◼ Geraldine Ferraro, 1935-2011 - Micael Barone/Washington Examiner
I knew Geraldine Ferraro fairly well and always liked her; off the stage she had the same spunky, good-humored persona you saw in public appearances. I remember going out to her neighborhood in Forest Hills, Queens, when she was on the short list for Walter Mondale’s VP nomination—an affluent corner of large single-family houses amid the welter of high-rises lining Queens Boulevard. I admire her as I do a set of women who were on the mommy track for a significant portion of their adult lives and then entered public affairs and did very well—better than their resumes would have suggested. It’s an interesting list, and I suspect some of those on it would not appreciate being grouped with some of the others: Katharine Graham and Phyllis Schlafly, Madeleine Albright and Sarah Palin, Nancy Pelosi and (perhaps) Michele Bachmann. How did they muster the resources to do so well? Perhaps the experience of being a full-time mother and supervising a household does more to strengthen one’s character and sharpen one’s intellect than accumulating the professional credentials which we tend to see as indispensable qualifications for positions of responsibility in politics and public affairs.
