Jackson Criticizes Obama (for acting like he's white) - Part II

Out of respect for the tenor of phone calls I have received in the last day on Reverend Jackson’s acting white accusation toward candidate Obama, a follow-blog is warranted…

Some interesting information has caused me to conclude that there is more to this event than meets the eye, as usual. For starters, I continued to wonder why Jesse would endorse Barack and then trash him. Jackson is certainly known to play all sides to his advantage and switch horses at opportune times, but I believed there is more…

To start, who really loses in this exchange? Barack? No. Jesse? No. Who else matters? Ms. Hillary for one. Jackson’s slip-of-the-tongue certainly helps Obama grab at white Demo fence sitters who lean toward him, but are less comfortable with his attention to blacks. Barack’s delayed attention to blacks was timed, but costly, in that blacks and black voters are, unfortunately, not synonymous, whereas this is significantly more true for whites and white voters. Why this is so is another discussion…

No one understands the black vote more than Jackson, along with his Illinois Congressman son, Jesse Jr., who happens to be one of Obama’s national campaign circle. No Sh-Shazam! Jesse & Son signed on to Obama to help him, but the endorsement has traded high probability white voters for low probability black voters – not a good deal with Hillary within spittin' distance. So then what can young Jackson do about this before Barack has him licking mailers with the campaign interns?...

Cook up something with Reverend Dad, that’s what! If Dad’s endorsement cost Obama points in the race, then perhaps a skirmish might stem the tide, and keep Jackson, the younger, firmly seated near the front at the Obama strategy table. Dad won’t mind falling on a plastic sword for his namesake and press attention. Hell, he'd do it for the press alone, "I'm Jesse dammit!". Any good father would do this, right? For Jackson, help has always been a malleable instrument for achieving a particular result…

Nothing more.

So there you have it. Saying Jesse is stupid is just too easy. I am happy to entertain other explanations, as campaign politics is definitely not my day job.

James C. Collier

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