The Geraldine Ferraro I Knew
In a statement issued Saturday, President Obama commented on the life and death of Geraldine Ferraro; the President referred to the former Vice Presidential candidate as a “trailblazer”, which she certainly was.
I knew Gerry Ferraro a bit. We were always friendly, but I would not be so presumptuous as to suggest we were close friends. I first worked with her in 1980, when I served as acting Campaign Manager of the Carter/Mondale reelection campaign and Gerry, although only a first term Member of Congress, was our national vice chair. She was savvy, energetic, and completely dedicated to the cause. She was a full participant in strategy discussions, as well as an eager and effective surrogate on the campaign trail.
In 1984, after Walter Mondale selected Geraldine Ferraro to be his running mate, I was part of a team of advisers assembled to accompany her on her first campaign swing as a “solo” act. I connected with the entourage in San Jose, and went on with it to Los Angeles, San Diego, Portland and Seattle.
I remember, in particular, three things about that trip:
First, it started out badly as Gerry announced, before leaving Washington, DC, that her husband would not be, as previously promised by the campaign, making his tax returns publicly available. Quite predictably, the media went into an all-out frenzy, and the subject dominated the news almost everywhere we went for the next week.
Second, on the return flight from Seattle to La Guardia, Gerry came up to me in the aisle of the chartered 727 and said, “Les, you’ve been fairly quiet along the way. I want to know what you really think about how the trip went and how I did.” I started to answer, as candidly as I felt I could---with regards to both the “ups” as well as the “downs”; however, we were soon surrounded by a gaggle of other aides, and the conversation was stifled as a result. I could have plowed on, I suppose, but at the moment it simply didn’t seem like either the polite or smart thing to do. I sensed immediately that the candidate knew I had pulled my punches; she was right, and she deserved better than that from me.
Most of all, though, I recall vividly the crowds in each city we visited. There were the usual hordes of political activists and party true believers--- those who turn out just because that’s who they are and that’s what they do. Much more remarkable, however, were the thousands of parents who brought their young children---especially their daughters---to see Geraldine Ferraro, the first woman candidate for Vice President of the United States of America.
I can still picture a young father in San Diego with his 6 or 7 year old daughter perched on his shoulders, both of them eager to witness history first hand; because I was wearing a staff badge and Secret Service “ID” pin, I was able to move them up to the rope line so they could get a closer look.
If Geraldine Ferraro accomplished nothing else over the span of her life and career---which she quite clearly did---she made an indelible and positive impression on millions, no more so than on that proud Dad and that smiling little girl in San Diego almost twenty seven years ago. Like her, my daughters, daughter-in-law, granddaughters and goddaughter can dream bigger dreams and aim higher in life than they might otherwise have been able to had Geraldine Ferraro’s vice presidential candidacy not occurred. And they have Gerry---and Fritz Mondale---to thank for that.
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