curious question about Obama support from sharpton and jackson [Archive]

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dj c-los

01-10-2008, 09:57 AM

why don't i hear much from j. jackson or sharpton views on Obama?

on one hand, they are almost pinned to side with Obama for unity's sake..
on the other one hand, if they support anyone other than Obama then
that shows lack of unity. opponent's will have a field day with this one.

maybe, im not catching the right stations but i havent heard anything come
out of these guys?
are there pro's and cons?

islandlover

01-10-2008, 10:08 AM

I can't predict how this will play out in the end but honestly, I think Obama's doing fine without either of them.

KBig

01-10-2008, 10:11 AM

Jesse Jackson and Jesse Jackson Jr support Obie

Jesse's wife is supporting Hillary.

I haven't heard anything about Big Perm (Al Sharpton)

However... I think its in the best interest of Obama's campaign for both to con't the current course .... of being quiet. SOMETIMES working quietly in stealth mode can be as lethal and effective as running your mouth in public.

both Al's and Jesse's reputations have become cartoonish when it comes to their tactics in regards to civil rights and being "seen as Black Leadership"

I believe there is strength in quiet grace....

E-Phi

01-10-2008, 10:18 AM

I believe there is strength in quiet grace....
aka STFU :acclaim:

dj c-los

01-10-2008, 10:24 AM

Jamie 3:26

01-10-2008, 10:26 AM

Kels,I think you may have that twisted.I mos def recall recently reading Jesse Sr. saying he's going with Clinton,due to her experience...over Obama.

KBig

01-10-2008, 10:29 AM

Kels,I think you may have that twisted.I mos def recall recently reading Jesse Sr. saying he's going with Clinton,due to her experience...over Obama.

I heard it announced on the a talk radio show early this week.

the discussions was about when a family supports different candidates and they used the "jacksons" as an example.

Al Sharpton still wants to be bought for his endorsement imo. ... Phucc dat James Brown Hairdo muthaphucca....

islandlover

01-10-2008, 10:29 AM

Kels,I think you may have that twisted.I mos def recall recently reading Jesse Sr. saying he's going with Clinton,due to her experience...over Obama.

me too. Ya don't want Jessie Sr. and Al being vocal, please don't, Obama is good...LOL.

KBig

01-10-2008, 10:31 AM

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20071230105921AAvke92

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/e/elections/index.html?s=closest&&query=JACKSON%2C+JESSE+L+JR&field=per&match=exact

excerpt:
Since Jessie is now saying Obama is black enough to gain his support wont this help Obama with the black people but what will it do to the white vote?

some info.

Jamie 3:26

01-10-2008, 10:33 AM

KBig

01-10-2008, 10:36 AM

He mos def flipped....damn opportunist...

hahahaha

I was tripping when I listened to the radio... Jamie they dont want to be in bed with the Nice White Lady, when the brother takes office. :grinyes:

He is reaching Black America WITHOUT them ....

I just wanna put some salt on that crow that Atlanta Andy is eating!!!!

Andrew Young been real quiet tooo.

kaaos

01-10-2008, 10:48 AM

having sharpton campaigning for Obama would lose him votes

islandlover

01-10-2008, 10:50 AM

having sharpton campaigning for Obama would lose him votes

yep

ngeso

01-10-2008, 10:54 AM

"on one hand, they are almost pinned to side with Obama for unity's sake..
on the other one hand, if they support anyone other than Obama then
that shows lack of unity."

I don't understand this sentence. You're saying things twice there...

...

KBig

01-10-2008, 10:56 AM

yep

on one of the local talk shows there was a really interesting question posed:

Does Black America actually have and/or need leadership and if so... Does Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton, represent current Black America?

very interesting that most of the youth dont or can't identify with the Civil Rights Movement or Tactics and consider them outdated and some even consider them a farce.

interesting to say the least.

islandlover

01-10-2008, 10:58 AM

on one of the local talk shows there was a really interesting question posed:

Does Black America actually have and/or need leadership and if so... Does Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton, represent current Black America?

very interesting that most of the youth dont or can't identify with the Civil Rights Movement or Tactics and consider them outdated and some even consider them a farce.

interesting to say the least.

indeed, also, if I'm late sorry but......

Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), the Democratic Party's 2004 presidential nominee, will endorse Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) for president in South Carolina today, Democratic sources told Pollitico.

Kerry is flying to South Carolina for an event to be held shortly after 11 a.m. in Charleston, the sources said. Obama is holding a "Rally for Change" at the College of Charleston ahead of the Democrats' South Carolina primary on Jan. 26.

dj c-los

01-10-2008, 10:58 AM

Alanda Marquette from DiscoLadyLand

01-10-2008, 11:06 AM

KBig

01-10-2008, 11:14 AM

I not trying to be funny but the only support I would want from them is in the neighborhoods that understand them. (AKA the Chit'lin circuit). If there were supporting me it would be a secret until after I get into the Whitehouse. I'm just saying...

that was what was so interesting about the discussion... Many Educated /Corporate Blacks feel they have either tarnished the original "struggle" by becoming abulance chasers, or have diminished the very effective tactics of boycotting, and "marching" by employing those tools for EVERYTHING. AND that there core audience tend to be those who are less informed, less active in the political process, and the poor (not to say poor folk are not politically involved or aware)

Moksha

01-10-2008, 11:15 AM

http://nymag.com/news/intelligencer/42104/index1.html

Three-Candidate Monte
Al Sharpton is playing his favorite game with Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and John Edwards—but can anyone really win?

8 Comments | Add Yours

By Geoffrey Gray Published Dec 17, 2007
(Photo: Jeff Mermelstein)

A
l Sharpton can’t help himself. Here he is: suited up in a banker’s three-piece, a Churchill-size cigar between his fingers (“the power look,” he says), and anchored in a club chair at the Grand Havana Room, the members-only stogie club that hovers above the clouds, on the top floor of 666 Fifth Avenue.

“Here, check this out,” he says, resting the cigar with a thud. He fishes in his pants pocket, produces a cell phone, pushes a few buttons, and passes it over for a listen.

The voice sounds familiar. “Hey, Al, this is Hillary Clinton, and...” Is it really her? Yep. Clinton is actually calling Sharpton for—pinch yourselves, folks—campaign advice. She wants to know what issues she should raise in an upcoming debate at Howard University. The focus is on black issues, and, well, who is a better judge of black issues in America than the ubiquitous face of them?

Sharpton has the cigar back in his fingers now. He wants the phone back. “Here,” he says, making sure to save the message. “Now, check this out.”

Another voice. “Al, this is Barack Obama...” Obama! Seriously? The senator also wants advice about the debate at Howard. Sharpton has calculated the values closely. “Hillary called three days before the debate,” he says. “Barack called like three hours before.”

And on the surface, that’s partly what this primary season comes down to for Sharpton: a race to see which candidate can kiss his ring the most, the fastest, and with the most sincere pucker. With a black candidate and the spouse of “the first black president” in the race, the jockeying to secure the black vote in the primaries has never been more intense. All of which puts Sharpton in demand. “In the end,” he says, “they may all hate my guts. But it’s the reality of the landscape … how much they need me and how bad. I’m sure right now they know they need me.” Though many have said that Sharpton’s brand of identity politics is obsolete, citing Obama (not to mention the ongoing investigation of the reverend’s finances) as evidence, Sharpton isn’t worried. “Ten years ago, they said Colin Powell was going to make Jesse obsolete. And ten years before. They’ve always had a Barack Obama. There will always be a more inside, acceptable black they will say makes us obsolete. I worry about that as much as James Brown worried about Sammy Davis making him obsolete.”

A
round this time last year, it was a good bet that Sharpton would endorse Hillary Clinton. Within Hillary’s vast campaign, insiders thought Sharpton would be recruited as a priceless tabloid mercenary who could launch broadsides against Obama on that one taboo issue where he is vulnerable: his blackness. (“Ain’t too many of us grew up in Hawaii and went to Harvard,” Sharpton says.) Last January, Sharpton had a closed-door meeting with Bill Clinton at the former president’s Harlem offices. Afterward, Clinton’s staff came away with the impression that they had already secured Sharpton’s endorsement. When Sharpton’s people found out about this, they rushed to back away. No, they told Clinton’s staff, Sharpton had not promised Bill his endorsement of Hillary. Sharpton’s explanation? “Politicians hear what they want to hear. They think a cordial meeting is the same as ‘I want to support you.'”

Until recently, Sharpton’s relationship with Obama has been more aloof. Sharpton has also been underwhelmed by Obama’s campaign. “He never came off as a fighter,” he says, a strategy that he thinks has hurt Obama with a key demographic: black women. “Black women like a fighter. Even if you’re fighting a fight that is not my fight, I will believe that you might fight my fight. And to come off as ‘I’m all right with everybody’ doesn’t give people who want a fight a comfort level. I want somebody who’s at least a little upset with somebody, because I’m mad as hell. If you’re not mad, how do I get passionate about you?”

Sharpton thinks Obama should take more cues from his wife, Michelle. He still thinks about the time he bumped into her at a recent Chicago fund-raiser. He claims the conversation went like this.

“How you doing, Mrs. Obama?”

She’s tall, and looked down at him. “I’d do a lot better if we had your endorsement.”

Sharpton tried to play dumb. “What do you mean?”

“We need your endorsement. I’m just telling you straight out: We need your endorsement. What are you going to do?”

Sharpton didn’t know what to say. “I’m like, ‘Uh, well, duh.’ I mean, she was like a sister back in Brownsville, where I grew up!”

B
arack Obama’s campaign headquarters is located on the eleventh floor of an office building in downtown Chicago. If there was once hesitation here about engaging in a lovefest with Sharpton, those jitters are long gone. “Reverend Sharpton is always welcome, and we look forward to his continued support and counsel,” says one Obama staffer. If Sharpton does join the Obama movement, the question for Obama’s advisers will be, How much of the stage will Obama be willing to share? In many ways, Sharpton embodies what Obama’s campaign has been running against: the same old race-baiting politics run by backroom demagogues. How could Obama be the candidate who moves “beyond race” when the firebrand behind the Tawana Brawley scandal is out stumping for him?

If Sharpton joins forces with Obama, he will also collide (again) with the family that raised him: the Jacksons. Sharpton is still bitter about Jesse Jackson, his mentor, and Jesse Jackson Jr., the congressman who serves as national co-chair of Obama’s campaign, for overlooking Sharpton’s presidential candidacy in 2004 (who didn’t?) and endorsing Howard Dean. During that race, Sharpton launched a public scourge against Jackson Jr.—he called Dean supporters “Uncle Toms.” For his part, Jackson Jr., who did not respond to requests for interviews, was seen during the race passing around a story that linked Sharpton’s campaign to Republican operative Roger Stone.

But that bad blood is nothing before the division between Sharpton and Jackson père. “What’s gone on with me and Al,” Jackson says, “is much too serious to discuss in public.” Sharpton will talk about it. “He was in many ways the same kind of father I wanted,” he says. “He said no. I said fine.” The lingering beef became so heated they refused to campaign together for John Kerry in 2004 or even travel on the same campaign plane. Such ill will is something Obama might want to avoid—although Jackson seems to have caused Obama enough damage on his own by endorsing him earlier in the year, then claiming Obama was “acting like he’s white” (for not traveling to Louisiana for a demonstration) and more recently claiming that all the candidates (save John Edwards—who in fact is the one who calls Sharpton most of all) “have virtually ignored the plight of African-Americans in this country.”

O
bama calls Sharpton more now. He called before the Howard debate, called before the Congressional Black Caucus dinner to make sure Sharpton had a copy of his speech before he delivered it, called Sharpton’s radio show as a “secret guest” on October 3, to wish Sharpton a happy birthday, and called a few weeks ago because he was coming to town for a fund-raiser at the Apollo. Obama wanted to hang and talk. Sharpton suggested Sylvia’s, the soul-food capital of Harlem.

No problem. “I’ll pick you up,” Obama said.

Sharpton was impressed. A lift! With Secret Service! “His internal polls must show he’s having trouble in black communities, and that just talking to me could help,” Sharpton mused.

Sylvia’s was mobbed with press. Obama played up his southern-fried charm (“Now, I want plenty of hot sauce”) and he kissed babies and made long, clear eye contact with people, and the bomb of charisma he let off in the room (“C’mon,” he’d say, “let’s do another picture”) seemed to annoy Sharpton. He kept tugging at Obama’s arm, pulling him into the other room, where they sat at a table. Obama gobbled down fried shrimp in front of the cameras (“Hold the photo, I don’t want to have any grease on my lips,” he said, and one lady barked out, “Yes, you do”), as the always-dieting Sharpton watched. They talked about Obama’s wife, Michelle. She wanted to come, Obama said, but couldn’t make it. They talked about Obama’s speech. Did Sharpton get a copy? Yes, he got a copy. They talked about his diet. How, Obama wanted to know, did Sharpton manage to lose so much weight? “I do the treadmill, eat light,” he said. Sharpton’s cell phone annoyingly went off. Then it was time for Obama to leave.

Inside his own SUV, Sharpton was beaming. He imagined the headlines the next day and all the early-morning calls from the other candidates that would come. He imagined Bill Clinton calling. He broke into his best Arkansas accent. “Now Al, about that hate-crime legislation, the way I think we oughtta craft that...”

“Mr. President, just a minute, I’m in the shower. Can I call you back?”

“Well, I’m right in your living room. I just had to see you. I had the Secret Service open the door. They’re good at that.” Sharpton couldn’t stop laughing. He did more Clinton, going into that soft, easy twang. “I’m making eggs for you. Turkey bacon and eggs. We’ll eat right here.”

A few days later, his cell phone did ring. And when Sharpton boards his Justice Express for a three-day bus tour through South Carolina next week, the first guest scheduled to ride with him, he says, will be Bill Clinton.

Moksha

01-10-2008, 11:53 AM

Not sure that Sharpton's support really means that much anyway...

mhd

01-10-2008, 12:49 PM

Not sure that Sharpton's support really means that much anyway...

it means a ton, al can deliver, i just don't think obama needs it and i think obama can get it anyway on his own, but obama will not get al's endorsement, which ultimately is a good thing, not because he is a pariah, personally, i like the work he does, al is the advocate of last resort, when you are completely powerless you call al and al delivers, he should be respected for that, but al's endorsement of hilary hurts hilary and hurts al, makes him look like a traitor makes them both look out of touch, to justify his endorsement of hrc al has to degrade obama and nothing could be more unjustified

Bill Blake

01-10-2008, 01:27 PM

Ha ha, I guess both Hilary and Obama are out of touch with black.

Moksha

01-10-2008, 01:31 PM

That NY Mag article does make Sharpton look like a twit, though

mhd

01-10-2008, 01:31 PM

Ha ha, I guess both Hilary and Obama are out of touch with black.

shouldn't you be eating your book?

Bill Blake

01-10-2008, 01:34 PM

That NY Mag article does make Sharpton look like a twit, though

What does that make all these politicians calling and hanging out with his ass?

mhd

01-10-2008, 03:14 PM

What does that make all these politicians calling and hanging out with his ass?

twitzlers?

01-10-2008, 06:43 PM

DJ Timmy Richardson

01-10-2008, 06:57 PM

having sharpton campaigning for Obama would lose him votes

That's a curious thing to say being Sharpton got 30 percent of the votes in NYC when he ran for Senate. And that was after the re-vote because the first one was too close to call.

Daniel, Grand Duke of Stony Island

01-10-2008, 07:31 PM

KBig

01-10-2008, 09:26 PM

Jesse Sr. and Jr. publicly endorsed Obama from the start and both remain very much on board. However, I do think Sr. has grown frustrated that Barack has not specifically asked him to take a more visible role. Still, they are friends and they are cool.

Sharpton has not endorsed anyone and probably won't. However, he appeared with Barack at a rally at the Appollo last month and the two had dinner together at Sylvia's before the rally. They are in touch and they are cool.

Personally, I don't see any need to change any of these dynamics at this time.

I was thinking about this thread on the way home as I listen'd to 88.9 (MSU station) the utilization of the endorsements/support of Jesse Jackson and any other Old Negro Network "kneegrows" seems to me to be heavily based on and a direct reflection on what dynamics are CURRENTLY in play in our community NOW.

Jesse and 'nem get clowned for using civil rights tactics in a New Jack Generation environment. Not necessarily cuz its out dated but moreso cuz this gen-pop is a generation removed from OVERT Instituionalized racism and discrimination. the closest thing these "new jacks " have had to reckon with was/is Jena 6.

18-27 yr old minority gen-pop can't relate to THEM. So they ... *Jesse and 'nem go UNDER utilized ... imo.

I think if "they" Old Negro Network take their ego's and civil rights entitlement arrogance out of the equation, they can be the Ultimate secret weaponry. Cuz your avg new jack can't DIRECT relate to a half african half Kansan, Hawaiian raised, global Harvard educated lawyer named Barack Hussein Obama, But his msg can be convey by a Negro who's last name is like theirs (ours)

Feel Me. Tell Obie and Michelle that the biggest challenge is utilizing their power within the gen-pop ranks wile avoiding the bs drama the media want to attach to a direct association and endorsement from the men who taught us how to march!

i think too much....

01-11-2008, 12:34 AM

Feel Me.

U b felt...

KBig

01-11-2008, 11:30 AM

U b felt...

howz OB lookn in SC , AK?

01-11-2008, 06:24 PM

howz OB lookn in SC , AK?

Good, but it will be a contest. One of the challenges is what to do with the Clintons' downright nastiness in New Hampshire. A lot went down that I think South Carolina voters (particularly African-Americans) would find offensive. Barack can't talk about it. Can anyone? Should anyone? Stay tuned.

With all the other odds stacked against his improbable candidacy, dude has to run against both Hillary and Bill Clinton, an enormously popular president in Democratic circles. I'd say he's doing a-ok under the circumstances.

mhd

01-11-2008, 06:53 PM

Good, but it will be a contest. One of the challenges is what to do with the Clintons' downright nastiness in New Hampshire. A lot went down that I think South Carolina voters (particularly African-Americans) would find offensive. Barack can't talk about it. Can anyone? Should anyone? Stay tuned.

With all the other odds stacked against his improbable candidacy, dude has to run against both Hillary and Bill Clinton, an enormously popular president in Democratic circles. I'd say he's doing a-ok under the circumstances.

werds, clintons really fucked up when they pissed off my man john clyburn, they had been working very very hard to keep him neutral

01-12-2008, 01:12 PM

OUR VOICE, ''WHAT'S NEXT, BROTHER OBAMA?'', WEEK OF JANUARY 10-16, 2008
by EDITORIAL STAFF
The Wilmington Journal
Originally posted 1/12/2008

What’s next, Brother Obama?

This week was indeed an instructive one in American politics.

The New Hampshire primaries were supposed to be a feel good session for White America because a Black Democrat candidate for president of the United States, Sen. Barack Obama, was all but assured a big win by a wide margin in a state where barely one percent of the snow covered citizens are African-American.

It didn’t happen.

Instead, according to all of the plausible analysis, a plethora of middle-aged and single White women, touched by the last minute “emotion” of Obama’s chief rival for the presidency, Senator Hillary Clinton, all felt sorry for “sister-girl,” and ran to the polls to resoundingly tell the world, “Leave our Hillary alone!”

Still Brother Obama came in a strong second, but he learned an invaluable lesson that will serve him well going forward to the all-important South Carolina primaries on Jan. 26, and the extremely critical 22-state Super Tuesday primaries Feb. 5.

You are in the Clintons’ way, Barack, so don’t be surprised if they continue to trash you until they get what they want.

Particularly Bill Clinton. You know, the former president that Black folks are supposed to lovvvvvvvvvvve so much.

In fact, so fond are some of us of “Chill Bill,” one of our most gifted authors, Toni Morrison, had the unmitigated gall to call the man “the first Black president.”

Apparently homegirl has a stronger handle on fiction than we first believed, because Toni’s “first Black president” is moving Heaven and Earth to make sure we never actually elect one before his wife redecorates the Oval Office.

Of course it’s natural that a man would support his wife for president. But this man, along with his wife, is lying about Obama and trying his gut level best to make the man out to be a dangerous fool who could get us all killed two seconds after he took the oath of office.

And, of course, the Hillary campaign machine – and make no mistake, it is a well-run, well-financed operation of political pros who specialize in making their opponents look so bad even their own mothers wouldn’t vote for them – is up in full force trying to destroy the good character and reputation of Brother Obama.

So the question is, “Will Senator Obama put up with it?”

More importantly, will African-Americans put up with it?

He shouldn’t, and neither should we.

And yet, the approaches in answering the Clintons, and for that matter, the media that will aid and abet in the coming smears, have to be different.

Senator Obama, who admittedly started out wobbly from the gate, has been a quick study on the campaign trail, and has literally, and single-handedly, reenergized American politics with his vision of hope and change for America.
Obama has displayed great class, impressive intellect, and inspirational gifts that would make Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. proud.

True, Obama is new to the national political scene, but once upon a time, so were Bill and Hillary from the small Southern state of Arkansas.

Critics say that if elected, Obama will have to deal with a different, more dangerous world than Bill and Hillary did.

To a certain degree, true. After all, a war is going on, and the way George Bush has screwed it up so far, we may be seriously entrenched in it long, long after he leaves.

But unlike Bush, who was literally too dumb to know when he was getting bad advice from people he trusted (Can you say Dick Cheney, boys and girls?), Obama is intelligent, deliberative and knows where to go for the right answers.

As he has done in his campaign, President Obama would surround himself with strong, knowledgeable advisors to tackle the big problems Bill and Hillary were too busy messing around to pay any attention to.

Obama exudes a confidence and wisdom founded in good old fashion common sense that has attracted thousands to his cause, and transcended race and gender.

In order to battle the Clintons AND the media, Obama must stay on course and not be drawn into the mud. And the best way to do that is not by answering their false charges, but by setting the terms of the debate, and forcing Bill and Hillary to be publicly accountable for what they did, and didn’t do during their eight years in the White House.

And make sure that unlike Bill and Hillary, your presidency would not be a divisive one, and that Democrats and Republicans would once again work together to solve this nation’s great challenges.

Keep your pose, keep your balance, and attack without ever looking like you are, in fact, attacking. Drive home that golden message of hope, change and empowerment. The people can’t get enough of it.

If Brother Obama sticks to that formula, he will indeed be the Democratic nominee for president come August.

And history will be made.

But what about us, how can we help?

First African-Americans have to get it through our heads – the nation will never, EVER, elect a Black president.

But it can, and will, elected a gifted, visionary public servant who happens to be Black, the difference being that the latter, if elected, can still shape public policy that speaks to the needs of the community if he can get into a position to do so.

Secondly, whether you actually support Obama or not, no African-American should feel good about how his record and vision are being deliberately distorted by those whose only purpose for being right now is to win power at any cost.

Not only is it not fair, but the people deserve better. If someone wants to oppose Obama, then do so on the issues and his positions. Don’t characterize the man as some untrustworthy twerp who can’t be trusted with the keys to the Oval Office.

Sen. Obama is a gifted, accomplished Black man, with a gifted, definitely accomplished Black wife, and two bright and beautiful children.

He has proven that his message resounds across the political spectrum, and that he can win. Why else would Bill and
Hillary work so hard to destroy Senator Obama’s credibility?

Our community needs to stand up for this man, even though our North Carolina primary is scheduled too late to matter.

But we need to pray for Senator Obama.

He and his family are members of a prominent Black church in Chicago, so we know he knows the power of prayer.

We need to become invested in this all-important election, and we especially need to hold the Democratic Party accountable for how Senator Obama is treated.

We have no problem with tough, hard-hitting debate and strong policy differences. That’s what the people want to hear.

But the smear jobs that we know the Clinton machine is about to mount against Obama is going to be low-brow and low blows.

Our community should not tolerate that by any means!

So we wish Brother Obama well as he courageously treks the path toward history.

Be ready for anything, our brother, but keep your head up high, and continue to inspire the people with your message of hope and change.

You are not alone, Brother Obama. You are NOT alone.