Rather Strikes Back

Rather clearly intended to make a splash with the suit: He has agreed to appear tonight on "Larry King Live."

Moving right along . . . Hillary, Obama and Mitt all have new TV spots, and I critique the early phase of the advertising campaign here.

Just when you thought the campaign might be detouring into substance comes this bulletin: Barack Obama isn't black enough for Jesse Jackson.

That's right, the 1984 and 1988 Democratic presidential candidate is questioning the racial credentials of the 2007 African-American candidate.

I see two possible explanations for this:

1. Jesse really misses the spotlight.

2. See number 1.

I mean, leaving aside the specific nature of the Rainbow Coalition man's criticism, what's he up to with that kind of remark? Isn't that the sort of language he usually denounces? Could a white candidate get away with something like that?

Obama, who did not come out of the civil rights movement--he's a bit too young, and grew up in Hawaii--has made a point of not running strictly as a black candidate. He is trying to appeal to voters across racial lines as well as party lines. Is that somehow an affront to the Jackson-Sharpton wing?

Here's the lowdown from South Carolina's biggest paper, The State:

"Jackson sharply criticized presidential hopeful and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama for 'acting like he's white' in what Jackson said has been a tepid response to six black juveniles' arrest on attempted-murder charges in Jena, La. Jackson, who also lives in Illinois, endorsed Obama in March, according to The Associated Press.

"Obama's South Carolina campaign pointed to a statement it released last week in which Obama called on the local Louisiana district attorney to drop the excessive charges brought in the case. 'When nooses are being hung in high schools in the 21st century, it's a tragedy,' the Obama statement said. 'It shows that we still have a lot of work to do as a nation to heal our racial tensions.' "