WASHINGTON — Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid apologized Saturday for saying the race of Barack Obama — whom he described as a “light skinned” African-American “with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one” — would help rather than hurt his eventual presidential bid.
Obama quickly accepted, saying, “As far as I am concerned, the book is closed.”
Reid, facing a tough re-election bid this year, spent the day telephoning civil-rights leaders and fellow Democrats in hopes of mitigating political damage.
The information about Reid’s 2008 comments was included in the book “Game Change” by Time magazine’s Mark Halperin and New York magazine’s John Heilemann. The look at the 2008 campaign that elevated Obama to the White House is based on interviews with more than 200 sources, most of whom were granted anonymity.
Among items in the book:
• Presidential rival Hillary Rodham Clinton said she thought Obama’s team had used out-of-state supporters to win the Iowa caucuses and had intentionally exploited Obama’s race. She said the country faced a “a terrible choice” between Obama and GOP nominee John McCain.
• Former President Bill Clinton’s efforts to persuade Sen. Edward M. Kennedy to endorse his wife’s presidential bid fell flat when Clinton told the Democratic lawmaker that just a few years ago, Obama would have been serving the pair coffee.
