July 11, 2008 – The Rev. Jesse Jackson’s comments that Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) “was talking down” to Black folks has critics talking up the demise of the civil rights leader’s long-running power position in the Black community.

Newspaper and television reports asked if the civil rights leader is still relevant, influential and the dominate voice of Black America. Some went so far as to ask whether Jackson’s comments helped the Illinois senator distance himself from the man who walked side by side with the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., and later founded the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition – distance that would give him an advantage among White working-class voters he’s working to woo.

While it’s not really clear what it’s done for Jackson, it is clear what it has done for Obama. The 46-year-old senator already has surpassed President Bill Clinton’s popularity among Black voters and, judging from my readers’ comments, Jackson’s criticism of Obama did not sway his supporters; they were just disappointed he made them.

Take Blogger lsyss’ comments, for instance: “Reverend Jackson and other [B]lacks need to realize that Barack is a politician and not a civil rights leader. It is not his job to solve just African American problems, but America’s problems as a whole.”

…And those of Fahay, who thought the comments were part of a strategy: “Rev. Jackson is quite savvy and experienced with the media. I could be wrong, but nothing said while mic’d is for naught and he knows this. This was picked up, because he wanted it picked up!”

But the reaction to this recent slip of the tongue shows that the Black community can and will embrace “new” leadership.

“This moment only reinforces that we have to let the younger guys take the lead in politics, that they know the issues of today, that we live in a far different world than 20 years ago,” Michel Dukakis told The New York Times [WHEN????]. Dukakis and Jackson competed for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1988.

Angelic777 writes in my blog, “Jesse we know it’s hard, bro, not being the chosen one to head up America; it was not your calling. Yours was to keep hope alive; Obama’s is to take us to a much needed change.”

Film producer Spike Lee, may have said it best. “I don’t think his (Jackson’s) comments help anybody; it’s just unfortunate,” Lee told The Associated Press following his participation on a panel at the Television Critics Association in Los Angeles.

Lee, an Obama supporter, predicted his candidate will win in the fall. “When that happens, it will change everything. … You’ll have to measure time by `Before Obama’ and `After Obama.’ It’s an exciting time to be alive now.”

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