Campaign Contribution

Well, it looks like Senator Obama is moving toward the center. That's the best face to put on the Reverend Jesse Jackson's aspirational musing, reported by Fox News Channel, about castrating Senator Obama. First the senator sides with Justices Scalia and Alito against gun control and for the death penalty for child rapists. Then he leaves the door open to keeping troops in Iraq while signaling support for the North American Free Trade Agreement. Now the Democratic nominee has Rev. Jackson mad at him for speaking about the need for African Americans to take personal responsibility without emphasizing enough big government programs for Rev. Jackson's liking. There's an element of us that wonders if the whole flap wasn't engineered by the Obama campaign in cooperation with Rev. Jackson as a way of wooing voters who don't want a Jackson-style candidate. If the campaign stays on this track Mr. Obama is going to end up to the right of Senator McCain. We are trying to think of a Republican equivalent of Rev. Jackson that Mr. McCain could get to be caught on tape insulting him, but it is not easy.