There is an article out in the New York Times today with Jesse Jackson's reaction to Bill Clinton's quote from Saturday comparing him with Obama.
To his credit, he downplayed it:
"I don’t read anything negative into Clinton’s observation," Mr. Jackson said in a phone conversation late Sunday night...
But, Mr. Jackson said, "Bill has done so much for race relations and inclusion, I would tend not to read a negative scenario into his comments." He said his chief concern was that Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton not "bloody themselves" so much that they can’t unite against the Republicans in November.
Wonderful, mature statement there. But thats not the part that stood out to me. It was this:
In his conversation with Mr. Obama on Saturday, Mr. Jackson said, "He told me what Bill had said. And I said to Barack, as a tactical matter, resist any temptation to come down to that level.
Ahh...at last we have confirmation of something I've long suspected. Bill or Hillary (or one of their supporters) say something that can be taken in a racially negative way, and Barack turns around and gets on the phone with influential leaders and tells them what those bad people said about him.
What cracks me up is, as SOON as this quote by Bill got coverage (Saturday night), apparently Barack tracked down Jesse in friggin' India to let him know about this!
And this strategy might have worked on Teddy as well. I've been reading some reports that it was, in fact, Clinton's remark about Jackson that pushed him over the edge for Obama (also on Saturday night).
To go out on a limb and name names on who else Barack might have called in the past couple of weeks with his whining strategy is something I will not do. I will let you come to your own conclusions.
But my last thought is this: There was a moment in the debate a week ago where a candidate made a sincere argument that all three candidates on the stage were history in the making. The three of them on that stage running for president together was the realization of MLK's dream, this candidate said. Watch closely for the reactions by the other candidates: one of them seems unhappy here and inexplicably turns his head away in a petulant, pissy manner at this hopeful, healing statement.
Now tell me again...who is dividing our party?