Prometheus 6

Mr. Wickham is correct on the facts.

That year — in the first Super Tuesday contest — Jackson won Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Virginia, and he finished second just about everywhere else. He won 27% of the votes casts in the 21 contests — more than any other Democrat. In the eight Southern and border states that had open primaries, Jackson got more votes from Democrats than any of his competitors, The New York Times reported.

Just as he is correct that Rev. Jackson's contributions to to history that led to this point.

Jackson's 'change' message cleared the way for Obama
By DeWayne Wickham

Whatever the outcome of today's Super Tuesday voting, it must be said that Barack Obama is on a path that Jesse Jackson cut.

I don't mean to take anything away from Obama, who in four years has gone from a little-known black member of the Illinois state Senate to a widely touted candidate for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. That is no slim accomplishment.

Less than six weeks into the Democrats' presidential candidate-selection process, Obama — the junior U.S. senator from Illinois— and Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York are the only viable contenders from the field of eight Democrats who began this race.

Obama's staying power can be credited to his victories in the Iowa caucuses and South Carolina primary — and to his impressive ability to capture the imagination of a broad cross section of Americans by defining himself as the candidate of change. His success has moved many pundits to say he's the first black with a "real shot" at winning the presidency.

Maybe. We'll have a better indication of that after the votes are counted in the 22 states holding Democratic contests today. But even if correct, such a judgment should not be allowed to erase from memory what Jackson achieved in his 1988 White House campaign — notwithstanding Bill Clinton's recent dismissive view of that effort.

That year — in the first Super Tuesday contest — Jackson won Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Virginia, and he finished second just about everywhere else. He won 27% of the votes casts in the 21 contests — more than any other Democrat. In the eight Southern and border states that had open primaries, Jackson got more votes from Democrats than any of his competitors, The New York Times reported.

The day after Super Tuesday, only Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis, the eventual nominee, had more committed delegates than Jackson — whose count exceeded that of Sen. Al Gore of Tennessee, Rep. Richard Gephardt of Missouri and Sen. Paul Simon of Illinois.

Four years earlier, when Jackson made his first bid for his party's nomination, he was widely seen as a gadfly. But in 1988, his aspirations were treated more seriously. While winning about 92% of the black vote nationwide, he got the backing of 18% of white voters in Connecticut, 23% in Wisconsin and 25% in California. In the end, he received just 12% of the white vote nationally, but that was a big improvement over his 1984 total.

While these numbers fell short of the kind of support Jackson needed to become the Democrats' presidential nominee, his strong showing made the party — and the nation — seriously consider the possibility that a black candidate could pull off such a feat.