Funeral held for Geraldine Ferraro
(CNN) - Funeral services for former vice-presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro were held Thursday morning in New York.
The 9:30 a.m. service at the Church of Saint Vincent Ferrer was for family and friends and was closed to the press, a family statement said.
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Details of Ferraro funeral services revealed
(CNN) – Funeral services for former vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro will be held Thursday Morning in New York City, according to a family statement.
It will be a private service at Church of Saint Vincent Ferrer for family and friends and closed to the press, according to the statement.
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Obama praises Ferraro as 'trailblazer' despite their rocky past
Washington (CNN) – The White House issued a statement Saturday from President Obama on the death of former Democratic Vice Presidential nominee Geraldine Ferraro, praising her as a “trailblazer who broke down barriers for women, and Americans of all backgrounds and walks of life."
“Whether it was as a public school teacher, assistant district attorney, Member of Congress, or candidate for Vice President, Geraldine fought to uphold America's founding ideals of equality, justice, and opportunity for all. And as our Ambassador to the UN Human Rights Commission, she stood up for those ideals around the world. Sasha and Malia will grow up in a more equal America because of the life Geraldine Ferraro chose to live,” the statement read.
FULL STORY Geraldine Ferraro dies, at age 75
(CNN) - Geraldine Ferraro, a former congresswoman and vice presidential candidate, has died, according to family statement. She was 75.
In 1985, Ferraro was the first female vice presidential candidate from a major U.S. political party when she ran with Democratic presidential candidate Walter Mondale.
FULL STORYFerraro: Reagan Dems find Obama campaign 'frightening'
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/05/30/art.ferraro05.gi.jpg caption="Ferraro has been outspoken on race and gender issues during the primary season."] (CNN) - Geraldine Ferraro – who sparked controversy earlier this year with her comment that Barack Obama was only a viable presidential candidate because he was black – wrote in an op-ed published Friday that the Illinois senator’s campaign and the media may be responsible for “the effects of racism and sexism on the campaign [which] have resulted in a split within the Democratic Party that will not be easy to heal before election day.”
“Perhaps it's because neither the Barack Obama campaign nor the media seem to understand what is at the heart of the anger on the part of women who feel that Hillary Clinton was treated unfairly because she is a woman or what is fueling the concern of Reagan Democrats for whom sexism isn't an issue, but reverse racism is,” the former Democratic vice presidential candidate wrote in the Boston Globe Friday.
Reagan Democrats feel they have been mistreated during the campaign season, she writes, and since her March resignation from the Clinton campaign have repeatedly told her that “If you're white you can't open your mouth without being accused of being racist...”
“They see Obama's playing the race card throughout the campaign and no one calling him for it as frightening. They're not upset with Obama because he's black; they're upset because they don't expect to be treated fairly because they're white,” writes the former New York congresswoman. “It's not racism that is driving them, it's racial resentment. And that is enforced because they don't believe he understands them and their problems. That when he said in South Carolina after his victory ‘Our Time Has Come’ they believe he is telling them that their time has passed.”
Ferraro suggests she may not vote for Obama
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/05/19/art.ferraro.ap.jpg caption=" Ferraro is a supporter of Clinton's presidential campaign."](CNN) - Geraldine Ferraro, the outspoken former Democratic vice presidential candidate and a supporter of Hillary Clinton's White House bid, told the New York Times she may not vote for Barack Obama should he be the party's nominee.
Ferraro, a former member of Clinton's finance committee who resigned that post earlier this year after making comments many viewed as racially offensive, also said she thinks the Illinois senator has been "terribly sexist" over the course of the presidential campaign.
The comments appear to underscore the potential difficulty Obama may have courting some women voters in the fall - many of whom have said they feel a solidarity with the New York senator over the barriers Clinton faces in her bid to become the first female president.
Ferraro has not shied away from discussing the impact of race and gender throughout the Democratic presidential campaign. In March, the former congresswoman told a California newspaper the chief reason Obama's candidacy was successful was because he was black.
"If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position," she told The Daily Breeze. "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."
Ferraro also said Clinton had been the victim of a "sexist media."
Obama later called those comments "ridiculous," and Clinton said she disagreed with them.
Ferraro maintained her comments were not racist, but ultimately resigned from the Clinton campaign after they caused an uproar.
"The Obama campaign is attacking me to hurt you. I won't let that happen," she wrote in her resignation letter to Clinton, adding, "I am who I am and I will continue to speak up."
Ferraro: I am no Jeremiah Wright
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/03/13/art.ferraro1.ap.jpg caption=" Ferraro isn't happy Obama compared her to Jeremiah Wright."]
(CNN) - Just over a week after she resigned her post on Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign after making controversial comments about Barack Obama’s presidential bid, Geraldine Ferraro said she resented being compared the Rev. Jeremiah Wright in the Illinois senator's recent speech on race relations.
"To equate what I said with what this racist bigot has said from the pulpit is unbelievable," Ferraro told the Daily Breeze newspaper an interview published late Wednesday night. "He gave a very good speech on race relations, but he did not address the fact that this man is up there spewing hatred."
"What this man is doing is he is spewing that stuff out to young people, and to younger people than Obama, and putting it in their heads that it's OK to say `Goddamn America' and it's OK to beat up on white people," Ferraro also said of Wright. "You don't preach that from the pulpit."
Ferraro, a former congresswoman and the Democratic party's 1984 vice presidential nominee, stepped down from her fundraising post with the Clinton campaign last week after suggesting Obama's success in the presidential race can largely be attributed to the fact he is black.
Ferraro: Obama camp 'did it to hurt Hillary'
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/03/13/art.ferraro1.ap.jpg caption=" Ferraro is standing by her original comment. "](CNN) - One day after she stepped down from her role in Hillary Clinton's presidential bid, Geraldine Ferraro said she blames Barack Obama's campaign for the uproar over her recent comments.
In an interview Thursday with CNN affiliate WJAR in Providence, Rhode Island, the onetime vice presidential candidate also said the Obama campaign made a mistake in taking aim at her remarks.
"I do think this was a mistake on part of the Obama campaign," she said. "They didn't have to do this, and they did it to hurt Hillary. I just think that's bad. I think it's bad business, and I think it's bad politics.
"I was accused of being divisive. I think those tactics are divisive," she added. "And the amazing thing is it's not something I started, its something they did in reaction to this."
Ferraro also implored Obama's campaign to turn "the spigot off the hate mail I am getting."
"I find it very, very upsetting," she said. " I've been called all kinds of names, and the attacks are ageist, they're sexist, they're racist. It's been very, very uncomfortable.
Ferraro resigned her fundraising post with Clinton's campaign on Wednesday, after taking heat for telling a newspaper last week that Obama's campaign was successful because he was black.
The Illinois senator's campaign denounced the comments on Tuesday and Obama himself called them "patently absurd." Clinton said she repudiated the remarks, though did not publicly call for Ferraro to resign.
In the interview Thursday, Ferraro suggested she did not regret making the comments, saying she was "talking to the facts," and that the issue of race has been raised several times in the campaign before, including by Obama himself.
"The enthusiasm you get from the black community over this black candidate is wonderful, and I don't think you can deny it," she said. "No more than I remember how people felt when I was running."
Ferraro, who was Walter Mondale's running mate in 1984, was the first woman to appear on a major presidential ticket. She has said she raised about $125,000 for Clinton's campaign.
- CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney
CNN=Politics Daily
(CNN)— The political world saw two resignations Wednesday. Eliot Spitzer announced he will resign as governor of New York effective Monday and former Democratic Party vice presidential nominee Geraldine Ferraro announced her resignation from the finance committee of Sen. Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.
In the latest episode of CNN=Politics Daily, Mary Snow reports on Spitzer's resignation and CNN Justice Correspondent Kelli Arena explains the criminal penalties Spitzer may face if prosecuted in connection with his involvement with a high-priced prostitution ring.
Suzanne Malveaux reports from the campaign trail about Geraldine Ferraro's decision to sever her formal ties with the Clinton campaign after Ferraro's recent remarks about Sen. Barack Obama caused controversy within the Democratic Party.
Finally, Clinton, Obama and Sen. John McCain may disagree about many things but Kate Bouldan reports on one thing the three presidential contenders agree on - the need to curb Congressional earmarks in the federal budget.
Click here to subscribe to CNN=Politics Daily.
–CNN Associate Producer Martina Stewart
Ferraro: 'They're attacking me because I'm white'
(CNN) - Geraldine Ferraro is defending her controversial comment that Barack Obama’s campaign was successful because he was black, telling an interviewer Tuesday that she was being attacked because she was white.
"Any time anybody does anything that in any way pulls this campaign down and says let's address reality and the problems we're facing in this world, you're accused of being racist, so you have to shut up," she told the (Torrance, California) Daily Breeze. "Racism works in two different directions. I really think they're attacking me because I'm white. How's that?"
In another interview Tuesday, she compared Obama’s situation to her own 24 years ago, when she was the first female candidate for vice president.
She told a FOX News interviewer: “I got up and the question was asked, ‘Why do you think Barack Obama is in the place he is today” as the party’s delegate frontrunner.
“I said in large measure, because he is black. I said, Let me also say in 1984 – and if I have said it once, I have said it 20, 60, 100 times – in 1984, if my name was Gerard Ferraro instead of Geraldine Ferraro, I would never have been the nominee for vice president,” she said.
In her first interview with Daily Breeze, published late last week, Ferraro said
"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," Ferraro told the newspaper. She also said Hillary Clinton had been the victim of a “sexist media.”
Obama himself has called the comments “patently absurd,” and his chief strategist, David Axelrod, has called for Clinton to cut ties with the former New York congresswoman, who serves on her campaign’s finance committee. Clinton has said that she does not agree with Ferraro’s remarks.
UPDATE: Clinton campaign spokesman Mo Eleithee told CNN's Sasha Johnson that "Ms. Ferraro is speaking for herself. We have made clear that we do not agree with her remarks."
–CNN Associate Political Editor Rebecca Sinderbrand
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