Obama's Accidental Sister Souljah Moment: "Jesse Jackson did it for him solo."

[DeepModem Mom]

WP: Dan Balz's Take
Obama's Accidental Sister Souljah Moment
By Dan Balz

Barack Obama leads a charmed life. He finally had his Sister Souljah moment and didn't even have to show up. Jesse Jackson did it for him solo.

Sixteen years ago, Bill Clinton used a Jackson-sponsored forum to rebuke the rap singer for suggesting that black people "have a week and kill white people" rather than each other. Jackson fumed as Clinton made the comments and denounced them later. Politically, Clinton came out such a winner that "Sister Souljah moment" now has its own entry in Wikipedia.

Roll forward to this week and the controversy that is attracting so much attention. Obama did not have to rebuke an important constituency himself to define himself as different from the Jackson-Sharpton wing of the Democratic Party. Being attacked by Jackson was more than enough to get across the point. Whatever people may know or think they know about Obama, they can no longer mistake him as a direct descendant of old-style black politics....

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Obama...has long appealed more to upscale, well-educated voters than to downscale and less-educated voters, in part because his reform message plays better in those wealthier precincts. Finding ways to talk more directly to hard-pressed working families has been a major priority ever since he lost the Ohio primary to Clinton in March.

If Obama were looking for a way to endear himself more to those white, working class voters who were resistant to his appeals in the Democratic primaries, nothing is likely to help more than a condemnation from Jesse Jackson....

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/07/10/obamas_accidental_sister_soulj.html?hpid=topnews