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Candidate 5, Jesse Jackson Jr. Illinois Governor Blagojevich

Jesse Jackson’s Tears



imageStraight from the Election Night tableau of Barack Hussein Obama winning the November 4, 2008 American presidency, came the tears of Rev. Jesse Jackson. Jackson’s tears were captured for posterity by Chicago Tribune photographers out among the throngs at Grant Park, and untold millions later saw Jackson’s crying jag on the Worldwide Internet. Unfortunately, only his tears went viral. His nudge-nudge, wink-wink laughter about his son’s future in the Senate to reporters on the very same night, did not. “Pausing between a series of television interviews on the main risers at Grant Park, the Rev. Jesse Jackson said “there’s a joy, there’s an ecstasy”, in Chicago tonight as Sen. Barack Obama draws closer to the presidency.” (washingtonpost.com, Nov. 4, 2008).

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“Many whites voted for him because he was black,” Jackson said of Obama. “They saw a redemptive moment. they could say `we’re better than we have been.’” “Asked if his son Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D.ILL.) should throw his name into the mix to replace Obama should the current senator win the presidency, Jackson paused, smiled and said, “I will not address that issue and I do approve the message,” before laughing and turning away.” (Italics Canada Free Press’). The calendar moves up to Dec. 10, 2008 and although Jesse Jackson Jr. has strongly denied being involved “whatsoever in any wrongdoing”, he was referenced as Candidate Number Five in the criminal complaint of corruption against disgraced Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich. “It is awkward, but he’s trying to turn it to his advantage by coming out quickly to reply,” said University of Illinois at Chicago political science professor Dick Simpson.” (chicagotribune.com, Dec. 10, 2008). Jackson Jr. will not have the same privilege as President-elect Barack Obama in removing himself from the controversy. In the controversy over whether Obama has been in contact or collusion with Blagojevich about filling his vacated Senate seat, two reports of alleged conversations have already been retracted by their sources. When the scandal burst yesterday, Obama told reporters he had no contact with Blagojevich about filling the seat. But a Nov. 5 news report by KHQA TV’s Carol Sowers posted to the station’s website stated “one of Obama’s first priorities” on the day after his election was a meeting with Blagojevich planned that afternoon to discuss the Senate seat. The station removed the links to the archived stories yesterday, however, and posted an explanation--ostensibly after they were circulated on a bevy of Internet blogs and reported by Internet giant WorldNetDaily. “KHQA TV wishes to offer clarification regarding a story that appeared last month on our website ConnectTristates.com. The story, which discussed the appointment of a replacement for President Elect Obama in the U.S. Senate, became the subject of much discussion on talk radio and on blog sites Wednesday. The story housed in our website archive was on the morning of November 5, 2008. It suggested that a meeting was scheduled later that day between President Elect Obama and Illinois Governor Blagojevich. KHQA has no knowledge that any meeting ever took place. Governor Blagojevich did appear at a news conference in Chicago on that date.” One might ask if there was no meeting scheduled between Obama and Blagojevich, then why did KHQA report that there was? And perhaps more significantly, why did it take KHQA some 35 days to remove the story? Reporters in Chicago yesterday asked Obama what contact he’d had with the Governor’s office about his replacement in the Senate after Blagojevich was arrested by federal authorities for a “political corruption crime spree” that included an effort to “sell” the Senate Seat. Obama replied, “I had no contact with the governor or his office and so we were not, I was not aware of what was happening.” Meanwhile, the father of Candidate No. 5, has a long time history of working with Gov. Blagojevich: “Governor George H. Ryan, joined by governor-elect Rod Blagojevich and Reverend Jesse Jackson, today announced that $3.8 million from the state’s Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) has been earmarked to help Illinois residents who have had their heat turned off for lack of payment.” (Office of the Governor Rod. R. Blagojevich-Governor, Dec. 10, 2002). During the current federal fiscal year, more than $127.5 million is available in LIHEAP funding for eligible state residents. More than $62.5 million of the funding comes from the federal government, with the remaining $65.5 million coming from the State of Illinois. So there is no doubt that Rev. Jesse Jackson’s ties go back to Blagojevich from the days when he was governor-elect. Jackson the younger and Obama cut their political teeth in Chicago’s infamous South Side. Detractors of Rev. Jesse Jackson called his Election Night booh-hoos, “crocodile tears”. Only months before his Grant Park outburst, Jackson had made crude remarks about Obama on Fox News. “Rev. Jesse Jackson apologized Wednesday for saying Barack Obama is “talking down to black people” during what Jackson thought was a private conversation before a FOX News interview Sunday. (FOXNews.com, July 9, 2008). “Jackson was speaking to a fellow guest at the time about Obama’s speeches in black churches and his support for faith-based charities. Jackson added before going live, “I want to cut his nuts off.” That’s the full gamut of Jesse Jackson Obama emotions in the timespan of less than four months. Perhaps those who called Jackson’s election night “crocodile tears” were closer to the bulls eye than they ever knew.


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Judi McLeod -- Bio and Archives -- Judi McLeod, Founder, Owner and Editor of Canada Free Press, is an award-winning journalist with more than 30 years’ experience in the print and online media. A former Toronto Sun columnist, she also worked for the Kingston Whig Standard. Her work has appeared throughout the ‘Net, including on Rush Limbaugh and Fox News.

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