The other night, I was playing around with the idea of Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. as an '04 running mate. I knew very little about the guy and had never seen him speak, until last night.
The only video I could find was a talk Jackson gave to students at Montgomery Blair High School in Maryland, as part of a C-SPAN series called Students and Leaders.
I was totally blown away. You really have to watch this video.
Every recent Democratic POTUS has won the general election by losing the white, male vote and winning the votes of women and people of color. Jackson, Jr. isn't from the South, which is a notch against him, and he's quite young.
Still, it's amazing how many times Jackson touches on the themes of the Dean campaign (the speech was given back in May, when Dean was an asterisk in every poll)... does anyone know of anything that would make him a less-than-stellar VP candidate?
UPDATE: Understanding Jackson's draw means revisiting (ironically) Rev. Jesse Jackson's "David and Goliath" speech of 1984, which he updated for the Take Back America conference earlier this year:
Al Gore lost New Hampshire by 7,200 votes. We can win. He lost Ohio, Nevada and Missouri by only 3.5%. The five key states lost by a handful of votes, with thousands of progressives unregistered and thousands more not voting. We lost the governor's race in South Carolina by 40,000 votes, 40,000 blacks unregistered. We lost the Senate vote in Georgia by 50,000 votes, 600,000 blacks unregistered. The once Democratic solid South has become the totally Republican solid South. We need to bridge that rift between the white and black Southerners. Beyond matters of race divide. Beyond matters of fears that divide.
It also means recognizing the role that America's youth (who would surely respond positively to a Jackson VP candidacy) will play in 2004.
One of the most interesting points that Trippi made at the Grassroots Summit came after he was asked how Dean would appeal to the Midwest's NASCAR dads. He answered the question, but also argued that the critical swing vote in '04 wouldn't be NASCAR dads or security moms - it would be the youth. Moreover, he said, if the Dems lose the large and affluent generation now coming of age, the Party really would be lost in the wilderness for years and years to come.