Senator Harry Reid reluctantly apologized for his comment regarding the President. Reid's statement that then-Senator Obama could run for President because he had "light-skin" and spoke "with no Negro dialect unless he waned one" appears in the recently released book Game Change.
Reid briefly read from a prepared statement: "I regret any pain or offense that my fellow Americans of any color including President Obama may have taken from the comments that were recently attributed to me."
Reid then took questions.
Q: "You said that you regret any offense that people may have taken from your remark, but do you apologize for the remark itself?"
Reid: "Well, no. I think people just misunderstood what I was saying. It just goes to show you that even white people can have trouble talking sometimes. What I meant was that he had light skin and he didn't speak with a Negro dialect. It was as a compliment - I really am impressed with how uncharacteristically articulate he is."
Q: "Why did you wait until now to apolo-... to release this statement?"
Reid: "Well, yesterday was the day that the colored people honor Rev. Martin Luther Dr. King Jr. for telling everyone else that they could sit quietly in other parts of the bus and that they knew how to use a bubbler. A day like that isn't about making speeches or discussing race in a America. Plus we were waiting to see if any black folk would actually read a book like this."
At which point, a still un-tucked Senator's aid came racing out of the restroom and hurriedly called the press conference to a close.
