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Jackson rant revives race debate
From correspondents in Washington
July 11, 2008 04:36am
A LURID tirade by civil rights icon Reverend Jesse Jackson against Democratic White House hopeful Barack Obama today cast a fresh spotlight on the uneasy issue of race and the election.
Rev Jackson's remark, picked up on a live television microphone he thought was switched off, was spurred by his criticism that Senator Obama was "talking down to black people" during his bid to be the first African-American president.
"I want to cut his nuts off," Rev Jackson, a former associate of assassinated civil rights icon Martin Luther King, said, in comments which then prompted him to launch a torrent of apologies on cable television news shows.
It was not immediately clear whether being singled out by such a prominent member of the African-American community would hurt or help Senator Obama.
Rev Jackson today kept up a hectic pace of television appearances, designed to tamp down the row after Senator Obama accepted his apology yesterday.
On MSNBC, a contrite Rev Jackson, 66, said his remark amounted to "unfortunate trash talk" and on CNN he said it was "ugly and unnecessary" and expressed deep support for the Obama campaign.
Rev Jackson's comment was provoked by discomfort with Senator Obama's plan to expand public grants to religious groups that conduct social work, and his own contention that more government-run programs were also needed.
While he would be the first African-American president, Senator Obama, the son of a white mother from Kansas and a black Kenyan father, has consciously avoided billing himself as a 'black' candidate.
Some political analysts argued today the incident was a political gift for Senator Obama, as it distances him from the traditional, older, generation of black politicians.
That core of leaders like Rev Jackson, and the Reverend Al Sharpton is viewed with some suspicion by many of the white, working class voters Senator Obama needs to recruit in swing states to his battle to beat Republican John McCain.
Exit polls during Senator Obama's primary contest with Hillary Clinton showed he struggled to win over that bloc, and he was not helped by a fierce controversy over racially tinged remarks by his former pastor Reverend Jeremiah Wright.
The Jackson incident was being widely compared today to candidate Bill Clinton's 'Sister Souljah moment' in 1992 when he won plaudits as a candidate for denouncing a black rap singer over explosive racially-motivated lyrics.
Senator Obama has several times during his campaign made a point of citing statistics he says show that half of African-American children grow up in single parent homes.
"We need fathers to realise that responsibility does not end at conception," Senator Obama said in a speech on Father's Day in June, in a church in Chicago.
"We need them to realise that what makes you a man is not the ability to have a child - it's the courage to raise one."
The Obama campaign signalled as it accepted Rev Jackson's apology that he would not shirk from such rhetoric in future, and pointed out that the Illinois senator himself grew up with an absent father.
"Senator Obama has spoken and written for many years about the issue of parental responsibility, including the importance of fathers participating in their children's lives," his spokesman Bill Burton said.
"He also discusses our responsibility as a society to provide jobs, justice, and opportunity for all. He will continue to speak out about our responsibilities to ourselves and each other."
Even as he was repeatedly apologised, two-time presidential candidate Rev Jackson was still arguing that Senator Obama's concern for the behaviour of black men, should be matched with talk about government's role.
"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," Rev Jackson said.
The Jackson firestorm was not the first time that race had emerged as an issue in Senator Obama's bid for history.
The campaign of his Democratic primary rival Hillary Clinton was accused by some Obama supporters of playing the race card.
And Senator Obama was forced to give a high-stakes address on healing racial divisions in America, after Rev Wright's remarks sparked a firestorm.
LINK
Shall we say whoops? :innocent:
From correspondents in Washington
July 11, 2008 04:36am
A LURID tirade by civil rights icon Reverend Jesse Jackson against Democratic White House hopeful Barack Obama today cast a fresh spotlight on the uneasy issue of race and the election.
Rev Jackson's remark, picked up on a live television microphone he thought was switched off, was spurred by his criticism that Senator Obama was "talking down to black people" during his bid to be the first African-American president.
"I want to cut his nuts off," Rev Jackson, a former associate of assassinated civil rights icon Martin Luther King, said, in comments which then prompted him to launch a torrent of apologies on cable television news shows.
It was not immediately clear whether being singled out by such a prominent member of the African-American community would hurt or help Senator Obama.
Rev Jackson today kept up a hectic pace of television appearances, designed to tamp down the row after Senator Obama accepted his apology yesterday.
On MSNBC, a contrite Rev Jackson, 66, said his remark amounted to "unfortunate trash talk" and on CNN he said it was "ugly and unnecessary" and expressed deep support for the Obama campaign.
Rev Jackson's comment was provoked by discomfort with Senator Obama's plan to expand public grants to religious groups that conduct social work, and his own contention that more government-run programs were also needed.
While he would be the first African-American president, Senator Obama, the son of a white mother from Kansas and a black Kenyan father, has consciously avoided billing himself as a 'black' candidate.
Some political analysts argued today the incident was a political gift for Senator Obama, as it distances him from the traditional, older, generation of black politicians.
That core of leaders like Rev Jackson, and the Reverend Al Sharpton is viewed with some suspicion by many of the white, working class voters Senator Obama needs to recruit in swing states to his battle to beat Republican John McCain.
Exit polls during Senator Obama's primary contest with Hillary Clinton showed he struggled to win over that bloc, and he was not helped by a fierce controversy over racially tinged remarks by his former pastor Reverend Jeremiah Wright.
The Jackson incident was being widely compared today to candidate Bill Clinton's 'Sister Souljah moment' in 1992 when he won plaudits as a candidate for denouncing a black rap singer over explosive racially-motivated lyrics.
Senator Obama has several times during his campaign made a point of citing statistics he says show that half of African-American children grow up in single parent homes.
"We need fathers to realise that responsibility does not end at conception," Senator Obama said in a speech on Father's Day in June, in a church in Chicago.
"We need them to realise that what makes you a man is not the ability to have a child - it's the courage to raise one."
The Obama campaign signalled as it accepted Rev Jackson's apology that he would not shirk from such rhetoric in future, and pointed out that the Illinois senator himself grew up with an absent father.
"Senator Obama has spoken and written for many years about the issue of parental responsibility, including the importance of fathers participating in their children's lives," his spokesman Bill Burton said.
"He also discusses our responsibility as a society to provide jobs, justice, and opportunity for all. He will continue to speak out about our responsibilities to ourselves and each other."
Even as he was repeatedly apologised, two-time presidential candidate Rev Jackson was still arguing that Senator Obama's concern for the behaviour of black men, should be matched with talk about government's role.
"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," Rev Jackson said.
The Jackson firestorm was not the first time that race had emerged as an issue in Senator Obama's bid for history.
The campaign of his Democratic primary rival Hillary Clinton was accused by some Obama supporters of playing the race card.
And Senator Obama was forced to give a high-stakes address on healing racial divisions in America, after Rev Wright's remarks sparked a firestorm.
LINK
Shall we say whoops? :innocent:
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