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THINGS THAT COME AS NO SURPRISE. You knew it was coming:
The Rev. Al Sharpton has launched a "big-time" effort to tear down Illinois Sen. Barack Obama as a candidate for president, The Post has learned."He's saying that Obama never did anything for the community, never worked with anybody from the community, that nobody knows the people around him, that he's a candidate driven by white leadership," said a prominent black Democratic activist who knows Sharpton."When it comes to Al's attacks on Obama, frankly, I don't know where to begin," said the activist, who supports Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.The high-profile, self-promoting Sharpton ran for president in 2004, but had a dismal showing in the Democratic primaries.Sharpton has also been involved in a longtime and highly publicized rivalry for recognition as the nation's leading African-American political activist with the Rev. Jesse Jackson, also a former Democratic presidential hopeful.Somehow, I suspect Obama will be able to manage.
UPDATE: Since some commenters are uncertain of this story's relevance, the point is that Sharpton has a well-documented history of attacking and undermining liberals, as I reported in this detailed 2003 piece for The Prospect, and that I think his attacks will be much less powerful when directed against Obama than they were when directed at, say, Howard Dean, whom Sharpton accused, in late 2003, of having an "anti-black agenda."
UPDATE II: Ask and ye shall receive. Some commenters wanted to hear more from Sharpton before rendering judgment, and sourced to a non-Murdoch property. Now CNN reports:
he Rev. Al Sharpton said Monday he is not ready to throw his support behind Sen. Barack Obama's White House bid and suggested the country's only African-America senator was taking the black community's support for granted."Why shouldn't the black community ask questions? Are we now being told, 'You all just shut up?'" Sharpton told local New York City station WCBS Monday. His office confirmed to CNN that he made the comments."Sen. Obama and I agree that the war is wrong, but then I want to know why he went to Connecticut and helped [Sen. Joe] Lieberman, the biggest supporter of the war," he added..."I'm not going to be cajoled or intimidated by any candidate not for my support," he said.And so Sharpton gets set to play his usual role.
--Garance Franke-Ruta
