Roland Martin: Clinton camp wrong to play the gender card

[Colobo]

Excuse me? How in the world is Clinton being discriminated against? She is leading all polls. She has raised more money than all the other candidates. She is leading likely GOP challengers in the polls, and Ferraro is mad because she's getting criticized? Give me a break!

Remember former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun? She ran for president in 2004, but no one went after her. Why? Because she's a woman? No. Because she was so low in the polls it served no purpose. The front-runner always has a bullseye on their back.

It is insulting for Ferraro and other Clinton supporters to decry the fact that she is being pressed on her policy decisions. For years women have always said that what matters are the issues, and not their hair, nails, pantsuits versus dresses or if they can bake cookies.

But now that she is getting some heat, Clinton is coming off as the woman who cries, "Don't hit me because I'm a girl."

And shame on Ferraro for injecting race into this. Do you recall Clinton calling Obama "naïve" for saying he would meet with Iran, Venezuela and Cuba with no preconditions? Did he respond by saying, "Don't hit me because I'm black"?

All women should be disgusted with this blatant play on gender. Ferraro essentially said that all the men who are running against Clinton are sexist and they should be ashamed of themselves for questioning her. I suppose Ferraro wanted the race to be a coronation and Edwards, Obama, Joe Biden, Christopher Dodd, Bill Richardson and Dennis Kucinich were supposed to step aside and sing "Hail to the Queen."

But don't be fooled. This is a crafty ploy by the Clinton campaign to further solidify their female base. Remember when she ran for the U.S. Senate in 2000 against then-Rep. Rick Lazio?

He made the stupid move of confronting her in a debate, wagging his finger in her face and demanding that she sign a campaign pledge to not use soft money. Lazio came off as a brute who was so callous to attack a woman, and women who weren't enthralled with Clinton all of a sudden rose to her defense. That was Clinton's checkmate against Lazio and she went on to crush him.

Edwards and Obama aren't dumb enough to pull a Lazio, but they must tread carefully in not making any attacks on her personally, but about substance. I talked to several prominent Democratic women, ­ some who support Clinton,­ who made it clear that any attack on her could backfire and drive more women to her campaign.

More at:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/11/06/roland.martin/index.html