Smart people are not immune to dumb statements

Davon Gray
Published: March 16, 2008

“I am not a racist”. 

Normally that statement follows a really smart person saying something really dumb. 

It was the statement most recently said by Geraldine Ferraro, former vice presidential nominee for the Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton supporter. Not to say that Geraldine Ferraro is dumb, but clearly what she said was.

“If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position. And if he was a woman, 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.” She also said Hillary Clinton had been the victim of a “sexist media.”

I must point out that as I write this column, Ferraro has removed herself from the Clinton campaign, which is usually the next move following a really smart person saying something really dumb.

She calls Obama very lucky. Is it possible, just maybe, he is very good? Just a thought.

Luck doesn’t get a person elected to the United States Senate and after not even a full term, have him seriously in the hunt for the Democratic Party nomination. 

Should Clinton’s supporters consider it luck that a first lady managed to get herself elected and reelected as a Senator of New York? 

They would not call that luck but political skill. 

Ferraro, who was picked as the first woman to be nominated for vice president after only five years in the House of Representatives, should know better. As I recall Walter Mondale’s selection of her was, at best, controversial.  She was a relatively untested Congresswoman from New York with intrigue focused on her being a woman. Sound familiar?

Clinton supporters are frustrated because most expected her to cruise to the nomination.  Maybe that is the reason for Ferraro’s absurd comments. But all excuses aside for bad behavior, these types of comments keep spewing out from smart people; people who should know better and are in a party that says it believes in better.
The reality is the rhetoric in the speeches and dumb comments are starting to match what is in the hearts of people making the speeches. 

Racial innuendos seem to be the weapon of choice in this campaign. And when that doesn’t work, out comes the “sexist card” on the media.

Now you maybe thinking I am just another overly sensitive black man coming to Barack Obama’s defense on this race thing. You would be right — except for assuming that I am an Obama supporter or that I am overly sensitive. Neither thought would be true.

In my opinion, to vote for Obama simply because he is black, and as I have heard many people say, “It’s our time,” is just as wrong as voting against him because he is black.

To me, the intrigue of a black man being president is not as compelling as getting the right person for the job. I am however equally intrigued with the simple question facing our nation: Will a vote for or against a black candidate or a women be based upon the merits of their political positions or on the reality of skin color or sex?

Or as Geraldine Ferraro said about her own nomination for Vice President back in 1984, “By choosing a woman to run for our nation’s second highest office, you send a powerful signal to all Americans: There are no doors we cannot unlock.We will place no limits on achievement. If we can do this, we can do anything.”

The question I have for her is, if the choice is a popularly elected black Senator from Illinois, is it also a powerful signal or just pure luck?

Davon Gray works as a lobbyist in Washington, D.C., and resides in Woodbridge. Contact him at .