Ferraro is acting like a New Yorker -- calling it like she sees it. I think the racism of white liberals who pretend that race can never be seen or mentioned is a persistent insidious danger -- it's a form of ignorance that reproduces the inequalities that it would pretend to ameliorate. I'm sure you remember elite white liberals from college who presumed themselves to be free of bias by pretending not to see race. Much of the Obama camp seems to me to be behaving like sophomores in college in 1992: full of outrage and gladly ascending to the moral high ground of outraged victimhood. Obama *himself* does not engage in this stuff. I'm referring to those who get all sweaty and shouty in response to Ferraro's really pretty reasonable observation that his race makes him a very attractive candidate for the Democratic party. Only a kind of willful (and strategic) mis-understanding of what Ferraro was saying is driving this particular brouhaha.
As for 'as far as I know,' Media Matters, as usual, breaks it down:
The fact is, if you look at Clinton's exchange with Kroft in its entirety, which lasted less than one minute, I count eight separate times in which she either plainly denied the false claim that Obama was Muslim, labeled that suggestion to be a smear, or expressed sympathy for Obama having to deal with the Muslim innuendo. Eight times:
CLINTON: Of course not. I mean, that's--you know, there is not basis for that. You know, I take him on the basis of what he says. And, you know, there isn't any reason to doubt that.
KROFT: And you said you'd take Senator Obama at his word that he's not a Muslim.
CLINTON: Right. Right.
KROFT: You don't believe that he's a Muslim or implying? Right.
CLINTON: No. No. Why would I? No, there is nothing to base that on, as far as I know.
KROFT: It's just scurrilous --
CLINTON: Look, I have been the target of so many ridiculous rumors. I have a great deal of sympathy for anybody who gets, you know, smeared with the kind of rumors that go on all the time. [Emphasis added]
Want to complain that Clinton's answers contained too many qualifiers, while at the same time acknowledging her initial response? That's fair game. And that's what New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof did on March 9, when he noted, "When Mrs. Clinton was asked in a television interview a week ago whether Mr. Obama is a Muslim, she denied it firmly -- but then added, most unfortunately, 'as far as I know.' "
But to set aside Clinton's denials and suggest that "as far as I know" captured her entire response is patently dishonest. Yet that's exactly when many media players did.
