Clinton Apologizes to Black Voters for Racial Comments
WASHINGTON — Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton did something Wednesday night that she almost never does. She apologized. And once she started, she didn’t seem able to stop.
The New York senator, who is in a tight race with Illinois Sen. Barack Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination, struck several sorry notes at an evening forum sponsored by the National Newspaper Publishers Association, a group of more than 200 black community newspapers across the country.
Her biggest apology came in response to a question about comments by her husband, Bill Clinton, after the South Carolina primary, which Obama won handily. Bill Clinton said Jesse Jackson also won South Carolina when he ran for president in 1984 and 1988, a comment many viewed as belittling Obama’s success.
“I want to put that in context. You know I am sorry if anyone was offended. It was certainly not meant in any way to be offensive,” Hillary Clinton said. “We can be proud of both Jesse Jackson and Senator Obama.”
“Anyone who has followed my husband’s public life or my public life know very well where we have stood and what we have stood for and who we have stood with,” she said, acknowledging that whoever wins the nomination will have to heal the wounds of a bruising, historic contest.
“Once one of us has the nomination there will be a great effort to unify the Democratic party and we will do so, because, remember I have a lot of supporters who have voted for me in very large numbers and I would expect them to support Senator Obama if he were the nominee,” she said.
The Clintons long have enjoyed overwhelming support from black voters, but that has been eclipsed during the primaries and caucuses by enthusiasm and support for Obama, who has pulled huge margins among black voters. Arguments over the role of race and gender have flared up repeatedly throughout the contest between Obama, who would be the nation’s first black president, and Clinton, who would be its first female one.
Earlier in the day, Hillary Clinton supporter and fundraiser Geraldine Ferraro gave up her honorary position with Clinton’s campaign after she said in an interview last week that Obama would not have made it this far if he were white. Obama said Ferraro’s remarks were “ridiculous” and “wrong-headed.”
Of Ferraro’s comment, Hillary Clinton told her audience: “I certainly do repudiate it and I regret deeply that it was said. Obviously she doesn’t speak for the campaign, she doesn’t speak for any of my positions, and she has resigned from being a member of my very large finance committee.”
As first lady and senator, Clinton rarely cedes an inch to her critics. On the issue of her vote to authorize the Iraq war, for instance, she steadfastly has refused to apologize, coming close by saying she regrets it, despite calls from many anti-war voters in the party to make a more explicit mea culpa.
Her third conciliatory statement of the evening was more in keeping with that fighting stance.
Asked about the government’s efforts in the Gulf States after Hurricane Katrina, Hillary Clinton turned an apology into a criticism of President Bush, who happened to be speaking at a Republican event in another room at the same hotel.
“I’ve said it publicly, and I say it privately: I apologize, and I am embarrassed that our government so mistreated our fellow citizens … It was a national disgrace,” she said.
Hillary owes no one an apology.We need to stop apologizing to a race who are being coached to be ashamed of who they are.Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson and Obamas pastor should be ashamed for taking easy followers in a direction that will set this country back 100yrs.Gerr.Ferr.should have been taken as a valuable tool of an expert from the past.That was a predictable reaction from Obama and coaches.
Look at South Africa. When run by the whites–prosperity. Now run by the blacks, the mines are partially shut down because they let the power company fail. Do we want our country run by a black?
i think that if hiliary clinton becomes president of the united states other countries will see us as weak, since foreign coutries do not approve of their women serving in a presidential capacity. she will be disrespected and therefore putting us in a dangerous situation. I fear she will do more harm to us then good. right now is not the time for neither democratic candidate. we’ll be a nation in trouble.
thank you.
If you ask me, someone needs to appologize for the Reverend of Trinity Church. Who will take that responsibility? Ain’t gonna happen.
Unbelievable!!! The bigotry is running rampant! Shame on Hillary for not standing behind Geraldine and following the uproar with a gracious remark such as, “Yes, and isn’t it wonderful that I, too can say how “lucky” I am to be running at such a time as “the country is caught up in the concept” of a WHITE WOMAN FOR PRESIDENT. God bless our good ‘ol United States of America and, Mr. Obama, may the best wo-man win!!” I’m not even for either one! This is just good common sense and a few of the outspoken masses need to see the light - scary proposition either way!!
some of you idiots need to realize, bush destroyed america’s reputation across the world, the dollar is very weak against other currencies, oil prices are very high, he’s not worried, he has stock in it and oil companies, he is letting iraq keep its money from oil sales, while our tax dollars are being used to provide for the rebuilding of their country. for those of you that say obama’s wife was wrong for saying she is proud to be an american for the first time, should really look at that message, if youre not black, then you have no clue as to what blacks have and still are going through in this country, i gladly put my life on the line daily for this country and the sad thing is, it took 18yrs of wearing this uniform to actually be proud as an american, because some people have opened their eyes and came into the new millenium and realized color doesnt matter, then you have the hillary camp with its tactics with the race issues, she had plenty to do with it, americans need to ask themselves, because only the american indian is truely american, the white man stole it remember! but many cultures have traditions and because obama wore the traditional garment to meet his grandmother does not make him MUSLIM, all this racist BS and anyone that is racis can go to hell, until you pick up a weapon and truely defend your rights, two words for you SHUT UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The media is constantly reporting before and after every primary the percentage of blacks voting for Obama. In each state he has won the majority of the black vote. It is pretty obvious that Obama is being supported by the black vote because he is black. It is fact not racist. As well as the percentage of woman voting for Hillary. Facts are facts.
[...] The racist card and the sexist card. Is Geraldine Ferraro a racist? Eh, likely not. But it is of note that the charge is coming fast and furious against her from Obama’s supporters, isn’t it?I mean, look…You knew the race card was gonna get played, and you knew who by. But is Ferraro’s comment off base?Think on it now; Postulate a white Candidate with Obama’s stated list of qualifications, in either party. Would such a person be a front running in the race now, were they not a person of color? Which is not to say that Hillary Clinton is not similar in her being under-qualified for the position she now has, much less the one she seeks. She’s in the position she’s in because of the gender factor. And yes, because she’s merely a proxy for her erstwhile husband…. a point which the feminst left is lothe to admit even to itself. In the end, what we have here is two intractable forces, looking for any excuse they can to take offense at the other. Welcome to the Democratic party of today. It’s like I said elsewhere recently; Identity politics is of course, by its very nature, racist, sexist, etc. The real fun comes from watching its adherents try to avoid that basic fact. Certainly, identity politics is at the center of what the Democrat party is all about. Oh… they do have to have a certain mindset… they’d not be interested in Shelby Steele, or Condi Rice. I guess they’re just racist, huh? Or maybe this is simply a way to keep your opponant on the defensive? [...]
An attempt to assuage black voters in case she manages to cheat her way to the nomination. She knows she’ll need the black vote to win. If she knows that she needs the black vote in
order to win, the Clintons shouldn’t have treated them so insultingly and dirt.
IT IS OVER FOR SENATOR OBAMA AND HIS FOLLOWERS…..HIS GREAT MENTOR FOR 20 YEARS PASTOR OF HIS CHURCH HE PRAISES SO HIGHLY ……REVEREND WRIGHT HAS JUST DESTROYED SENATOR OBAMA CHANCE OF BECOMING PRESIDENT AND TO BAD HE DID NOT ACCEPT SENATOR CLINTON PROPOSAL TO BE HER VICE PRESIDENT
AS AND AFRICAN AMERICAN I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN 100% SENATOR CLINTON SUPPORTER ….AND AS FOR MS. FERRERO COMMENT I AGREE WITH HER…..MANY AFRICAN AMERICANS VOTED FOR SENATOR OBAMA BECUASE OF HIS SKIN COLOR ….NOT ON THE ISSUES HE PRESENTS