Quotes of the Day
"Could you tell the driver to pull over so I can walk on water," Democratic candidate Al Sharpton shouted jovially to the front of the coach as it crossed the Cooper River Bridge out of Charleston, the first stop on the Reverend's first bus tour of the campaign.
While Sharpton wasn't likely to walk on water or win South Carolina over John Kerry or "native son" John Edwards in the Tuesday primaries, he did expect to do better among black voters. The Tuesday night primary brought him a disappointing 10 percent of voters and only twenty percent of those were black. But the ever-optimistic Sharpton declared it a victory to come in third in the state in front of Dean, Lieberman, and Wesley Clark, a Southerner and a military man.
Sharpton's lower-than-expected numbers with African Americans wasn't for lack of trying. "The Rev", as his loose band of staffers call him, campaigned in South Carolina more than any other candidate and if this bus tour was any indication, he also went where other candidates never dared or, perhaps, thought to go — the poorest of black neighborhoods and not just to the safe haven of churches.
Most of all, Al Sharpton has edged his way in as a voice for African Americans who feel the Democratic Party has taken them for granted, one of Sharpton's oft-repeated themes. Monday, the day before the primaries, the Rev was in good spirits. Sharpton first gathered strength for the tour at an Orangeburg Waffle House before heading down to Charleston in a blue Trailblazer to rendezvous with his tour bus.
After visiting South Carolina 33 times during his low-budget and low-staffed campaign, this was to be the visit meant to inspire black voters and get them to the polls on Tuesday. It was also an opportunity for great photo ops in impoverished areas of South Carolina, but the crowds just weren't there to greet him, and of the dozen or so journalists on the bus, none were photographers. The environment of dilapidated tar-shingled shacks surrounding the near-vacant neighborhood strip mall where Sharpton would address a community center was not only a photo op, but a powerful symbol of the "two Americas" that the John Edwards campaign has tried to lay claim to.
"You don't have to come out of poverty and be a shooter or a drug dealer — I came out of that environment and look at where I am," Sharpton told a rapt group. "You gotta' aim to shoot higher; you can never be charged with being a failure, but you can be charged with not trying."
The majority of the South Carolina black vote may have gone to John Kerry, who earned the endorsement of South Carolina's only major black politician, Democratic U.S. Representative James Clyburn. Still, only Sharpton who could tell African American voters, "You've always seen a face different than yours in the seat of the presidency, now you can vote for a face that looks like yours and will represents you."
- Constance E. Richards