It’s been a painful week for liberal Democrats
Words can be so relative in politics and the culture these days. One man’s ‘flip-flop’ is another man’s ‘shift in emphasis.’ Over the past week, some of the most liberal mainstream media have been pained to explain (or question) Sen. Obama’s lurch to the political center. Now they have to deal with Rev. Jesse Jackson’s critical remarks about Obama. Gut check time.
What happened? Here’s Reuter’s version:
U.S. civil rights leader Jesse Jackson complained on Tuesday that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama can seem to be “talking down to black people” at times and should broaden his message.
How mild. That’s not exactly what he said….but that’s another story. Sticking with this for another minute…
But Jackson apologized for a disparaging remark about Obama at the weekend while he was speaking into an open microphone that he thought had been turned off and which CNN said was too crude to broadcast.
This is like when Rev. Michael Pflaeger launched a tirade against Sen. Hillary Clinton at Trinity Church and later said he thought the cameras and audio were ‘down’. At least some of the regret is over getting caught.
Notice the explanation:
“If in this this thing that I’ve said in a hot mic statement that’s interpreted as distraction, I offer apologies for that because I don’t want to harm or hurt to come to this campaign,” Jackson said at a news conference inside his Rainbow/PUSH Coalition headquarters on Chicago’s South Side.
Wait….”interpreted as a distraction”? As if it’s not?
Jackson’s own son had his own harsh language….for his father’s comments.
“I’m deeply outraged and disappointed in Rev. Jackson’s reckless statements about Sen. Barack Obama. His divisive and demeaning comments about the presumptive Democratic nominee — and I believe the next president of the United States — contradict his inspiring and courageous career,” [Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.] said in a statement.
“Reverend Jackson is my dad and I’ll always love him,” he continued. “He should know how hard that I’ve worked for the last year and a half as a national co-chair of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. So, I thoroughly reject and repudiate his ugly rhetoric. He should keep hope alive and any personal attacks and insults to himself.”
WaPo’s political blog is taking that angle, ‘Jackson against Jackson’.
Jackson Sr. is trying to explain himself this way:
“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.
What?
Okay, moral responsibility is a good topic. Both individual and collective. Could we talk about that?