Personal responsibility central to Obama's campaign

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WASHINGTON -- Never underestimate the power of the nasty, overheard remark.Two decades ago, Jesse Jackson twice strode the national stage as a presidential contender from Chicago. He won a few primaries and was a force to be reckoned with.Time and the triumph of another black man from Chicago as this year's presumptive Democratic presidential nominee consigned Jackson to history's footnotes -- until his vulgar critique of Obama hit the news.Suddenly, Jackson was talking on every TV news channel. He was apologizing for his "trash talk," but he was again in the spotlight.Jackson had complained that Obama is "talking down to black people," and he made a crude comment about what he'd like to do to Obama's anatomy. Jackson, a longtime Obama supporter, said he thought he was having a private conversation at Fox News (as if that's possible).He said he thought the microphone was off. So why was he whispering?Perhaps more than anything, the incident shows Obama's balancing act as he tries to win Hillary Clinton's women and blue-collar supporters without turning off black voters. And, overall, in the crazy world of presidential politics, Jackson's scathing remarks may be a plus for Obama.If you're a presidential candidate promising to turn the page in 2008, you don't want last-century Jesse Jackson clutching the book.Jackson stressed on TV that the nation's problems demand new government policies to fight economic and social ills. Obama agrees that there's a need for more jobs and economic opportunity -- but he also emphasizes personal responsibility.On Father's Day, Obama preached in a black church in Chicago that black men should take more responsibility for their children.Obama cited troubling statistics: More than half of all black children now live in single-parent households. Children who grow up without a father are five times more likely to live in poverty and commit crime, nine times more likely to drop out, 20 times more likely to end up in prison, he said."We need fathers to realize that responsibility does not end at conception. We need them to realize that what makes you a man is not the ability to have a child. It's the courage to raise one," Obama said.This is hardly a new concept for the country or Obama. When he accepted Jackson's apology, Obama's statement said he would keep on talking about personal responsibility. He could hardly do otherwise, as it has been a staple of his speeches for years.In March 2007 at the commemoration of the 42nd anniversary of the march on Selma, Obama said, "We have too many children in poverty in this country and everybody should be ashamed, but don't tell me it doesn't have a little to do with the fact that we got too many daddies not acting like daddies. Don't think that fatherhood ends at conception. I know something about that because my father wasn't around when I was young, and I struggled."Jackson also was unhappy that Obama supports President Bush's faith-based initiatives. That runs counter to the traditional Democratic position that government is better suited to deliver social welfare assistance.The question is whether Jackson and his allies will continue to question Obama's commitment to the black community.Ron Walters, who managed Jackson's presidential campaigns in the 1980s, now runs the African American Leadership Center and is professor of government and politics at the University of Maryland.As a columnist for the National Newspaper Publishers Association, Walters wrote last month, "I think it is fair to ask whether we will have more or less access -- at least as much access as we did to Bill Clinton -- and whether (Obama) will deliver the goods for our community."And he said, "In other words, how much can the black community count on the delivery of goods and services by a black president whose presence and message does not privilege his own community."Walters said black voters hadn't had to worry in the 1980s whether Jesse Jackson would deliver. But he said, "I know, I know, he didn't win."Note: I mistakenly wrote in a recent column that John McCain could make history as the first presidential candidate to pledge to run for a single term. I heard from many readers that James K. Polk beat McCain to the punch by making such a pledge in the campaign of 1844. Thanks for setting me straight. See www.jameskpolk.com for more on Polk.(Marsha Mercer is Washington bureau chief of Media General News Service. www.mgwashington.com. E-mail mmercer(at)mediageneral.com.)(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.scrippsnews.com)