Yesterday, I attended the Political Economic of the 10th Annual Rainbow Push Wall Street Project, organized by Rev. Jesse Jackson. Jackson of course has been a national figure for 40 years now, having been a top aide to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the founder of Operation Breadbasket, the founder of first Operation Push, then the Rainbow Coalition, and now the merged Rainbow PUSH organization.
A major candidate for the Democratic Presidential nomination in 1984 (3rd in total delegates) and in 1988 (2nd in total delegates), Jackson has been a visible and important presence at every Democratic National Convention since 1968. He is the father of Rep. Jesse Jackson of Illinois, and he himself served as a Shadow Senator for the District of Columbia, as Ambassador at Large in the Clinton Administration, and as a spiritual counselor to President Clinton after the Monica Lewinsky scandal.
Jackson yesterday was totally at ease in his various roles as leader, organizer, and television host for Comcast's Channel 1. During breaks, he cracked jokes to laughter and appreciate smiles. Twenty years after his last Presidential campaign, he is still obviously a major influence in American public life and is in fine form, speaking consistently with elegance and clarity.
Later, I hope to write about the thrust of what he and others said at the conference about major policy issues, but, as I was driving from Trenton, New Jersey to Harrisburg,Pennsylvania having taken New Jersey Transit to Trenton, it occurred to me that the big news was the subtext.
Jackson showed impatience with panelists--including his son--who saw Nancy Pelosi's role as the first woman Speaker as of historic significance. "It's not about gender, " he said. "It's about agenda." He went on. "It's not about race. It's about THE race."
He took subtle aim at Barack Obama. "I am with hope not with false hope. We need hope connected with a plan." Candidates, he said, are running on personality and not on issues, and this is wrong. We have to get candidates to take positions on issues within the scope of the authority of the jobs they are seeking, he said.
Once he mentioned that Hillary Clinton would be addressing the group the next day. Twice, he mentioned that Dennis Kucinich would addressing the group the next day. Never did he mention the name of Obama, who, although invited, and listed as invited, did not show.
The program book contains a letter, dated today, from Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton--and another from Senator Charles Schumer--welcoming the delegates to New York. President Clinton is listed as a Co-Chair of the Economic Summit's Gala.
Barack Obama's fast-moving surge in public opinion--he is now second to Clinton in national polls among Democratic voters and tied for first with John Edwards in Iowa--is based on a kind of transracial politics that places issues in the context of reasonable discussions rather than in the context of polarized positions.
The Reverend Jackson is showing that he can be transracial as well, capable of backing Clinton and pushing Kucinich as the alternative to Clinton simultaneously.
What effect this will have is difficult to say. Jackson could help Obama mobilize the African-American communities around the country, but he still carries some baggage from his controversial actions in both his public and personal life.
He told the story of a woman he sat next to on an airplane, who, at the end of the ride, said he was nothing like his reputation. "My reputation?" Jackson said he asked, "Which one?"
Jackson did not support Al Sharpton in 2004. His son actively campaigned for Howard Dean that year, and even yesterday put in a plug for Dean's policy of allowing prisoners to vote while in prison in contrast to the vast majority of states and in especial contrast to the nine states that don't allow felons to vote even after leaving prison. Representative Jackson made these remarks while sitting next to Sharpton.
My guess is that ultimately it will not matter for Obama whether either or both Jacksons support him or not. But Jackson's lack of Obamamania is a negative sign for an incipient campaign fueled by public feedback favorable beyond predictable reasonable expectations.