> [MSNBC's and like commentators] love Obama.
> But he's a moderate and exudes Harvard . . . .
> Sharpton's rhetorical style is much more rabble
> rousing - his appeal is to passion, not wonkery
> . . . . that . . . makes the bourgeoisie nervous,
> because they're always nervous about the
> potential disruptiveness of the masses. Gotta
> keep them tranquilized and hopeless. Don't get
> them fired up.
Even if his convention keynote address (understandably) conformed substantially to the convention's organizer's tactical aims, most of those actually aware of Obama's career long before his keynote address (I dare guess: including D. Henwood) know that his appearing usually "moderate" in style has been accompanied by well-demonstrated commitment to the distinctly progressive wing of the Democratic Party further characterized not least by an element of honesty not often found in any professional politician.
In contrast, to ascribe just to his skin color or indeed to his "rabble rousing" speech style a distrust of Sharpton is simple-mindedly to mislead, because focus primarily on these features but without further analysis is to deflect from the guy's very long history of self-interested hustling, (at best) questionable financial dealings, willingness in the past to act as an undercover F.B.I. informant against even his (putative) closse friends, his local (N.Y.C., especially Bklyn.-Queens based) alliances with at best very shady characters, his being funded in his recent national campaign with at best dubious Republican Party funders/operatives, Etc., ETC., etc.
Granted, he is sly, clever, and also a usually sharp-witted and satirically funny speaker, also an assiduous networker (though, again, evidently mostly in his own self-interest).
But the distrust of many for him has nothing whatever to do with whether he is more than "half-black" much less is it dismissable a racism, albeit it may be influenced by Sharpton's own race-hustling.