Hail to the Rev...

[chiburb]

Trying again. Please note that "Hail to the Rev" is the actual title of the article, not a condescending thread title I made up.


From the new New Yorker:

Snip:

Imagine, for a moment, Al Sharpton’s Washington. Russell Simmons, the co-founder of Def Jam Records, is in the West Wing, at work on hip-hop outreach. In the Oval Office, the President is talking policy with a group of Harvard professors. “I would bring a perfect mixture of the urban north and the southern gospel to the White House—a mixture of Russell Simmons and a good plate of fried chicken while I discuss how we get clean water in underdeveloped countries,” the Reverend said last week, in his gravelly preacher’s voice. “That would be a normal day at the White House under the Sharpton Administration.”

Last week, once he settled in at his headquarters, he took the occasion to critique his fellow-candidates and offer some perspective on the primary campaign, which he likened to the race in 1984, when Jesse Jackson first ran. In both cases, he pointed out, the Democratic Party was in disarray, and was facing a popular, tax-cutting Republican incumbent. “The early front-runners back then,” he said, “were a former Vice-President, Walter Mondale; a national hero, John Glenn; and a younger technocrat, Gary Hart.” He sat up and took a phone call (“I want to run by this union thing from, like, six-thirty to seven, and then go somewhere nice. . . . I thought we’d go to the reception and then just chill, ’cause we’re out of here tomorrow”), then continued, “This is a similar thing. We have a former Vice-Presidential candidate, in Joe Lieberman; we have a national hero, in Wesley Clark; we have a guy who mastered the Internet, a technocrat, in Howard Dean.”

So far, Sharpton has been underwhelmed by his opponents. “I thought that they would have much more advantages than they have so far been able to demonstrate,” he said, raising his eyebrows. “I remember after the first two or three debates saying, ‘I thought these guys would be a little better than this.’”

With his Pentecostal background, Sharpton has been particularly attuned to the candidates’ oratorical skills. He recalled a dinner in Knoxville, Tennessee, where he first heard Wesley Clark speak. “I must admit, I was impressed that he was a good speaker,” Sharpton said. “He took his jacket off and related to the people real well. He was better on the stump than I would have expected of a general—a military man. He’s been good, and I think Kucinich is very passionate.” He paused and smirked. “I think that the others have their good days and bad days.

Read the whole thing here:
http://www.newyorker.com/talk/content/?031103ta_talk_mcgrath