Race, Gender, Religion, and the mess that is the Democrats

I was having fun for a while. Interesting crop of candidates on the Democratic side for once, more than one that I really liked. It looked like there was going to be an interesting contest, one that would be about issues, and not flinging daggers back and forth. I'm not having fun anymore. Hillary Clinton is playing dirty. She is more interested in being President than in rising above the fray, and being honest. Between the extremely problematic comments of Geraldine Ferraro (I am finding it hard to believe that I was really proud of having been to a rally during the '84 election and that I shook her hand,) and the fear-mongering "3am telephone call" commercial, I'm saddened by the whole thing. Keith Olbermann, as usual, has an amazing Special Commentary on the Geraldine Ferraro mess. I could not have said it better. Of course, in this post 9/11 climate, the fear-mongering over the possibility that Barack Obama is a Muslim, which, as he said, is both an insult to him, as a Christian, and an insult to Muslims, plays so well with the fears of many Americans of anyone that might be considered "other", whether it be because of race, national origin, or religion. An interesting poll just came out. Faith in Public Life suggests that since 13% of the people say in the poll that Obama is a Muslim, and that is up from 8% in December, that the rumors are having an effect. I'm not so sure. What's also true is that 37% know he is Protestant, over 18% who knew in December. That's actually a much bigger jump. So I think in some quarters, yes, the rumors are settling in. But a lot of people are learning more about Obama. What true is that even at the same time as we have two historic candidates for the Democratic nomination, all the old crap is still evident. And I'm not sure we've gotten any better at dealing with that crap. And, of course, no matter which one of them wins, because of all of this, it will be that much harder for the Democrats to win in November.