Clinton backs husband on rights

NEW ORLEANS -- Hillary Rodham Clinton strongly defended her husband's record on civil rights Saturday at a forum in which she acknowledged "painful moments" in a presidential contest pitting the first female candidate against a pioneering black contender.

At the annual State of the Black Union conference hosted by PBS's Tavis Smiley, Clinton pushed back hard on the notion that Bill Clinton had inflamed racial tensions while campaigning for her in the run-up to South Carolina's primary last month.

The former president -- once so popular among black voters that he was dubbed the first black president by novelist Toni Morrison -- harshly criticized Obama in South Carolina, producing a backlash among blacks that helped lead to his wife's defeat there.

After that primary, the former president angered many by suggesting Obama had won the state because he was a black candidate campaigning in a state with a large number of black voters. Since then, Clinton has badly lost the black vote to Obama in every primary and caucus.

Obama won Louisiana's primary by a margin of 57 percent to 36 percent -- one of 11 straight victories over Clinton since Super Tuesday on Feb. 5.

Questioned by Smiley about her husband's efforts in South Carolina, the former first lady said many of the 5,000 people attending Saturday's conference were personally acquainted with the former president and that they "know his heart."

She noted that the former president had issued a formal apology for slavery and ticked through many of his other efforts to heal the racial divide.

"My husband mended, so as to avoid ending, affirmative action. My husband had in his White House, Cabinet, and his administration many of you I see here," she said. "We know that when he was president, we had a rising tide, and we lifted more people out of poverty than at any time in America's recent history."

But, she added, "If anyone was offended by anything that was said, ... obviously I regret that."