Posted by John McCormick at 3:09 p.m. CDT
Rev. Jesse Jackson said this afternoon that he has no plans to campaign on the behalf of Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois.
Asked whether he would go to South Carolina or other key states with large African-American populations, Jackson quickly shot back an answer.
"That's speculative," he said. "I've not been asked."
Jackson has endorsed Obama, but said he is listening to all of the candidates. "He gets my vote because I live in Chicago," he said.
Jackson made his comments after attending Tribune Co.'s annual meeting, where he criticized the Chicago-based company for a lack of diversity on its board, its failure to use minority owned financial consulting firms and the absence of a statue to honor Ernie Banks, an African-American and Chicago Cubs legend.
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Comments
"...and the absence of a statue to honor Ernie Banks..."
Not to take anything away from Ernie's unquestionable greatness, but the notion that Jesse ranks this among the priorities of us African-Americans is pretty comical -- and I suspect that's why you included it in this article.
Gotta' love Jesse.
Posted by: Biggdawg | May 9, 2007 3:50 PM
That was a sigh of relief from Obama you just heard. Jesse and Al Sharpton run around headline hunting and are over rated as leaders. It is a sad fact that Martin Luther King, one of the greatest leaders in human history is followed by this pair. They should be ignored. Their powers are only with the press and a very small portion of the black community. They are an irritation too many.
Posted by: c. perry | May 9, 2007 3:56 PM
Any candidate who promotes their endorsement by either Jackson or Sharpton has just lost my vote.
Posted by: Neal | May 9, 2007 4:33 PM
Can we expect to see a post about Al "I Said Mormon But I Really Meant Atheist" Sharpton ripping into Mitt Romney?
Posted by: Jeff C. | May 9, 2007 4:39 PM
Sooner or latter you know he is going to do it anyways, even if he isn't asked. Hopefully no one in any of the campaigns asks but the bottom line is he will be campaigning for someone sooner or latter because if he's not he will finally be considered totally irrelevant instead of just mostly irrelevant.
Posted by: jj | May 9, 2007 5:18 PM
Jeff, if the campaign to get Sharpton fired (which is running full steam elsewhere) for his intolerent comments about Mormons were to get a post in The Swamp, it would be a cold day in H-E-double hockey sticks.
p.s. There's no one to shake down in the Obama campaign so Jesse's not interested.
Posted by: Jeff | May 10, 2007 10:52 AM
Does anyone really give a damn who Jesse backs?
Posted by: Linda | May 10, 2007 2:51 PM