Posted on 03/12/2008 7:30:37 PM PDT by mdittmar
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.
barf!
= I'm an slimy enabler and Bill is scum?
Desperation is what desperation does
Yee Gods- I was offended by her for the past 16+ years.
I want an apology!!!!
So Spitzoid and Hellary apologizing on the same day?
One is a sexist and the other a racist...eheheheheh.
Doink go the Donks....this is UNREAL...(not believable)
This is ridiculous. She lost the black vote to a black man. Now she is trying to explain why? What a maroon.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGDm4jkDbGQ
psssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss....the sound of air coming out of her balloon....hahahahahaha
Kissing black butt again. The only butt anybody needs to kiss is God’s, and I suspect He’d rather you simply prayed to Him.
Can she be any more condescending?????
So nice to see Geraldine Zaccaro get dumped on by clinton.
EXACTLY!!!!!!!!!!
She has not apologized!!!!
She is sorry IF ANYONE WAS OFFENDED, but does not say she is sorry that Bill made such lame-brain comments. In fact, she steps in it herself by saying that they are proud of both Jesse Jackson and Sen. Obama.
Sheesh!!!!!!!!!
This is the weirdest contest I have ever seen
But do you "reject" it Hillary? Repudiation alone, without rejection, isn't nearly enough. Right? Isn't that what you scolded Barak about in the debate? These clowns are making it up as they go along and can't remember now what they said 5 minutes ago.
These people are just total goofballs, unfit for command.
STFU honky biatch
I hope the people see it for what it is.
We are gonna get a belly full of it by Nov
Did she “reject” AND “denounce”?
Stealing from the Republican playbook!
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