Geraldine Ferraro was right, Mr. D'Souza

By Michael Gaynor

As the truth about Barack's ties to Rev. Jeremiah A. "God damn America" Wright, Jr." permeates the public consciousness, it seems that Barack is, at best, a typical politician trying to have it both ways (benefit hugely from the black bloc vote while non-black voters not notice) or, perhaps, what Obama biographer David Mendell (Obama: From Promise to Power, published in August 2007) would call an infiltrator.

Generally, I agree with conservative Dinesh D'Souza, not liberal Geraldine Ferraro.

But I do believe that Dinesh unfairly dissed Geraldine and distorted her recent statement in "Is Ferraro Right About Omada?"

Referring to Geraldine's controversial "if Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position" statement, Dinesh declared, "There's a molecule of truth in this."

Sorry, Dinesh. Obama is a finalist for the 2008 Democrat presidential nomination, and Geraldine told the unvarnished truth.

Dinesh: "Obama's appeal is that he is an African American who doesn't sound one bit like Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton. Blacks are inspired to see one of their own have a serious shot at the presidency. Whites are relieved that Obama doesn't seem to be motivated by the kind of chronic resentment that seems all too prevalent in black America."

Dinesh is right about all that, and the key word among his words is "seem."

As the truth about Barack's ties to Rev. Jeremiah A. "God damn America" Wright, Jr." permeates the public consciousness, it seems that Barack is, at best, a typical politician trying to have it both ways (benefit hugely from the black bloc vote while non-black voters not notice) or, perhaps, what Obama biographer David Mendell (Obama: From Promise to Power, published in August 2007) would call an infiltrator.

Mr. Mendell, at p. 113: " "Rather than continually fighting white interests and castigating whites for an oppressive history of mistreating blacks, Obama suggested, blacks would do better if they infiltrated the mainstream power structure and worked from there to effect social change."

Is Barack an "infiltrator" who gulled the conservatives on the Harvard Law Review to make him the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review and has gulled lots of folks since?

Dinesh: "In a deeper sense...Ferraro's insinuation is completely wrong. In reality Obama's political success is due to far more than race. He brings some unique and very attractive qualities at a time when the country wants and needs them. Obama is a man of unquestionable intelligence and grace, and this is why the affirmative action label seems especially unjust when applied to him."

Geraldine did not insinuate that Obama's political success was due simply to race. The position in which Obama is now — a finalist with Hillary Rodham Clinton for the 2008 Democrat presidential nomination — is attributable to race, however. A white rookie Senator without military or executive experience would not have won Oprah Winfrey's endorsement and made the finals for that nomination.

Dinesh went on to dismiss Geraldine as a "Hillary flack" and "sidekick" who "attempt[ed] to plunge the knife into Obama while Hillary feigns ignorance and plays nice."

Colorfully put, but...unfair.

Geraldine knew what she was talking about and said at the same time that if she had been a man, she would not have been the 1984 Democrat vice presidential nominee.

That's commendable candor, not a contemptible claim that "all blacks are only capable of advancing because they are black."

Dinesh: "When Clarence Thomas was nominated to the Supreme Court, it wasn't the Ku Klux Klan or the skinheads who said, 'He's just there because he's black.' It was the liberal Senators and activist groups that said this. Now Ferraro is saying the same thing about Obama."

Equating liberal opposition to the confirmation of Justice Clarence Thomas to Geraldine's comment about Obama is unfair to both Justice Thomas and Geraldine: Justice Thomas was qualified to be an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court and Obama is not qualified to be the one and only President of the United States.

Dinesh: "Obama has so far presented himself as a non-racial, even post-racial, candidate. His reputation as a figure of racial unity has been sullied by his membership in a radical black church where the preacher has been making anti-white diatribes for more than two decades."

Dinesh used Rev. Wright and his church to become an Illinois state senator and a United States Senator and only began distancing himself from Rev. Wright after a campaign adviser told him that it was politically necessary.

Dinesh urged Obama to call for an end to racial preferences "to prove that he can truly help America move toward Martin Luther's dream of a race-blind society."

That's one way to send the black bloc vote back to the Clintons!

Ironically, in pushing Obama to call for an end to racial preferences to "completely destroy the Ferraro allegation that Obama is at bottom a 'race man' who seeks to advance himself because of his skin color," Dinesh implicitly concurred with Geraldine that Obama does not deserve to be in his current position.

Dinesh: "this would be precisely the kind of bold move that would give Obama's largely rhetorical campaign some real substance."

NO presidential hopeful deserves to be a finalist for his (or her) party's presidential nomination if he or she has been campaigning for a year and his (or her) party still lacked "some real substance" and Obama would not be if he wasn't half-black and half-white as well as smart, slim and well-spoken.

© Michael Gaynor