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.
To L. Coleman: Now that was a totally racist comment. I am white and I am offended. Where is the press when black people get racist?
HILLARY QUIT APOLOGIZING!!!!!!!!They don’t deserve it, It is ridiculous the way they are treating you! YOU stand up strong !!!! HAS oBAMMA APOLOGIZED TO YOU AND BILL FOR WHAT HIS MENTOR, PREACHER MAN SAID, This is unbeleivable, I want this story to be a big story like they do to you. I am a republican from OHIO and I voted Democrat for you and so did alot of my friends. I have so much respect for you, you are a strong women to be able to take all the abuse that you have taken from the media, obamma, obammas wife , the one sided media
these men just don’t want a women as president. i pray for you every night . Go Hillary!!!!!
I wish that Senator Clinton did not feel that she had to apologize. I am a black woman, and I like both Obama and Hilliary. I know historically that Ms. Ferraro is not a racist person. Sometimes we need to look at the big picture, and stop implying the worse case senario. He is black and black people are voting for him, and that’s the bottom line.
Whats wrong with saying i’m voting for Obama because he is black, and the reason is, it’s 2008 and in a country as diversified as ours it’s about time we had some diversity in the white house?
myearlier comment wasnt published and i guess it is because i hit a nerve iwth someone ( i spoke the truth). i said, and maybe this one will post, that hill doesnt need to apologize to anyone for something that hse did not say. everyone needs to stop being afraid to speak the truth. if you are so afraid to admit that racism and sexsm exists in this run up to the election, then lets just put a stop to it now and go ahead and give it to the inexperienced black man beasue this is inline with affirmative action and because we all owe it to those that have suffered at our hands over the years.
Hillary should not have apologized. The Obama camp did their racist spin … and now it is spinning back with Rev. Wright … Obama’s 20-year minister … can he sing “God damn America”? Only the truly hopeless will vote for Obama.
Hillary Clinton will say anything to anyone just to get their vote. She morphs at each gathering. I don’t trust her. She only moved to NY to acquire the Senate seat for her planned march to the White House - isn’t this the only way that Bill gets back in !!! She is power hungry and doesn’t let anyone get in her way - she demoralizes people. When Bill did his nonsex, sex thing in the Oval Office, I did not feel sorry for her - she’s been putting up with Bill’s escapades for years. When FoxNews showed the pictures of the various wives who “stood by their man”, Hillary was the only one with a smile on her face !! And, what about their graceful departure from the White House and stealing furniture, etc. from the White House - any other citizen would have been taken away to jail in handcufs and prosecuted. I do not believe for one minute that they returned all of it either. The media mentioned only half was returned. Well what about the other half of the “people’s” property? When can we expect to get the rest of it back?!
As for her comments concerning hurricane Katrina - the ones who should really be held responsible to the highest degree are the Mayor of New Orleans and the Governor of Louisiana. They are the ones to oversee the City and the State. They are the ones responsible and accountable for a plan of action and contingencies for an approaching hurricane of any magnitude. Katrina was not the first hurricane to hit Louisiana and it won’t be the last. The Weather Channel provides continuous information and forecasts related to each and every hurricane, tropical storm and tropical depression for weeks in advance. I know; I’ve watched this channel to keep myself up-to-date on storms approaching Florida where I lived for 30 some odd years. I work for the engineering firm that provided a study one year before Katrina on the effects of a catagory 5 hurricane hitting New Orleans and made recomendations to the city and state, but those government intities did not implement any of those recommendations. The simulated results my firm came up with closely matched what actually happened! There is no excuse for the Mayor and Governor to be so unprepared to keep their populus safe. And, not to evacuate in a timely manner once they knew it was going to hit Louisianna - totally irresponsible to the point of being criminal!
ObamaHillary is the two-headed monster that wants to transform America in an islamosocialist sewer, the Promised Land of all rubbish of the world. Go to Hell where they both come from.
Hillary’s an idiot. So is Obama. The whole Democratic party is idiotic.
Hillary and her husband have done lots of dreadful things but have never shown remorse, let alone apologized. Now she apologizes for what amounts to mice-nuts—-must feel really sickening to pander for the votes in this way.