An estimated 250 volunteers and well-wishers dropped by the opening of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's Pittsburgh campaign headquarters this week to get a firsthand look at what some have begun to call "the Movement."

The modest office space at 208 N. Highland Ave., a block from the East Liberty business district, swarmed with politicos, activists of various stripes, college students, people from the neighborhood and ordinary folks who stopped in on their way home from work.

The eclectic crowd showed the range of Pittsburghers committed to an Obama victory in a state many assume Hillary Clinton had wrapped up from Day One.

Over by the refreshments table, Pittsburgh City Council President Doug "Doug E. Fresh" Shields and Paradise "the Architect" Gray, one of the founding members of the Brooklyn-based hip-hop group X-Clan, had a spirited discussion that brought smiles to both their faces.

Clifford B. Levine, chair of the Western Pennsylvania steering committee for Obama, was a study in serenity as the crowd surged around him.

"I knew it was going to work," said Mr. Levine, a lawyer who's a partner at Thorp, Reed & Armstrong. "We had a fund-raiser at the Rivers Club in June that brought in people who have never participated in the process.

"Even businessmen were turned on and enthusiastic. It was not [just] the Grant Street regulars," he said.

Four of Doug Shields' colleagues at City Council -- Ricky Burgess, Patrick Dowd, Bruce Kraus and Bill Peduto -- are Obama supporters, swelling the ranks of the campaign's Grant Street regulars just a bit.

Tonya Payne, the only African-American woman on council, is a Clinton delegate. Mayor Ravenstahl and other council members are believed to be leaning toward Hillary Clinton -- as is the majority of the state's Democratic machine under Gov. Ed Rendell. (And today's paper brings some confirmation: "Onorato, Ravenstahl Back Clinton.")

Cliff Levine acknowledges that Pennsylvania will be tough going, but believes Obama can do well here once voters actually hear what he has to say about how voting for him can change their lives for the better.

"Hillary has been focusing on blue-collar voters," Levine said. "Over the next six weeks, they're going to get to know Barack, too."

David Morris, a 49-year-old paramedic, is impressed by the narrative about Barack Obama's unlikely candidacy.

"He's not symbolic," Morris said, jabbing the air with his finger. "He's a solid, feasible candidate. This man could become president of the United States because everyone in this room is tired of the status quo. This is reminiscent of the civil rights movement," he said.

"We're not so shallow as everyone thinks," Paradise Gray said, stroking his beard and alluding to Geraldine Ferraro's comments last week to a California newspaper ("If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position. And if he was a woman, of any color, he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is.")

"He's earned his front-runner status," the hip-hop elder statesman said with a laugh. "I especially like the fact that he circumvented the black political establishment to get to where he is."

With a few ill-chosen words, Ms. Ferraro -- the first woman ever nominated to be a Democratic vice presidential candidate -- ignited a firestorm that has the potential to immolate the party's chances to take the White House in November.

Let me repeat: If two of the party's most important constituencies -- working-class whites and African Americans -- can't get past hurt feelings generated during this primary season, then John McCain will be sworn in as the 44th president in January 2009.

Geraldine Ferraro's comment that Obama's candidacy has benefited more from being a "lucky" black man in America than hard work isn't racist -- but it is one more example of the willfully blind and partisan ignorance coming out of the Clinton campaign these days.

I believe Ms. Ferraro, whom I proudly voted for in 1984 when she ran with Walter Mondale for the White House, knows little or nothing about Barack Obama. If she did, she wouldn't have dismissed his candidacy as some sort of affirmative-action prank foisted upon America by a credulous media.

It's painful to watch this genuine trailblazer for women's rights caught up in an accelerating vortex of condemnation.

She's done too much good work for the nation -- including black people -- to be dismissed as a bigot. She said something stupid.

Because Barack Obama is winning the delegate race, his campaign can afford to be a little more gracious when a Clinton surrogate fouls up so spectacularly.

Mr. Obama should, by cool and calculated example, allow Ms. Ferraro to slip back into political obscurity with the remnant of her dignity intact. What's to be gained by grinding this woman into the dust?

Does this make me a Ferraro Democrat? Hardly, but I think we owe it to the nation and to ourselves to be fairer Democrats.