Commentary: Obama Was Right, but -- His Stupid Comment Aside -- Jackson’s Underlying Concern Was Too

By: Deborah Mathis

For the moment, let’s set aside the crudeness and rudeness of the reverend’s remarks, as captured in whispered tones on none other than the Fox network; and let’s, instead, go to the essence of Jesse Jackson’s criticism of Sen. Barack Obama when he said to a fellow TV talk show guest, “I wanna cut his nuts off.”

Now, what might make a man who has built his career on peacemaking -- or troublemaking in the name of peacemaking -- say such a thing? Especially a man, purportedly, of the cloth? “Pop him up ‘side the head” or “slap him silly” or even “kick his ass” -- any of those would be more like it (though Fox and other media would make just as much out of it). But “cut his nuts off?” Even womenfolks have to say, “Yeow.”

What might get Jackson that hot under the clerical collar could just be that he thinks Obama is talking or behaving in a way that upsets the good reverend’s life’s work or life’s message. It was, after all, Obama’s now-infamous Father’s Day speech at a Chicago church that Jackson referenced in what we might call “the amputation comment.”

COMMENTARY....