Ferraro flap

Whether by chance or design, Barack Obama and his supporters have been lured into attacking former vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro.

That is a mistake, because on the face of it, there is not a real argument you can pick with Ferraro's original comment.

"If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position. And if he was a woman (of any color), 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 as quoted in the Daily Breeze

It is a ridiculous argument to make, either for or against it.

Obama is neither of the two, and nothing Ferraro says is ever going to change that.

Obama could have turned ignored it or spun it around into something positive, but he, and more importantly his supporters, took the bait, and Ferraro started reeling in.

Because of the back and forth between the two campaigns, it Ferraro's comments may have sounded like another over-the-top insult, like "monster" or Kenneth Starr.

But they weren't.

And by responding to it as though it were an overt attack, the Obama camp starts to sound paranoid about his ethnicity.

Sure, Ferraro's comments are dismissive of Obama's candidacy, but they are rooted in a Bizarro world, so they are meaningless and without substance, a glimmer of nothing.

Responding to the comments just gives them more validity, and - worse for Obama - more play in the news.

Plus, now Ferraro has gone out on a limb claiming any criticism of Obama's campaign is considered racist, which is bound to be supported by the public's response to this skirmish.

Ferraro knew what she was doing: Make a seemingly harmless comment about Obama's race in the middle of a food fight between the two campaigns.

The only way for Obama to avoid race baiting is to not bite the worm.