by Frank James
With Geraldine Ferraro, what’s past is prologue when it comes to African-American presidential candidates.
Ferraro, the former 1984 Democratic vice presidential candidate who yesterday sparked controversy with the comment that Sen. Barack Obama has only gotten as far as he has because he’s black, actually said something very similar in 1988 of then-presidential candidate Jesse Jackson.
This is from an April 14, 1988 Washington Post story by Howard Kurtz:
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Placid of demeanor but pointed in his rhetoric, Jackson struck out repeatedly today against those who suggest his race has been an asset in the campaign. President Reagan suggested Tuesday that people don’t ask Jackson tough questions because of his race. And former representative Geraldine A. Ferraro (D-N.Y.) said Wednesday that because of his “radical” views, “if Jesse Jackson were not black, he wouldn’t be in the race.”
Asked about this at a campaign stop in Buffalo, Jackson at first seemed ready to pounce fiercely on his critics. But then he stopped, took a breath, and said quietly, “Millions of Americans have a point of view different from” Ferraro’s.
Discussing the same point in Washington, Jackson said, “We campaigned across the South . . . without a single catcall or boo. It was not until we got North to New York that we began to hear this from Koch, President Reagan and then Mrs. Ferraro . . . . Some people are making hysteria while I’m making history.”
Uncanny, isn’t it?