Mr Hope's National Co-Chair Strong Arming Superdelegates

Remember this:


It didn't stop there. Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. has been busy lately -- threatening African American elected officials to back Sen. Obama, or else. The or else is that they will face a challenger in their next election if they don't get on board with Obama.

Jackson is calling superdelegates who have pledged their support to Sen. Clinton and threatening them. The Associate Press reports:

One black supporter of Clinton, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri, said he remains committed to her. "There's nothing going on right now that would cause me to" change, he said.

He said any suggestion that elected leaders should follow their voters "raises the age old political question. Are we elected to monitor where our constituents are ... or are we to use our best judgment to do what's in the best interests of our constituents."

In an interview, Cleaver offered a glimpse of private conversations.

He said Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. of Illinois had recently asked him "if it comes down to the last day and you're the only superdelegate. ... Do you want to go down in history as the one to prevent a black from winning the White House?

"I told him I'd think about it," Cleaver concluded.

Jackson, an Obama supporter, confirmed the conversation, and said the dilemma may pose a career risk for some black politicians. "Many of these guys have offered their support to Mrs. Clinton, but Obama has won their districts. So you wake up without the carpet under your feet. You might find some young primary challenger placing you in a difficult position" in the future, he added.

Sounds like a threat to me.

"My strong belief is that if we end up with the most states and the most pledged delegates, and the most voters in the country, then it would be problematic for political insiders to overturn the judgment of the voters," Obama said recently.

But Clinton said superdelegates should make up their own minds. She noted pointedly that Massachusetts Sens. John Kerry and Edward Kennedy have both endorsed Obama, yet she won the state handily on Feb. 5.

As Taylor Marsh said:

It's understandable that Rep. Lewis would be influenced by the district he represents, which went overwhelmingly for Obama.

I'm sure Mr. Jackson will feel the same about Senators Kennedy and Kerry, both of whom will now have to switch to vote for Clinton given that she took Massachusetts by a mile, right?

But the story being told through the Obama campaign is that Lewis and others should be influenced to lean towards Obama out of racial solidarity.

However, they don't stop there. Vote for Barack Obama, or you just might "find some young primary challenger" stepping in to take your job. It's hard to know where to start, but considering Jesse Jackson Jr. has done this sort of race baiting before for the Obama campaign, I cannot say that I'm surprised. There is, however, something so offensive about his threat that it smacks of the same type of hierarchical control African Americans, especially John Lewis, have always fought against, only this time it's a black man in the position of power telling people how they must use their vote or else.

Good grief ...