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.
Geraldine Ferraro is sooooooooo right. Yeah, like Obama is getting the black vote for any other reason and Oprah, for the very first time in her public life, is backing one specific candidate because of his message, uh-huh. There are racists in EVERY walk of life and the African-American racists just happen to have the upper hand in this race for the nomination. However, what will they do if he does win the presidency? Many blacks are so used to crying “RACIST!” whenever it is convenient for them that i think Obama becoming president would leave them speechless. White racists, black racists, and bigots– what are you gonna cry about next?
People like Baltimore38m who say that Blacks are racist because they are voting in overwhelming numbers for a Black candidate amuse me. Did it ever occur to you that a reason why so many rural working-class Whites in Mississippi (and some other states) voted for Hillary is because they identified with her by race? Nobody makes any mention about the fact that Jewish voters voted for the last Democratic VP candidate (who was Jewish) in overwhelming numbers because they could identify with him…and there is nothing wrong with that! When the Kennedys ran for office, they openly appealed for the votes of Irish-Americans…again, there is nothing wrong with that! Those supposedly racist Black voters voted for Bill Clinton in overwhelming numbers twice…and Al Gore…and John Kerry (and before that, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Hubert Humphrey, George McGovern, Jimmy Carter, Michael Dukakis, etc.). Black voters are the single most loyal and dependable part of the Democratic coalition.
Somehow, there is something wrong with the fact that blacks are voting in the Democratic primaries for Barack Obama in overwhelming numbers because they can identify with him. They didn’t support him at first. A large number of significant Black leaders supported Hillary Clinton. Only after Barack Obama demonstrated that he could draw significant numbers of White votes and had a chance to win did Black voters gravitate toward him.
The majority of women are voting for Hillary Clinton because they can identify with her…and there is nothing wrong with that!
And Barack Obama’s Black support isn’t just based on race. It is first and foremost based on his policies. I guarantee you that not very many Blacks would vote for Alan Keyes because they don’t like his policies. Not very many Blacks supported the U.S. Senate confirmation of Clarence Thomas to the U.S. Supreme Court because they didn’t agree with his view of the law.
Apparently, Black voters are OK when they vote for a White candidate…but there is something wrong when they support a Black one when they agree with his policies. Go figure…
People are always quick to say that people voted for Obama because he’s black. People also voted for McCain because he’s white. This county have been divided racially forever and now because there is a black candidate who is more than qualified to run, people are quick to comment. Before making a comment, tell me why did people vote and put Bush in the White House a second term. Was Bush qualified? According to our economy, he wasn’t even close.
Clintons apology
To take her seriously would require “a willing suspension of disbelief.”
I am glad that she did it but is it a little to late for the “black vote” i think so
Why she should apology. The race card is used by Hussein Obama, for it benefits for him in highly populated black states. When he needs white votes, he seems white. How shameful Hussein Obama!!!!!
de vhendt:
Oh you are a black, but you are so racist. Read your comment, this is just the black american are doing, you 92% vote for Hussein Obama MS, but not for issue. Shame on you.
Why is okay for Obama’s pastor to use the “n” word and Geraldine has to resign for pointing out the obvious? Sounds like the Obama camp is pushing the race card. This sounds very much like reverse discrimination.
Since when is being Black a plus in America. Those of you who believe that need to wake up and smell the coffee. You don’t get ahead because you are Black. You get ahead because of hard work but like most racist white folks, you believe that intelligent Blacks have to be given a handout by Master. Get a grip.
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.