The Jesse Jackson Card

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It was inevitable that political pundits would compare Senator Barack Obama's run for President with that of Rev. Jesse Jackson's run of 1984 and 1988, however, no one knew that pundit would be former President Bill Clinton. The Clinton camp and Obama camp insists that race and gender will play no role in their campaign tactics, if this is true then why would Bill compare Obama's winning in South Carolina to Jesse Jackson's victories? What do Obama and Jesse have in common other than their race?

Bill Clinton told a reporter in South Carolina, “Jesse Jackson won South Carolina in ’84 and ’88. Jackson ran a good campaign. And Obama ran a good campaign here.”

Why didn't Bill compare Obama's ensuing victory to his own win in 1992 or John Edwards' win in 2004 (in which Edwards still failed to defeat John Kerry). Rev. Jesse Jackson was never an elected official. Senator Barack Obama is the junior Senator of one of the largest states in the union, a state with a majority white population. Jesse came up through and fought in the civil rights struggles. Obama, a beneficiary of that struggle, came up through Harvard Law.

Of course the only purpose of such a comment is to minimize Barack's significant national following and to repackage him as the “Black candidate.” Despite his strong showings in the meccas of diversity New Hampshire, Iowa (which he won) and Nevada where he won a majority of the rural vote. And despite Clinton's attempts to characterize Obama as the black candidate, Obama did well at least amongst your non-black voters, carrying this demographic by 52%. For a moment it appears that the right wing critics of the Clinton's who claim they will say and do anything to win an election appear to be correct, even if its an attempt to tear down one of the best candidates democratic party has had in a generation.

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