AND IN THIS CORNER ... -- Just a Minute for 07/14/08

Hello Again – it’s MONDAY – and we look forward to another week in the ‘dog days’ – but the days are getting shorter – just a bit.

 

            Mike Gallagher, for some years, did a local talk show here in Greenville; and Jesse Jackson, a now famous local native Greenvillian, who played quarterback for Sterling High – is possibly more vividly remembered as a young kitchen worker at the old Poinsett Hotel where he is quoted as saying he often “spit in the White Folk’s food.”

 

          The FOX News story last week, spread across the cable net by Bill O’Reilly – seemed to show the Reverend Jesse whispering to another man in a news studio about Obama ‘talking down to black people’ – and offering to make Mr. Obama a ‘eunuch’ – or words to that effect. It was presented as a crude error on Jesse’s part – and within minutes he was on the tube with his apology and shortly after (almost too shortly) Obama’s acceptance of Jesse’s contrition aired.

 

          That was soon followed by a blistering condemnation from Rev. Mr. Jackson’s son – a Democrat congressman from Illinois – chastising the Reverend in the first paragraph and only making reference to him as “Dad” in the second. That seemed a little odd to me --  but to Mike Gallagher – he described it as having a distinctly fake – i.e. “like a rat” – smell.  Gallagher in his Town Hall news column said he believes the whole deal was a put up job to allow the elder Jackson to ‘take a fall for the team.’ He went on to explain his belief is the older Jackson has done too many TV shows, with a producer talking in his earpiece, and knows too much about how the mikes in the studio are always live and can be heard in the control room and so forth.  For Mike it’s just not credible to think that Jesse, “being the huckster that he is” would be caught by surprise that a studio mike was live.

 

          It’s Gallagher’s conjecture that Jesse Sr. was willing to ‘take a fall’ for the team. That is to be thought a fool, caught with his mouth open when it should have been closed. But in so doing he handed Obama the opportunity to be a “BIG” forgiver, as well as to demonstrate that Obama is a new generation of black leadership – above the pettiness that sometimes has gotten black leaders in trouble heretofore.  It also allows Jackson Jr. to demonstrate he is cut from a different bolt of cloth than his Dad – and that’s probably a plus in this particular electoral race.

 

          Well… maybe so. --- I was genuinely surprised by the tone of the Jr. Jackson’s remarks – especially since they were so quick off the mark. And it does look like a win-win situation for Obama, since Jesse the Sr. isn’t running in a popularity contest this year.  If it is – and I don’t know who’s going to admit it – a ‘put up job’ I don’t know how we the listening public can discover it, short of a confession – and I think that’s a *most* unlikely event.  Right now it’s just another twist in an already long and difficult race.  About all we can do is ‘wait and see.’

 

Cordially, IN HIM

 

Jack

 

http://www.jebcovoice.net/audio/jama07-14-08.mp3

 

http://www.jebcovoice.net/scripts/jamt07-14-08.doc

 

 

“JUST A MINUTE”

AND IN THIS CORNER…

Just A Minute – Two local names link Greenville with national news: Mike Gallagher and Jesse Jackson. Mike used to do a talk show on local radio here – and Greenville native Jackson is probably most famous locally for saying when he was a kitchen worker at the old Poinsett hotel he would often “spit in the white folk’s food.”

Mike believes Jesse isn’t that ignorant about how TV studios and open mikes work. Mike says he believes the supposedly off-hand remarks from the former primo leader of black political power, were actually intended to be heard. He thinks the Rev. Jesse was willing to ‘take a fall’ just to help Barak distance himself from the dark cloud that hangs over Jesse and company.

Essentially – Mike Gallagher, in his Town Hall column, asserts Jesse deliberately put himself in the spotlight (Which everyone knows he loves.) in order to allow Obama to forgive Jesse, and give Jesse Junior an opportunity to show he’s part of a new generation.

That’s a bit too Machiavellian for me; but I do agree the facts surrounding the Fox News incident are maybe just a little too “Foxy.”

 <> I’m Jack Buttram

(END)

 

 

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