Did Jesse Have a Point? (UPDATE: Staged--Maybe)

Asks Mickey Kaus with regard to Barack Obama's perceived arrogance and condescension. And the answer is, of course he did.

Isn't there a better way to phrase it that doesn't set up Obama as a commanding know-it-all?

Kaus is referring to Obama's admonition to some Georgia black youth and to the Spanish controversy--as I did yesterday. (For the record, I disagree with Kaus about the "stay in school" message.)

The problem with Jesse Jackson controversy, however, is a combination of factors: the source of the criticism and the over-reaction of the critique--but mostly the source. If Jackson thinks that Obama is condescending to blacks only then he must have missed the senator's Bitter, Clingy comments. And the desire to castrate someone because of their condescension is just a little...ahem...nuts don't you think? And if some old white guy had conjured that particular slavery/lynching imagery, folks would be picketing in front of his house.

The bottom line? Both Jackson and Obama have a tendency to step on their...tongues. Jesse has just been doing it longer and thought that he could get away with it forever. Wrong. There's a new kid in town.

But someone who would continuously blackmail (heh) corporations in the name of "racial justice" in order to line his pockets wouldn't instinctively know when it's time to have a seat and would usually have to be forced out of the spotlight. That's probably what will happen to the reverend now, especially since his own son has repudiated him. (And, no, I haven't ruled out the possibility that this whole thing is an elaborately staged event. Chicago politicians and all that.)

DC Thornton makes the case for the right reverend to sit down. Twenty-four years overdue, IMO.

UPDATE (July 11, 2008, 9:46 AM PDT): I'm listening to Rush Limbaugh's radio program right now. It's something I rarely do, but Glenn Reynolds pointed out that Mark Steyn was guest hosting, so I pulled up the KFI (LA) site to listen. Mark just pointed out that, after making the nutty statement, Jackson makes a little knife motion. And upon further review, I can see that he does. This makes me suspect even more that this whole thing was some sort of one-act play.

Comments

[notropis]

"And if some old white guy had conjured that particular slavery/lynching imagery, folks would be picketing in front of his house."

At least. And that probably bothers me as much as anything about what Jackson said. What sort of animosity would lead to a castration reference? I could see a "smack-him-upside-the-head" or "pop-him-in-his-arrogant-little-face" remark, but this?

If a white public figure had made some comment about a desire to emasculate Obama (or any black man), their public career would be (rightly) over, immediately and permanently (well, except for however long the media would drag out the repeated calls for apology and retribution and the apologies themselves. But the offender would only ever after be known for the offense, and nothing else they might ever have said or done.)

So what gives with Jackson? Why that particular allusion?

[Cappy]

Don't know too much about Rev. Jackson's hurt feelings, or Sen. Obama's soon-to-be-truncated anatomy. Too busy learning Spanish, before it becomes mandatory.

[baldilocks]

notropis: weird, no?

Cappy: dude, join the club.

[Steve Skubinna]

Jackson is likely panicking because the train is leaving the station, and he's not on it. For over two decades he's been the self appointed Yassar Arafat of American Blacks, and this upstart from Hawaii comes along, who isn't even a bona fide "African-American" (yeah, I know, if Obama doesn't qualify as African-American than the term has no meaning, but the point is he's not from that same background of a disaffected permanent underclass that is Jackson's rightful domain).

Jackson is teetering on the brink of irrelevancy, and not a minute too soon. Win or lose, Obama will do us all a massive favor by nailing shut the coffin of the race baiters and hustlers that have so grievously injured American public discourse.

[David M]

The Thunder Run has linked to this post in the - Web Reconnaissance for 07/11/2008 A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention, updated throughout the day...so check back often.

[AProudVeteran]

I saw that knife motion, and assumed it was illustrating the "cut them off" comment. But I wouldn't put it past Jackson to stage anything

[CGHill]

...after making the nutty statement...

Nicely put, if I say so myself.

[baldilocks]

Hey Charles!

Nice to see that someone is enjoying my fun with puns.

[DarkStar]

Jesse Jackson, Sr. is too politically self-centered for it to be staged.

[baldilocks]

Good point.