Ferraro, not Figaro

Does that name remind anybody of Fegaro Castle?

Jokes aside, let's begin with a quick rundown of the facts. About two weeks ago, an advisor for the Clintonian campaign, Geraldine Ferraro, said "If Obama was a white man, 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." Fury from all angles ensued, and now we have Keith Olbermann spewing out his latest jazz.

Good for her. Finally, there is somebody acknowledging that race does play a role in this country-whether it's affirmatively or negatively. We've gone for too long in this country pretending to turn a blind eye to race as any factor in the race.

But beyond generalizations, I also have to say that I agree with her. Would Obama really have the kind of amazing movement behind him if he were NOT one of the first viable black candidates? To be clear, I am not saying that the only thing he has going for him is being black. I personally think that he is a very qualified candidate. But I also think that all of the democratic candidates were both electable and qualified (minus certain unnamed nuts).

Obama is the affirmative action candidate. Affirmative action does not randomly select people from disadvantaged stereotypes, far from it. It selects the best from the disadvantaged, and gives them a boost. But if those candidates happen to also be competitive with the rest of the bunch, that boost instead of being an equalizer, becomes an unfair advantage.

Clearly, the media notices and tries to emphasize his race over and over. How many news articles are there that describe him as "Barack Obama...whose father is from Kenya"? "He's the 5th black senator." "He could be the first black president." We talk all the time about how great for civil rights it would be if we could have a black president. It seems to me then, that the converse is also true: to be black and running for president, is to be directly running for civil rights. And who is going to vote against civil rights?

Is he "very lucky" to be black? Hell yes.

Speaking of downward spirals...

...Bear Stearns is now a penny stock, oil hit a record high $111/barrel, Goldman Sachs is expected to announce a $3bn hit sometime this week, and Lehman Brothers is rumoured to be the next institution that will be the target of a run.

St. Patrick's Day just got a hell of a lot less green.