It’s interesting that the Right never attacked Ferraro the way the Left came after Palin. I don’t remember any personal attacks against Ferraro, except as they related to her husband. Her candidacy in historical context is more significant than Palin’s and by comparison was a walk in the park.
Of course, Ferraro ran in ‘84 and the whole tenor of politics changed in ‘87 with the introduction of “Borking,” the latest, most glaring example of which is Palin. Nor did Ferraro have to suffer a hate-filled blogosphere, 24 hour media attacks, and an adolescent press corps that was drooling over another of the 4 major party candidates for POTUS/VA. Palin cleverly took all those lemons and made lemonade.
Sorry, Mz. Behar, but those 15 minutes aren’t ending any time soon.
Ferraro’s selection was more a stunt choice. She was exceptionally underexperienced. Barely 5 years in the House as a backbencher, no executive experience whatsoever (what’s funny is from a federal standpoint, she STILL had more experience than Zero !).
Mondale should’ve gone with whom a lot in the media were expecting, that of then-San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein. She at least had “executive” experience and could claim she had her own leadership baptism by fire when she was thrust into the job following the Moscone-Milk murders.
That might very well have elevated Feinstein’s profile enough (mind you, it wouldn’t have gotten Mondale elected, but perhaps gotten him more votes overall, especially in CA) to have made her the ‘88 nominee for President. At least she’d have had the SF Mayorship to go back to after losing in ‘84.
Ferraro was just a House member, and once she lost as VP following the ‘84 elections, that was it, she was out on her butt. She wasn’t even able to get the nomination for the Senate later on in the ‘90s. Getting the VP selection probably was the worst thing to happen to her.
If you recall, Right to Life activists and even a few Bishops questioned, “How could she be a practicing Catholic and support abortion on demand?”. To the Left, that amounts to a smear campaign.