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It’s time for the Rev. Jesse Jackson to grow up. He has an opportunity, this week in Atlanta, to demonstrate his political maturity.
Rev. Jackson has accomplished a lot this year, perhaps far more than even he dreamed possible. But if he doesn’t quit playing games, he is going to end up throwing it all away.
For nearly a month, Rev. Jackson played catand-mouse with Gov. Michael Dukakis on the question of his interest in the vice-presidential nomination. With columnist Carl Rowan and other influential blacks as reliable sources, stories were leaked that he was uninterested in the position.
It was suggested that he felt the position was beneath his abilities. Rev. Jackson, it was said, was interested in some influential, but unspecified, post in the Dukakis administration.
Then, suddenly, the tables turned and stories were spread that Rev. Jackson would accept the post if it were offered. Not only that, but as the second-place finisher, he reportedly felt that the nomination was his due.
Well, as America found out last week, Rev. Jackson was not the choice. It probably surprised no one, including Rev. Jackson, that he was not selected.
It was unfortunate that Rev. Jackson had to find out from a reporter that Sen. Lloyd Bentsen of Texas had been chosen for the job. Perhaps the Dukakis campaign didn’t make enough of an effort to inform Rev. Jackson before the news became public. But, as Gov. Dukakis pointed out, such a decision carries its own momentum, and the selection quickly became public knowledge. It was, perhaps, a slight, but was unlikely an intentional snub, as some have suggested.
Polls commissioned by a variety of organizations showed a Dukakis/Jackson ticket losing miserably to George Bush in the general election. Democrats have obviously learned from 1984 that attempting to placate special interest groups — as Walter Mondale did by naming Geraldine Ferraro to his ticket — is not a recipe for success.
The Mondale/Ferraro combination didn’t even win a majority of female or Italian votes, and lost 49 states to the Reagan/Bush ticket.
Gov. Dukakis’s selection, Sen. Bentsen, was a surprise to many political observers, including this one. I’d have bet on Sen. John Glenn of Ohio
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