My apologies for the delay in replying...
Juju, thanks for doing some of my "homework" on Sharpton. I haven't had much time the past few days to do any research.
Whoohoo! #1 favorite liberal of slang...I'm speechless! I would like to thank my mom for bringing me into this world, the sperm donor for his contribution, my peeps back in St. Louis...
Slang, I was not trying to suggest that you were racist in my last post here, and I apologize if it came across in that manner.
Sharpton's past is definitely...colorful. However, from what I've seen, particularly in the past 5-10 years, he's "softening up." One
source noted that some of Sharpton's views are more left than most black voters. In addition, he grabbed 26% of the vote in the 1994 NY Democratic Senate primary and 32% in the 1997 Democratic primary for NYC mayor (
Source). And I would imagine that causes involving African-Americans ARE the most important to him...right now.
But he (like Jesse Jackson) knows that if he intends to make any run at political office outside of his neighborhood, he will need to reach out to white voters. I see shades of this with Sharpton, but again, I'd have to take a harder look at him...not to mention, I'd like to see how this plays out over the coming months. Truth be told, I see him using the black vote as a power chip in NY state (why not?) for whomever the Dems run. I do love watching him rip Falwell a new asshole on Hardball though.
As far as Kerry, I don't know a whole lot about him yet...and we probably won't know much about his platform until later next year.