Barack Obama does have his minister troubles, doesn’t he? First, there was Wright, then Pfleger, and now Jackson. They all said some things the blame for which seems to have fallen on Obama. I want to offer a thought or two about the Jesse Jackson outburst, but first let me offer a thought about the issue in general.
No one is responsible for what others might have to say on any issue. Just about every political figure has experienced some supporter or relative say something controversial that was played over and over and over on television because the television programmers thought it helped to develop a conflict, which is relished beyond anything by the television copywriters. John McCain has Phil Graham, Hillary had Geraldine Ferraro and Obama has had Wright, Pfleger, and Jackson. All these people are adults and they speak their own mind, a political candidate is not responsible. As McCain said about Graham’s statement, “…. does not speak for me. I speak for me.” We should leave it at that.
Here’s a thought or two about Jesse Jackson’s open-mouth-insert-foot statement. Jackson is an old hand at public events. He sat in this event with a microphone clipped to his lapel. The event was being recorded by Fox News (hardly the most fair and objective news agency). Is it possible that Jackson really thought the mike was dead?
Once in the past, Jackson was caught making an embarrassing remark the thought was private. He referred to New York City as “Hymietwon.” This he said to a reporter, when Jackson claims he thought his reference would not be printed. Jackson must know – given the bias of Fox News -- that whatever he said would be recorded by Fox.
Perhaps Jesse is just a little jealous of Barack, a fellow Chicagoan who seems to be taking his place as the leader and spokesperson for black Americans.
This is just a guess on my part and readers can take it for what they think it is worth. It just does not seem likely to me that Jesse Jackson would by accident make a mistake like this one
I tend not to think that he
I tend not to think that he did it on purpose, although anything's possible. But I also don't think that being an enemy of Jesse Jackson hurts anyone, most especially Barack Obama. I'm glad Obama has taken what the news media has called a "Cosbyesque" approach to trying to solve some of the societal problems facing America today. I applaud him for keeping it real and not pussyfooting around trying to be PC.
***Is it okay to say pussyfooting on here, kpaul?***
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Sippy wrote: ***Is it okay
***Is it okay to say pussyfooting on here, kpaul?***
I couldn't even begin to
I couldn't even begin to imagine how a long time player like Jackson was playing all that- real or contrived, the interesting thing to me is how Obama handles it. That's what's important to me. That tells me something about the man. So if Jackson is trying to throw curves, I say pitch away Jesse, I think Obama will take it all in stride.
Oh, and well-written essay
Oh, and well-written essay Bob Hertzog.
Hi everyone. Thanks for
Hi everyone. Thanks for your comments.
My guess is that Obama wishes Jackson and others would just get out of his hair. There was a skit on Saturday Night Live a couple of weeks ago. It depicted Obama, as president, sending Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton on a good will mission to some boondocks place where there were hardly any people. It was satire, of course, but as with all good satire, there's an element of truth in it.
Dang, I hate I missed that
Dang, I hate I missed that one....I bet it was funny.
I had a brief Jesse Jackson encounter years ago when Bill Clinton was President. He came into a restaurant I was managing and asked for a glass of water to mix his Alka-Seltzer Plus cold medicine into. He was there, along with Bill Clinton and a bunch of other policitians to look at north Mississippi. I met Bill too. We shared part of our kitchen with room service (restaurant was in a hotel) and a fine-dining French restaurant. Bill was leaving the hotel, surrounded by Secret Service, of course. He used the freight elevators instead of the passenger ones and when he came off the freight elevator, he saw all these faces looking at him through the diamond-shaped windows in the kitchen doors. Everyone knew he was about to come down because the Secret Service was crawling everywhere like ants. So instead of exiting the building, he busted up into the kitchen and started talking to everyone and having one of his assistants take his picture with everyone. They said they'd send us copies of the pictures, but they never did. I didn't have my picture taken with him. It was cool to meet him, but I don't really get freaked out over meeting famous people like some people do. They're just a person like me.
Anyway, they were both pleasant enough, especially considering Jesse Jackson was sick as a dog.
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