AUSTIN —They are so sorry.
In the course of the primary campaign, and perhaps in a preview of the fall election drama, Senator Barack Obama has accepted the apologies of three United States senators, a former senator, CNN and various lower-level supporters of Senator Hillary Clinton.
Most of them have apologized for saying something insensitive about Obama’s race, his name, or his heritage. And the dynamic of outrage and offense this campaign has proved race to be a much touchier subject than gender. At times, Obama’s campaign has sought to downplay burgeoning outrage. At others, he’s stoked it for political advantage.
But most of the flaps ended the same way: With Obama forgiving the alleged offender. Sometimes he’s accepted the apologies graciously, sometimes sternly, but always in line with his message. And that message of reconciliation – often explicitly racial reconciliation – is a central part of his campaign’s appeal. With a general election that appears likely to open him to more Republican attacks, and more line-crossing, the campaign ritual of offense and forgiveness appears likely to be repeated often this year.
“There is no better way to appear magnanimous and above the fray than in gracefully accepting an apology,” said Chris Lehane, a California political consultant who supports Clinton. "In this case, it actually represents not only a chance to come off as a good and hale fellow, but to also drive his central message of being a unifier and a new kind of leader.”
The first apology of the cycle set the tone. On January 2, 2007, before Obama’s campaign formally began, CNN aired a story about the hunt for Osama Bin Laden that ran under the headline, “Where’s Obama?”
"We also want to apologize personally to Sen. Barack Obama,” CNN’s Wolf Blitzer said on air. “I'm going to be making a call to him later this morning to offer my personal apology."
The first Obama rival to stumble was Senator Joe Biden, who called Obama “clean” and “articulate” in an interview with a New York weekly days before he launched his campaign. The words struck some as racially charged, and Biden spent the first day of his campaign apologizing.
"I deeply regret any offense my remark in the New York Observer might have caused anyone,” Biden said.
"I didn't take Senator Biden's comments personally, but obviously they were historically inaccurate,” Obama responded.
Later that month, the Clinton campaign staged its first official apology, from South Carolina State Senator Robert Ford, who said Obama wouldn’t be able to win the White House because he is black.
Then, for months, the offenses and the apologies faded.
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