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.
HRC and her super duper surrogate Gerry Ferraro are NOT sorry. She INTENDED to race bait certain sections of her supporters especially in Ohio, Texas and Pennsylvania. She wants to paint Mr. Obama as the black “boogie man” lurking in the night having gotten where he is through Quotas and Affirmative Action programs. Therefore he didn’t work hard for his achievements and couldn’t possibly possess a superior intellect and should be resented and demonized like most successful African Americans are by this branch of her supporters. As an African American Female, I am sick of hardcore feminist types like HRC and Ferraro who have ridden in on the backs of the true heros who sacrificed dearly, some with their lives, during the civil rights movement. I know I speak for many of my background. Both of my married parents worked 2 or more jobs EACH, to make a living to own their own home and provide solid support for their family, I was NEVER eligible for any quotas or affirmative action programs. I went to private school and first tier universities and got my Bachelor and Masters degrees through true academic scholarship and HARD WORK. I’ve had to work TWICE as hard (and not because of a lack of intelectual vigor or low IQ) as my caucasian counterparts to obtain all of my successes and achievements because of these stereotypes advanced by the majority electorate who try on EVERY occasion to demean, belittle and marginalize any positive achievements by any dynamic and positive member of the African American community they feel threatened by.
Geraldine Ferraro is an AMERICAN!! Freedom of speech!! Ever heard of it? I don’t think she owes ANYONE an apology. Obama has censored EVERYTHING HE DOESN’T LIKE, but he is free to say what he likes. Dream on SORRY EXCUSE FOR A BLACK MAN, dream on!!
You are all just p*ssed off because Geraldine Ferraro had the nerve to speak the truth. Obama is playing the race card to the end & getting black votes in return. Why doesn’t Obama run as a bi-racial candidate? Simply put, he would LOSE A LOT OF BLACK VOTES!! Alright Mr. Obama, you can not have your cake & eat it to!!
Why doesn’t Obama tell his church that their racist comments are not going to fly with him & find a church that is for ALL COLORS?? Geraldine Ferraro can not speak her mind, but Reverend (if that is what you want to call him) Wright can bash white people all day long & Obama sticks with him like glue!! Oh, but wait! Obama is for all colors! Yeah right!! Take the blinders off America!!
How easily we forget that Obama had a camp member that called Hillary a MONSTER!! When Obama apologized all the obamaniacs said “it’s ok sir, it’s ok sir!” GIVE ME A BREAK!! Obama is nothing but a wind bag that needs to blow his butt back to his racist church in Chicago! I have absolutely no use or respect for him!!
If this is how he is going to run America, banning freedom of speech, than NO THANK YOU!! If this is his idea of change, he can keep it & put it in his pocket!
I got an idea1 He can take his ideas of CHANGE & campaign for another one of his buddies in Africa since that is where his first commitment is to. We don’t need to be monitored here in America!
FREEDOM OF SPEECH!! THAT IS OUR RIGHT AS AN AMERICAN & HE WILL NOT BE TAKING MY RIGHT AWAY!!
Jeez, why is it necessary to apologize to black people and NOT white people?? Shouldn’t white people be as offended as black people when it comes to racial comments…and wouldn’t their level of indignation and insinuated insult be just as deserving of an apology? I find Hillary’s need to apologize to ONLY the black people to be very offensive. It simply points out the double standard that we have in this country…a standard that is conveniently used by politicians in both parties for their own personal agendas and party advantages.
Hillary….stop apologizing! No one is listening. African Americans are going to vote for Obama no matter what. Obama should apologize for being a phony. His pastor speaks for Obama. HILLARY in 08′ !!!
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Billary both lie. They merely use people for votes. What Bill said off the cuff regarding Jesse Jackson is one of the fews things he has said that he believes.
Go Barak
Certainly, there was far more disgrace in the office of the President of the US, during the Clinton years!
Shame on Hilliary Clinton!
Have the citizens of our wonderful country, not had enough of both of them???
ajpetenger
America needs to understand Islam, because this is the one religion that erases from its society the race problem. Throughout my travels in the Muslim world, I have met, talked to, and even eaten with people who in America would have been considered white, but the white attitude was removed from their minds by the religion of Islam. I have never before seen sincere and true brotherhood practiced by all together, irrespective of their color.”
The true RACISTS are Obama & wife as revealed by connection to that RABID minister hate-filled American basher. That minister was his “inspiration” for his book???? That says a LOT !
Give me a break. Another Clinton ploy. Hillary is just trying to get the Black vote. Excuse me, but Black people are smarter than that. I can’t see them falling for her tricks.