the Hillary finance committee. Clinton and her campaign said they disagreed with Ferraro, but weren't going to throw her off the finance committee.

Ferraro told Obama to watch out, because she can raise money: "Any time anybody does anything that in any way pulls this campaign down and says let's address reality and the problems we're facing in this world, you're accused of being racist, so you have to shut up. Racism works in two different directions. I really think they're attacking me because I'm white. How's that?"

Not so hot. No one called her racist. She didn't generically criticize Obama, and get accused of race-tinged comments -- she complained that he was winning because he was black. When you tell someone that you think they don't deserve their success, and attribute it to some kind of electoral affirmative action, you should expect blowback.

She put race out there. Why is she surprised people are responding?

Second, as we noted earlier, her original statement is pretty questionable. More women vote than men. Does Ferraro think gender has nothing to do with the fact that Hillary consistently wins the female vote? There's no doubt that race helps Obama dominate the African-American vote -- but in that demographic, there are more white voters. So he's getting helped among a minority, while she's getting helped among a majority.

For both there are downsides, and Ferraro clearly feels Hillary is suffering among sexist men because of her gender. But does she think it's coincidence that Obama loses among Hispanics and working-class, ethnic whites -- that that has nothing to do with race? There's just no logical way to reach the glib conclusion that his race is a big advantage.