Senator Hillary Clinton apologized multiple times to African American voters, Wednesday night, while attending a black press forum.

She declared she was sorry for any offense caused by her husband’s comments comparing Barack Obama’s victory in South Carolina primary with Jesse Jackson’s in 1984 and 1988. In those two years, Rev. Jesse Jackson won South Carolina in campaigns that had no further results. The comments were perceived as minimizing Obama’s win, and offended many African Americans.

"I want to put that in context. You know I am sorry if anyone was offended. It was certainly not meant in any way to be offensive," Hillary Clinton said. "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," she added, referring to the support she and her husband enjoyed from black voters.

She also reminded the voters that Senator Obama was in the same party as her, and, once one of them is nominated, great efforts would be made to reunite the Democratic Party.

"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.

Earlier the same day, Clinton’s biggest supporter and fundraiser, Geraldine Ferraro, had resigned, following an interview last week, in which she suggested that Obama made it this far because he was black.

"If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position," Ferraro told a California newspaper.

Obama classified the remarks as “ridiculous” and “wrong-headed,” while Senator Clinton tried to repudiate her supporter’s comments.

"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," Clinton told the audience at the press forum.

Once Mrs. Clinton started apologizing, she didn’t seem able to stop, adding that she also deeply regretted the way in which the federal government mishandled Hurricane Katrina.

"I've said it publicly, and I say it privately: I apologize, and I am embarrassed that our government so mistreated our fellow citizens ... It was a national disgrace," she said, according to the Associated Press account of the meeting in Washington.