The flap over race

Here's the story from the NYTimes. Geraldine Ferraro said this a week ago:

“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.”

Then, Monday, a whole week later, the Obama campaign latches onto it to attack it. Ferraro responded with this (from the Politico):

"Racism works in two different directions. I really think they're attacking me because I'm white," she said.

In another interview, she crystallized one of the Clinton campaign's unstated complaints about the racial dynamic of the contest.

"What I find offensive is every time somebody says something about the [Obama] campaign, you're accused of being racist," she said.

Ferraro sounds like a conservative Republican talk-show host. Again from the Times:

“I am livid at this thing,” she said. “Any time you say anything to anybody about the Obama campaign, it immediately becomes a racist attack.”

The Clinton campaign did not contact her on Tuesday, Ms. Ferraro said. “I don’t want them to reach out to me,” she said. “I’m exercising my First Amendment rights. If they don’t like it, tough. I don’t intend ever to have anybody tell me that I can’t say what I want to say.”

Ms. Ferraro said her involvement with the Clinton campaign had been vastly overstated. When asked what her role is, she said: “None. None.”

This is getting nasty. Nancy Pelosi said she thought this whole flap now rules out a combination ticket. Other comments were dredged up:

Last fall, Ms. Ferraro also indicated that she thought Mr. Obama was getting preferential treatment from the press. “It’s O.K. in this country to be sexist,” she said then. “’It’s certainly not O.K. to be racist. I think if Barack Obama had been attacked for two hours — well, I don’t think Barack Obama would have been attacked for two hours,” she said, referring to a Democratic debate.

What's interesting to me is that the Obama campaign is the one responsible for this reaching top media exposure. Back to the Politico:

Clinton's campaign went back on offense. Her aides pointed to a moment, six weeks ago in South Carolina, at which Obama's campaign had appeared for a moment to cry racism - with one spokeswoman distributing a memo listing allegedly offensive comments from the Clintons and their allies, and another pointing to "a pattern, or a series of comments" on race. But Obama's senior aides never stated that grievance, and the candidate himself reeled it back in at a Las Vegas debate, appearing to say he regretted his campaign's role in advancing the complaint.

The Obama people want to respond to the notion that the media is too light on their candidate. They want to stop this narrative in its tracks. And they don't mind using race to do so, conveniently days before the Mississippi primary, where 50% of Democratic primary voters were black (Obama won them 92% to 8% for Clinton). I think it's savvy, putting the Clintonians back on their heels, feeding the narrative that Hillary's too divisive and mean and lowballs everything while Obama stands above it all. Of course, the truth is that it's the Obama people spreading the nastiness.