Hillary: I’m Sorry for Gerry, Katrina, and Bill, but not Iraq
Hillary Clinton held a confessional forum tonight, where she apologized for Bill Clinton’s South Carolina remarks, Geraldine Ferraro’s onslaught of self-justifying, extraordinarily bitter characterizations of Lucky Barack the Black, and the treatment of the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
Her Geraldine Ferraro remarks were particularly interesting, given that they followed Keith Olbermann’s passionate Special Comment tonight, where he blamed her campaign managers for the previous tepid rebuttals. She said:
“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.”
Of Bill Clinton’s Jesse Jackson remarks, she said:
“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.
She would not, however, apologize for her vote on Iraq. That’s too bad, because as bad as Geraldine Ferraro’s remarks are, and as offensive as Bill Clinton’s remarks were, they pale in comparison to her Iraq vote. Of course, she can’t apologize for that vote, because to apologize would be to undo her “experience” argument.
Just as obvious is this: It cost her nothing to apologize tonight for Ferraro, because the appeal to angry white voters who resent affirmative action or are just racist anyway has been made. The Clintons and their handlers understand voter psychology well, and they’ve sent their message. This is the style, the slash-and-burn, the planting of a twig when the forest has burned. At some point, there’s just no more forest to burn.
Technorati Tags: Hillary Clinton, apology, ferraro, Obama, racism, triangulation