"I'm sorry if I offended" never was and never will be an apology.

[Bonobo]

I am sorry if people were offended. It was not intended to offend"

TRANSLATION: "You are over-sensitive and I did nothing wrong. Oh and did I mention you are oversensitive."

[pampango]

1. Any time I hear that a politician or other public figure has apologized

for something, I always look for that "if anyone was offended" or "if anyone took this the wrong way". If something like that is in the "apology" then it doesn't qualify.

If I do or say something that hurts my wife or a friend or a coworker, I don't start my apology by saying "if I hurt you". I wouldn't be apologizing if I didn't know that I hurt the person. I start my apology with "I am sorry...".

[hisownpetard]

4. Translation:" I'm sorry that you are such a sniveling jerk that you are making it necessary

for these words to come out of my mouth..."

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

7. I call it the "non-apology apology."

[Bucky]

9. It's simply a non apology. They should regret their words, not others' feelings about them

[XemaSab]

2. That's my read on it exactly

It's a non-apology.

[Metric System]

3. Now THIS is a manufactured controversy. Any sane person would accept that as a sincere apology.

[Lucky 13]

5. Any person who wants this whole thing just to go away would accept that as a sincere apology. n/t

[Bucky]

10. The meaning of the "if" is perfectly clear.

It's still not taking responsibility for one's behavior or one's words. It's expressing regret that people had a bad reaction to their offensive words without acknowledging anything inappropriate was done or said.

If I was a Clinton, I'd be damn careful about playing cute little word games.

[AlinPA]

6. Typical politician "apology", often used by republicans. "...if I offended you"

Grrrr

[Bucky]

8. Bonobo, your fucking moran. You're the reason this party is doomed to lose in November.

"Having said that, let me just add that I'm sorry if I offended you by what you think you heard me say."