Hillary Clinton sure was contrite yesterday! The Senator from New York apologized at least three times with regard to her campaign’s often contentious take on race in America. It’s always nice to hear politicians apology – it does happen so rarely! – but we can’t help but wonder why Clinton’s made such a push.
Clinton’s apology came in the context of Geraldine Ferraro’s resignation. Ferraro, who ran for Vice-President alongside Walter Mondale in 1984, stepped down after making some contentious comments about Barack Obama. As we’re sure you’ve heard, Ferraro insisted that Obama’s success has been based on his blackness.
If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position. And if he was a woman, he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept.
Many took Ferraro’s comment to be racist in nature and accused of Ferraro of playing on white people’s affirmative action fears. Ferraro repeatedly denied those charges and accused the Obama campaign of attacking her because she’s white.
Ferraro finally stepped down yesterday so that she can “speak for myself,” she wrote to Senator Clinton:
I am stepping down from your finance committee so I can speak for myself and you can continue to speak for yourself about what is at stake in this campaign.
…
The Obama campaign is attacking me to hurt you. I won’t let that happen.
Apparently Clinton didn’t want anyone attacking her, either, because she made an incredible apology tour yesterday, telling black voters she’s sorry for any offense they may felt over Ferraro’s comments. While Ferraro made the most recent race-tinged headlines, Clinton again found herself defending her husband, former President Bill Clinton, who caused a controversy in South Carolina last month when he made a negative comparison between Obama and 1988 presidential hopeful, Jesse Jackson.
How about we take this to the next level?
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Said Mrs. Clinton yesterday:
You know I am sorry if anyone was offended. It was certainly not meant in any way to be offensive. 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.
The Clintons have long stood by black Americans, but Barack Obama’s candidacy has thrown a serious wrench in their strategy.
The Mississippi primary numbers represent the most extreme example of race-based voting her in America. 90% of black people voted for Barack Obama, which no doubt worried the lagging Clinton campaign.
Clinton’s vociferous atonements are not solely to express what we’ll assume to be the candidate’s heartfelt emotions, but a push to recapture the black voters’ imagination. Clinton’s Bill apology continued:
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.
Now that Obama has squashed Clinton’s veep suggestion, the Senator needs to take a more cooperative stance. She claims she wants to unify the party, but only after attempting – and failing – to split it in her favor.
If Clinton were so concerned about party unity, she would acknowledge the unfairness of the Michigan primary and would have asked Ferraro to step down immediately. Letting the story drag out, however, Clinton not only insured she dominated the news, but left herself with a tidy space in which to apologize, an appreciated rarity in national politics.
MJ
Can we believe anything on Queerty? Type “Duke lacrosse” into a search and read what falsehoods they wrote about that case. No followup reports or corrections. (When a blog has no integrity, it has nothing). [email protected]
Jason
Please let Clinton follow Ferraro into the twilight. Enough already.
Full Quote
“I think what America feels about a woman becoming president takes a very secondary place to Obama’s campaign – to a kind of campaign that it would be hard for anyone to run against,” she said. “For one thing, you have the press, which has been uniquely hard on her. It’s been a very sexist media. Some just don’t like her. The others have gotten caught up in the Obama campaign.
“If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position,” she continued. “And if he was a woman (of any color) he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept.” ~Geraldine Ferraro, March 7, 2008
I personally think it the worst thing that could have happened to have a woman run against a black man. In this country it is perfectly acceptable to be sexist. You, and the media, can say anything about a female and get away with it. However, as we have seen with the Obama campaign, any criticism of him and people quickly will play the race card calling anyone who says anything against him a racist.
If Obama didn’t win the nomination I would be shocked as most people going to the polls are not looking at issues, researching what candidates say, they are listening to the spin of the media. And in the media it is always open season on women.
Jimmy Crackcorn
NHPR’s Laura Knoy: “So, if you value the DNC calendar, why not just pull out of Michigan? Why not just say, Hey Michigan, I’m off the ballot?”
Hillary Clinton: “Well, you know, It’s clear, this election they’re having is not going to count for anything”
Here’s a link to the short (edited) byte with the interviewer’s question and the response:
http://www.jabberwonk.com/flinker.cfm?cliid=zydzt
Here’s a link to the unedited longer byte with her full answer:
http://www.jabberwonk.com/flinker.cfm?cliid=u01y4
Here’s the link to the full original NHPR interview on 10/10/07 :
http://www.nhpr.org/node/13858
I think that is it pretty clear that she has “changed” her position on this now that she is not winning.
Bitch Republic
Geraldine Ferraro was right. And there was nothing racist about saying it.
todd
Hillary’s campaign is a mess. What would her presidency look like? We are ready for a woman president. Just not this woman!
Heath
Obama is an empty suite numbskull and it is time that Clinton supporters stand up and stop saying I’m sorry everytime Obama whines…..cause God knows that is all the man does is whine and moan and bitch and groan. If he becomes President he will make Bush look like a genius.
rickroberts
Unfortunately, you have to kiss a little ass every now and again to keep all constituencies happy. Such is politics. Such is life.
When will BO renounce that fool of a preacher he calls his spiritual mentor? Watch this and cringe:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAYe7MT5BxM
Look at those fools jumpin’ around and hollerin’ and waving hands in that congregation. You want that running the country? Then go ahead, drink some Kool-aid, and vote with the ObamaManiacs. That video needs to be played far and wide.
Chris
This blog has as much credibility as Towleroad when it comes to reporting on this election. The commentary and language that accompanies any story about Hillary Clinton is so incredibly slanted and negative. Is this a site for the entire GLBT community, or just those supporting Obama?
Queerty: Free of an agenda. Except for unconditional support of Barack Obama.
rickroberts
Obama’s minister says “white devils invented AIDS.” What say ye, Senator Obama?
fredo777
“Ferraro repeatedly denied those charges and accused the Obama campaign of attacking her because she’s white.”
Wow. I guess that “race card” works more than one way. Pfft. I’d have attacked her for that statement if she were green.
Michael Bedwell
There are typos, mistakes in information, misinterpretations, but sometimes it’s clear that one’s word choice is intentionally shadeing the facts to drive a partisan narrative. Thus it is with those, such as Queerty, or Obamaroad er Towleroad more explicitly, in suggesting that Sen. Clinton apologized for Pres. Clinton’s comments.
She didn’t nor SHOULD she because there was nothing intentionally racist about them. She said she was sorry if anyone was offended. Huge and FAIR difference.
And we luv Queerty’s home caption that she apologized “ad nauseum.” Kinda two-faced isn’t that? You’d damn her if she hadn’t and damn her when she did.
And, yes, we’re STILL waiting for Our Lord & Savior Jesus Obama to apologize for the gay bashing remarks of Donnie McClurkin in Obama’s name and to apologize for his foreign policy advisor Samantha Power calling Sen. Clinton a “monster…stooping to anything” and to apologize for his gay advisor Maxi Pad Thorne for her screeching hysterical e-mail which only left out the charge that Hillary had Vince Foster AND Martin Luther King killed.
“If I hear my own supporters engaging in talk that I think is ungenerous or misleading or in some way is unfair, then I will speak out forcefully against them.” – Barack Obama, January 2008
rickroberts
All right, Fredo. It seems you’re not very bright. Let’s try to make this a little simpler so that you can understand. Why is Barack’s candidacy historic?
His age? No. JFK, Bill Clinton, and Teddy Roosevelt were all younger.
His sex? No. All of our presidents have been male (as far as we know).
His religion? No. All Christians.
It’s his race, you numbnut!
fredo777
Rick, after the tone of that comment, we have nothing further to discuss.
I don’t allow anyone to condescend to me like that, least of all you.
Peace.
jesse
I’d like Hillary Clinton to Apologize for her vote on the Iraq war and the “Protect America” act. It took her 7 years to admit her vote was a mistake. I expect flying pigs on a day when a Clinton apologizes. Where are the flying pigs?
jesse
Chris…
This site is so not slanted toward Obama. The majority of the postings on here have actually favored Senator Clinton in this race.
Heath
#9 …..Welcome to the new andrewsullivan.com.
The fact that Clinton gets bashed for even apologizing is part of the Obamamania that has come to exist on the progressive blogosphere.
The tone here is anything but even handed.
steve
uh chris, there are MORE than enough gay sites unconditionally promoting hillary on the internet
if this place bugs you, i’m sure you can find them
or read one of michael bedwell’s frenzied foaming at the mouth multi paragraph rants for inspiration
if y’all want to turn hillary into some sort of liza minnelli icon, that’s your business – but the rest of us see through the facade
Michael Bedwell
“the rest of us see through the facade”
That’s hard to believe from the perspective of having your heads up the Dali Obama’s ass.
“michael bedwell’s frenzied foaming at the mouth multi paragraph rants”
Shoot at the messenger all you want because you don’t LIKE the message but NO ONE has ever proven anything I’ve said about Obama is factually wrong. They simply throw ad hominems at me, or change the subject to something else particularly Sen. Clinton. NEVER disputing with substance what I’ve written.
I don’t just call him a liar…I document his lies [e.g., Illinois gay rights and nuke industry bills]. I don’t just call him a hypocrite…I document his hypocrisy [his promises to “speak out forcefully” when his inner circle of supporters smear Sen. Clinton…his denouncing antiSemites but not homophobes]. Etc., etc.
Of course, Sen. Clinton is not perfect. Of course, Obama is light years better than any Repug. But don’t try to sell us shit as Shinola or expect us to turn the other cheek and say “rain” whenever Obama pisses on our legs.
rickroberts
@Fredo: “I don’t allow anyone to condescend to me like that, least of all you.”
Fredo, seriously? Someone who thinks the word bitch is appropriate is going to talk to me about condescension? OK, whatever.
Jesse
Neither Obama nor Clinton is perfect.
Yes, some supporters of Obama can be a little overly zealous.
That does not however mean that every person who supports Obama is somehow unintelligent, blinded or drinking cool aide.
Can we stick to commenting on the actual merits or shortcomings of these candidates without personally attacking the people who have differing viewpoints?
I support Obama but I want to hear what Clinton supporters have to say. I don’t think an open discussion has to veer into personal attacks.
There are Clinton supporters who will vote for her just because she is a woman. There are Obama supporters who will vote for him just because he is black. True, and there is nothing wrong with that. I’m sure there are people who voted for JFK just because he was catholic.
The media is sexist toward Hillary. Obama is pulling the race card…This is all spin and distraction. Neither race nor sex has anything to do with how well they will run this country and I don’t really feel that either candidate has focused on those two issues.
As far as the Racism is concerned. There have been two instances that I recall have watched all the coverage on every channel to the point of my eyes and ears bleeding. The first was the Bill Clinton “fairytale” comment. The second was the Ferraro comments started this racial discussion and I feel that Obama’s comments actually tried to diffuse it with humor.
Oh well, I guess there is a third….that leak of the photo of Barack Obama to play into people’s fear of muslims. A cheap shot? Probably. I found that whole thing disgusting. Even if Barack Obama were a Muslim, so what? To equate Islam with terrorists is to equate Christianity with the Westboro Baptist church or to judge all gays by Liberace or Carson from Queer Eye. Do we have to judge groups by their most visible extremes?
So we have sexism. Hillary’s too hard. Hillary’s a robot. Oh, She cried. She’s weak. If we want to talk about true equality and how unfairly the media treat people, let’s imagine Obama crying out of frustration. He would be considered weak. She was considered feminine. There are double standards, sure.
I think we should be proud and revel in the fact that a nation which had black slaves for hundreds of years and where women couldn’t vote a hundred years ago is choosing between a black man and a white woman for the democratic nominee. That is amazing. That is progress.
Bitch Republic
Obama’s campaign has been called a “historical candidacy†not by Ferraro, but by Obama’s own campaign. All she said was it wasn’t historical because he was a man from Illinois. Obviously it’s historical because he’s the first credible African American candidate for president. Obama’s wife Michelle made the ridiculous comment that she’d NEVER been proud of her country until now. Why now? Because people are turning out to vote for a MAN from Illinois? No, because he happens to be an African American man. Obviously, by the same stroke, Michelle Obama is a racist.
Mr C
Well first of all Jesse. I think what you have said is very fair, balanced and TRUE.
However, To Rick Roberts, Bitch Republic, and Michael Bedwell. It’s obviously you’re for Hillary and that’s good. However Bitch Republic Michelle Obama is far from a racist when you grow up in a society where being a minority the odds are definitely against you. Obviously you can’t say that, or can you? So for this woman to struggle and go to Harvard and do exceptionally well. REMEMBERED SHE STRUGGLED NO ONE GAVE HER A DAMN THING! So to see a day where her husband of all people is being admired and liked by all RACES for the highest position in this country. That is what she meant. But then again all of the Hillary supporters just want to hate.
But check this out! Say what you will and you can hate all you want. BUT TRUST SHE NEEDS HIM as much as he needs her and if she F&!KS him over and get the nomination due to super delegates. You’re going to need us Kool Aid heads to help ya’ll sorry asses. So be careful of the stones you throw, or Hail King John McCain and the GAY COMMUNITY IS TOAST under him and we don’t want that now do we girls?????
Be sweet and keep it cute!
Obama/Clinton OR Clinton/Obama
lets just get there
emb
I wish I had any degree of confidence at all that we’ll all be able to somehow wiggle out from under the weight of all the venom that’s being spewed during the primaries.
Heath
Please listen to the words of the spiritual leader of your spirtiual leader Obama.
I assume Obama heads are cool with the use of the N. word. If you want to talk about racism, you have to admit it exist in the black community.
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2008/03/14/raw.politics.obama.preacher.cnn
rickroberts
EMB, most voters are “low information” voters. They are simply not as aware of most of this stuff as the rest of us are. Take heart.
seitan-on-a-stick
The Democratic Party will lose because of Obama’s Radical Preacherman! This is far outside the mainstream of America. All else has been small change compared to this Reverend Wright. Madame Hillary Clinton must prevail or we have President “Bomb-Iran” McCain. Sorry, kiddies, Barack is now OVER!
rickroberts
Seitan, I agree with you. I think Barack is toast. Now I know why Michelle has never been proud of her country.
hisurfer
“They are simply not as aware of most of this stuff as the rest of us are.” This is absolute fucking bullshit. The Rev. Wright clip has been played ad nauseum on FOX and other right wing outlets. I see it on the monitors of the gym all the time. You guys are doing little more than parroting Rush Limbaugh at this point. Give it a rest.
Mr C
It’s all good if Barack is going down it’s only because there are some WHITE voters who hold this against him unfortunately and all that will happen is this.
WHITES WILL NOT VOTE FOR HIM
BLACKS WILL NOT VOTE FOR HER
And where does that lead us????
NOWHERE But if you all are willing to ride it like that so am I.
And by the way Hillary supporters can she answer these questions since they are so offensive to WHITES I believe to be the case….
1. Has Hillary ever been pulled over in her car as a black man driving?
2. Has she ever been called a nigger?
3. Has she ever lived as a little black boy in a single parent household?
4. Did white folks ever accuse her of not being “white enough?”
These are things other non blacks just will never understand, nor try to.
McCain is going fry the SHIT out of the Gay community and this will be a pleasure to watch because the next time the opportunity comes around we will learn to be ONE and not many.
No DADT will be overturned, NO DOMA, NO ENDA
Nothing! It will be open season on the FAGS and Dear God help us all!
rickroberts
I’d rather have McCain than Barack with that racist preacher and that racist congregation behind him. Those videos were absolutely disgraceful. They made me literally sick.
Jimy
I think it would be awesome if the Obama heads were to listen to the tape of his “mentor” and try to imagine that it were the Clinton’s spiritual advisor making those very same statements.
Obamaites would be demading for her legs to be cut off.
rickroberts
I think we can stop wasting our energy on Barack. He’s done. Finished. Racist, black nationalist pastor and more Rezko lies on the same day. Amazing.
Mr C
RACIST WHITE FAGS MAKE ME LITERALLY SICK AS WELL!
rickroberts
Mr C, what has anyone here said that would make you call us “racist white fags”?
fredo777
Mr. C, you are seriously not helping Obama’s campaign. I’m starting to wonder if you’re not secretly a Hillary supporter.
Chill with the divisive language, please.
fredo777
For those so put off of Obama b/c of what the Rev. said that you’d vote for McCain, google “Rod Parsley”.
Btw, Obama has already renounced the remarks of Wright. It’d be kind of silly for him, being part white himself, to agree with demonizing whites.
Let’s face it, some of you were against Obama from the beginning for whatever reason(s) + are just chomping at the bit to use anything to slam him. I have yet to encounter a die-hard Clinton supporter here that didn’t spend more energy bashing Obama than they did giving positive statements about Clinton + why she deserves our vote. It’s gotten past the point of being a little ugly.
Leland Frances
If you know the truth about Louis “Hilter was a very great man” Farrakhan you need go no further than watching the video at the link below to get what is wrong with the “Rev. Wright wasn’t on fire when I sat down on him” 23 years ago bullshit Obama is now furiously shoveling to prevent not Rev. Wright but Obama’s own poor judgment from burying his campaign.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXS_YrYp07Q&feature=related
Wright was closely affiliated with Farrakhan BEFORE Obama met him; and, according to OBAMA HIMSELF was warned BY WRIGHT HIMSELF from the beginning.
“In his 1993 memoir ‘Dreams from My Father’, Obama recounts in vivid detail his first meeting with Wright in 1985. The pastor warned the community activist that getting involved with Trinity might turn off other black clergy because of the church’s radical reputation.” – Chicago Tribune, Jan. 21, 2007.
Obama seemed to have forgotten that when he told a crowd “earlier this month…’I don’t think my church is actually particularly controversial’. He said Rev. Wright ‘is like an old uncle who says things I don’t always agree with’, telling a Jewish group that everyone has someone like that in their family.” – ABC News
Such AMAZING loyalty Obama now displays! The man he has repeatedly identified as his inspiration, the one who married him, baptized his children, and gave him the title of his best-selling book, “The Audacity of Hope,†he now reduces to crazy old Uncle Fester.
Obama keeps forgetting Wright’s warning as he keeps insisting as he did to day and expects us to believe that OVER TWENTY-THREE YEARS he never “personally heard him preach [such things] while I sat in the pews of Trinity or heard him utter in private conversation.” We are to believe that religion-obsessed Obama and his family never went to church the Sunday after 9/11 where he would have heard Wright’s disgusting comment sermon in which he screeched:
“…the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America’s chickens are coming home to roost.”
We’re expected to believe that, at least, SOMEONE he knew didn’t TELL him then about it? And that was SEVEN YEARS ago; seven years before Obama denounced Wright’s blaming America for 9/11.
Obama MUST have heard about the time Wright told his parishioners that “we should sing, “God Damn America.” And HOW is that a part of “the gospel of Jesus” that Obama says he got from Wright?
And, contrary to what Obama claims now about why he didn’t disassociate himself earlier, remove Wright from his campaign—that Wright was on the verge of retirement last January when Obama’s official campaign was just starting—ABC News says Wright only announced his retirement last month.
But if Obama didn’t feel the need to formally distance himself from Wright after 9/11 or “God Damn America” or 15 months ago how about last November when Louis “The white man is our mortal enemy” Farrakahn received the “Rev. Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr. Lifetime Achievement Trumpeteer†Award and Wright said of him,
“Minister Farrakhan will be remembered as one of the 20th and 21st century giants of the African American religious experience. His integrity and honesty have secured him a place in history as one of the nation’s most powerful critics.” Again, see video above.
There IS unfairness to guilt by association [such as that constantly used against Sen. Clinton], but to willingly continue that association for 23 years, to continue to praise Rev. Wright even as Wright grew more and more extreme….even after Wright called 3000 terrorist murders in New York City, DC, and a Pennsylvania corn field where gay hero Mark Bingham helped bring down Flight 93 “chickens come home to roost”….even after Wright canonized Louis Farrakhan this past November…. UNTIL the world finally saw and heard some of Wright’s outrages reveals a depth of poor judgment in Obama that no one asking us to make him President of the United States should possess.
Mr C
Fredo my apologies, Anger rises and steams blows!
But to some of these people who are not Black.
Do they REALLY know about history with Blacks in this country???? NO they don’t and the sad thing about it is they don’t want to neither.
You don’t have to live in an error when things were horrific for Blacks (i.e. slavery and segregation). But it’s strange how some Non-blacks are very quick to hold this Man responsible for everything.
But with the exception about the comments of AIDS and 911 which were deplorable and should have never been said.
And with John McCain accepting Rod Parsley and John Hagee’s endorsements…Please it doesn’t matter if you are a member of church, or not. I have a close friend who told me growing up in his home his parents always considered Blacks as LOW LIFES and NIGGERS now how many of you grew up the same? I’m sure many of you have and some of you denounce your family members for it But still love them.
So what is the difference between you and Barack?????
Let’s see something
1. Has Hillary ever been pulled over in her car as a black man driving?
(2. Has she ever been called a nigger?
3. Has she ever lived as a little black boy in a single parent household?
4. Did white folks ever accuse her of not being “white enough?”
And not just Hillary but to any of you NON-BLACKS on here that is so critical of Barack Obama.
In the history of this country we have did some FUCKED up things and it’s the truth and we don’t like it when the truth comes back to haunt us.
BTW, Pope John Paul before he passed (God rest his Soul) said that
1) The Priests was molesting young boys because of the homosexuals.
2) If any candidate that supports abortion and homosexuality can be ex-communicated.
3) Also the Pope quoted a 14th Century Christian emperor who said the Prophet Muhammad had brought the world only “evil and inhuman” things.
WHERE IS YOUR OUTRAGE? OR ONCE AGAIN THE WHITE FIGURE GETS A PASS????
So trust a lot of you NON-BLACKS don’t understand the tone of Jeremiah Wright and that’s understandable. But then again put yourselves in my shoes and walk the 42 year timeline I’m traveling
Being BLACK, AND GAY!
TRUST BEING WHITE AND GAY is a much more BETTER walk in the park!
So our views of America are different. And Blacks should never forget as Jews don’t forget the Holocaust, The Irish and the Italians will never forget the Ellis Island days and WE African Americans SHOULDN’T forget our past and pain NEITHER!
And this doesn’t have a DAMN thing to do with the issues! Lets get back to that PLEASE