Good News for Obama

Even as the media continue to try to make an issue out of Senator Obama's alleged exploitation of his children in a TV interview, Rev. Jesse Jackson blows the whole pseudo-scandal off the board with the broadcast of his sotto voce complaints against the senator. This is some of the best news Obama could ever get. He can have a "Sister Souljah" moment without even trying, probably without even saying another word on the subject. If you haven't heard it, here's the footage, slightly expurgated by Bill O'Reilly:





Jackson goes a long way toward restoring Obama to his pre-2008 position as the black candidate who's not one of them. In criticizing Obama's scolding comments to black men, Jackson virtually walked into a trap designed to re-establish distance between Obama and old-school black pols who can't hear such talk without accusing the speaker of "blaming the victim." Come to think of it, Obama may be more clever than I just gave him credit for. He had to know that someone like Jackson eventually was going to call him out for his sermons, though not necessarily in the farcical manner that Jackson did. It works better for Obama to have people like Jackson or Al Sharpton criticize him than for him to ever take the offensive, should he ever even feel the need. If a scene like this was what Obama intended all along, then the man's a genius.