Gerry, Out Front (Geraldine Ferraro)

SHE WAS FEISTY and she was first: Geraldine Ferraro proved a gutsy campaigner as the first woman to run for a national office on a major-party ticket. "Every time a woman runs, women win," she would say later. The former congresswoman and vice-presidential candidate succumbed to cancer on Saturday at 75.

For many feminists in the Democratic Party, 1984 was the right time for a woman on the ticket. But presidential candidate Walter Mondale's pickings were slim. There just weren't that many females in politics. He settled on Ms. Ferraro, a former prosecutor who had served three terms in Congress as a representative from New York.

Applauding Sarah Palin's nomination for vice president, Ms. Ferraro said, "It's great to be the first, but I don't want to be the only."

Rest of short article:   http://tinyurl.com/4jy4rv6