PrintJuly 10, 2008
Jesse Jackson Gets Very Personal in Criticizing Obama (updated)
No, it's really not that much of a story as I point out here. But it reveals the fear that Jackson and other racialists like Al Sharpton feel with regard to Obama and the threat he poses to their little civil rights empires.
Jackson didn't know the microphone was live:
Rev. Jesse Jackson apologized Wednesday for saying Barack Obama is "talking down to black people" during what Jackson thought was a private conversation before a FOX News interview Sunday.Jackson was speaking to a fellow guest at the time about Obama's speeches in black churches and his support for faith-based charities. Jackson added before going live, "I want to cut his nuts off."His microphone picked up the remarks.
Here's a video of the incident.
Obama's support for faith based programs plus his call for African Americans taking more responsibility for their own lives would side step the usual civil rights middlemen represented by Jackson and Sharpton. Hence, their racial extortion racket would collapse, putting them out of business.
This won't alter Jackson's support for Obama. He has apologized and the Obama campaign has accepted. But it will be interesting to listen to Jackson in the future to see if he drops any hints about this friction between the two.
Update -- Thomas Lifson adds:
Being dissed by Jesse Jackson can only help BO in the general election. Blacks won't desert him, but this helps immunize him from white suspicions of racial divisiveness.
I am fascinated that Bill O'Reilly mentioned there is even worse stuff that Fox News chose not to run. Pardon my cynicism, but I don't think that tender concern for Jesse's reputation is the animating force. It is notable that Jackson has not denounced Fox News for "bugging" a "private" conversation and then broadcasting it.
He knows that there is another shoe to drop if he launches an attack. That's why he is purely on the defensive here.
Roger Ailes knows how the game is played, and so (probably) does BOR.
Roger Ailes knows how the game is played, and so (probably) does BOR.
