Good bye Geraldine Ferraro, You will be missed. (and some political ramblings)

OK, this may not make much of an impact of a lot of people, but I do feel I need to write about Geraldine Ferraro. For those of you who haven't seen news articles about her life and death, former Vice Presidential candidate, Geraldine Ferraro, died on Saturday morning from complications with her blood cancer.

I don't know much about Ferraro's career aside from her run for Vice President in the 1984 electoral campaign. That's right, you thought that McCain was the only guy to try to cash in on the women vote. Walter Mondale did the same things on the Democratic ballot in his failed attempt to become the President of the United States of America.

I don't remember much from the 1984 campaign, but I do remember Ferraro's nomination being a big deal even if it didn't make any difference in the outcome of the election. Quite honestly the parallels between Ferraro and Palin are quite strong with the exception of their party affiliations.

It's part of the political machine to try to appeal to as many voters as possible. That's the main reason that Obama balanced out his ticket with Joe Biden. It seems to be the political plan to provide some balance to the ticket even if it isn't in the best interest of the party.(* see below for my ranting) This can be similar to what happened when a young George Bush was placed on the ticket with Ronald Reagan, or an older Joe Biden was place on the ticket with Barack Obama. It also happened when Walter Mondale used Ferraro to balance his ticket.

Regardless of how Ferraro got on the 1984 ticket, she was still the first woman to be on a Presidential ballot for a major political party. This makes a small change from the message I was hearing from news reporter that Hillary Clinton was the first woman to run. In fact there have been quite a few. In 1964, Jo Freeman was the first woman to run for President and have her name appear on ballots. You can get a little history lesson on the matter by going here.
Ferraro was a native of New York and served the state in the House of Representatives of Congress from 1978 until her run for Vice President in 1984. She also ran for Senate twice but did not win those campaigns. she was appointed as United States Ambassador to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. Ferrao continued to be involved in the Democratic party even after she was diagnosed with blood cancer.

In the 2008 campaign, Ferraro was attacked while a part of Hillary Clinton's finance committee. This came because of her comments on the racial issues that were surfacing in the campaign. Ferraro also supported Sarah Palin as a candidate, not directly, but Ferraro said she was pleased to finally see another woman following in her footsteps as a Vice Presidential candidate.

That's about all I have to say about Geraldine Ferraro. She was an important part of New York and the political world. Her impact won't be forgotten.

*I'm not really a big fan of either party at the moment, but it would be in the best interest of the Democratic party for Obama to drop Biden for the 2012 campaign and pick up someone who won't be too old to run in 2016. Give the new person some political exposure to get ready for the next campaign. That's one of the biggest mistakes the Republicans let happen with the second Bush.

Top Twelve Weird Al Parodies-Number 4

The Original-Lump by The Presidents of the United States of America
Now this isn't my favorite song by The Presidents of the United States of America, but it is a good one. (My favorite is of course Peaches.) The topic of the song isn't very happy, but the beat is fun to listen to and the band sort of keeps you from thinking to much about what the song is about.

We have an unclear subject referred to as Lump. We get scant details about her situation and her life, but it's hard to know what Lump's condition is at this point. Just check out the chorus:
She's lump, she's lump//She's in my head//She's lump, she's lump, she's lump//She might be dead

The Parody-Gump
Gump takes a different kind of twist from your typical Weird Al spoof. Sure he's done lots of pop culture cross overs. We've already seen I Love Lucy and Star Wars so what's the big deal about Forest Gump? Well this is one time where we don't see Yankovic playing the lead role. You'd think with a song parodying Forest Gump that he'd be Weird Al, but he also likes to be the lead singer as well so in this case, he decides to put on the bad cap and dance around in the swamp.

The video is what really makes this song work. You get to see the guy dressed up as a very close match to Tom Hanks trying to connect to the people around him. You of course get the box of chocolates offered to a variety of people including Ruth Buzzi in her famous Laugh-in character, Gladys Ormphby, who swats Gump with her purse. You also get to see Gump edited into scenes just like happens in the movie, but for comedic affect. This is another great combo to watch back to back so you can see the similarities and differences.