I did not agree with Geraldine Ferraro on most political issues, but I did have respect for the lady. News of her death at age 75 after a twelve-year battle with multiple myeloma, a form of bone cancer, is very sad indeed.
Ferraro spent three terms in Congress before being picked as Walter Mondale’s running mate in 1984. I still remember the signs at the Democratic convention that year boasting, “The Republicans think they’re hot, but we’ve got Gerry and they do not!” The Mondale-Ferraro ticket suffered the greatest defeat of any presidential ticket in U.S. history, losing every single state to Reagan-Bush except for Mondale’s home state of Minnesota and the District of Columbia. And despite the thinking that Ferraro would help Mondale attract female voters, 55 percent of women still went for Reagan.
Ferraro was unable to turn her VP nomination into future political capital, although President Clinton did appoint her Ambassador to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. She made two unsuccessful run for the U.S. Senate in New York, losing the primaries to Robert Abrams in 1992 and Chuck Schumer in 1998.
In later years, she announced her diagnosis of cancer yet managed to live with it longer than most and made regular appearances as a political commentator on various news programs. I remember seeing her on Fox News with Sarah Palin less than five months ago on election night, and she was very dignified and thoughtful. It was nice to see her and Palin acting civilized despite their political differences.
Ferraro is survived by her husband of fifty years, John Zaccaro, and three children.
