Clinton Apologizes to Black Voters

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.

At a forum sponsored by an association of African American community newspapers, Clinton was asked about her husband's comments after Obama walked away with the South Carolina win in January. At the time, Bill Clinton pointed out that Rev. Jesse Jackson had won South Carolina in 1984 and 1988 -- campaigns that went nowhere. The comments were perceived as dismissing Obama's win, and many African Americans took umbrage.
"I want to put that in context," Hillary Clinton said Wednesday night. "You know I am sorry if anyone was offended. It was certainly not meant in any way to be offensive." She went on to say that "we can be proud of both Jesse Jackson and Senator Obama."
And: "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."

Former Democratic vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro stepped down on Wednesday from her finance position with Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, a campaign spokesman said.
The decision came after Ferraro, the only woman to run on a major U.S. party's presidential ticket, said Clinton's rival, Barack Obama, would not be ahead in the Democratic presidential race if he was not black.