The Rev. Jesse Jackson apologized yesterday for "regretfully crude" comments he made about Barack Obama's speeches in black churches during what he thought was a private conversation with a reporter.

Last night, Fox News aired the excerpt of Jackson's comment, including a reference to wanting to neuter Obama.

Jackson told The Associated Press in Chicago yesterday that he doesn't remember his exact words. He was being interviewed about health care by a Fox News reporter on Sunday when he was asked his opinion about Obama speaking in black churches. He also went on CNN yesterday to apologize to Obama.

He said the comments were, in his words, "a sidelight in a broader conversation about urban disparities." Jackson was not aware that his microphone still was live.

An Obama spokesman said the senator has accepted Jackson's apology.

Obama has spoken out recently on black males taking more family responsibilities. Jackson has said that wider social inequities and a history of racism also must be addressed strongly.

Jackson told CNN his support for Obama is "wide, deep and unequivocal. . . . I cherish this redemptive and historical moment."

He explained further to CNN: "I feel very distressed because I'm supportive of this campaign and with the senator, what he has done and is doing. I said he comes down as speaking down to black people."

In his written statement, Jackson said: "The moral message must be a much broader message. What we need really is racial justice and urban policy and jobs and health care. That's a range of issues on the menu.

"My appeal was for the moral content of his message to not only deal with the personal and moral responsibility of black males, but to deal with the collective moral responsibility of government and the public policy which would be a corrective action for the lack of good choices that often led to their irresponsibility."

Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton noted that the Illinois senator grew up without his father and has spoken and written at length about the issues of parental responsibility and fathers participating in their children's lives, and of society's obligation to provide "jobs, justice and opportunity for all.

"He will continue to speak out about our responsibilities to ourselves and each other, and he of course accepts Reverend Jackson's apology," Burton said.

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Catching a ride: The Democratic camp created brief media excitement yesterday when it was learned that Obama; his former rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton; and his vice presidential searcher, Caroline Kennedy, were headed to New York on the same plane.

Clinton and Obama were to appear together at two fundraisers there last night. Kennedy was to introduce Obama at the first; Clinton was to introduce him at the second.

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McCain on benefits: The system for funding Social Security is a disgrace because it forces young Americans to pay into a program that is unlikely to benefit them in its current form, Republican presidential candidate John McCain said this week.

Like many other politicians, McCain often has questioned the long-term viability of the government retirement program. But he returned to the issue Monday at a town-hall forum in Denver.

"It's got to be fixed," he said. He offered no specific remedies.