<font size="5"><center>Jesse Jackson endorses Obama in presidential bid</font size>
<font size="4">Despite long history with the Clinton's
"I don't owe a debt to any of them.''</font size></center>
Associated Press
Friday, March 30, 2007
CHICAGO (AP) _ Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson said Thursday he's backing Democrat Barack Obama in his presidential bid, giving his support to a new generation of black politicians.
''He has my vote,'' the Rev. Jackson told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.
Jackson sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988, winning 13 primaries and caucuses in 1988. His son, Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. of Illinois, has already endorsed Obama.
Jackson represents a different era of black politician, battle-tested by the civil rights struggles of the 1960s with Martin Luther King Jr.
Obama, 45, is biracial _ his white mother was from Kansas, his father Kenyan _ and educated at Ivy League universities.
In his best-selling memoir, ''Dreams From My Father,'' Obama said he couldn't even get in the door at national civil rights groups when he was younger. He wrote letters to them after graduating from Columbia University but said none responded.
Jackson could help Obama to secure the support of black voters, a critical bloc in the Democratic primaries.
Jackson has a long history with one of Obama's chief rivals, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and her husband former President Clinton. He counseled the two when the president's affair with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky became public.
But Jackson said his history with the Clintons doesn't complicate his decision to back Obama, someone he calls Illinois' ''favorite son.''
''It's not awkward at all,'' he said, adding, ''I don't owe a debt to any of them.''
Jackson said Obama has not asked him to campaign for him and he is not in Obama's inner circle of advisers and fundraisers.
''I just have an appreciation of him,'' Jackson said.
http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070330/NEWS81/70330007
<font size="4">Despite long history with the Clinton's
"I don't owe a debt to any of them.''</font size></center>
Associated Press
Friday, March 30, 2007
CHICAGO (AP) _ Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson said Thursday he's backing Democrat Barack Obama in his presidential bid, giving his support to a new generation of black politicians.
''He has my vote,'' the Rev. Jackson told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.
Jackson sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988, winning 13 primaries and caucuses in 1988. His son, Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. of Illinois, has already endorsed Obama.
Jackson represents a different era of black politician, battle-tested by the civil rights struggles of the 1960s with Martin Luther King Jr.
Obama, 45, is biracial _ his white mother was from Kansas, his father Kenyan _ and educated at Ivy League universities.
In his best-selling memoir, ''Dreams From My Father,'' Obama said he couldn't even get in the door at national civil rights groups when he was younger. He wrote letters to them after graduating from Columbia University but said none responded.
Jackson could help Obama to secure the support of black voters, a critical bloc in the Democratic primaries.
Jackson has a long history with one of Obama's chief rivals, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and her husband former President Clinton. He counseled the two when the president's affair with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky became public.
But Jackson said his history with the Clintons doesn't complicate his decision to back Obama, someone he calls Illinois' ''favorite son.''
''It's not awkward at all,'' he said, adding, ''I don't owe a debt to any of them.''
Jackson said Obama has not asked him to campaign for him and he is not in Obama's inner circle of advisers and fundraisers.
''I just have an appreciation of him,'' Jackson said.
http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070330/NEWS81/70330007
