Obama = Jackie Robinson?

 DENVER — Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) told convention-goers Monday that Barack Obama is like baseball pioneer Jackie Robinson — enduring jeers without the ability to hit back.

“Barack Obama has the capacity to hit,” Jackson said a breakfast panel just before the opening of the Democratic National Convention. “But he is in the situation where he can’t hit back, which Jackie Robinson could not do. … He had to be able to run the bases, even though the crowd was jeering the first African-American on the field.”

Jackson, son of the civil rights leader, said Obama is in the same situation: “He has to keep smiling, because no one wants an angry African-American man in the White House.”

Speaking at a panel presented by Yahoo News, Politico and The Denver Post, Jackson added that party skeptics need to have “a Pee Wee Reese moment" — a reference to the Kentucky-born Brooklyn Dodgers shortstop who famously embraced Robinson on the field when the African-American broke baseball’s color barrier in 1947.

“When they have a camera put in their faces, they will have an opportunity to put their arm around our guy so that he can run the bases,” Jackson said. “Hillary Clinton will have a Pee Wee Reese moment. Bill Clinton will have a Pee Wee Reese moment. [Pennsylvania Gov.] Ed Rendell will have a Pee Wee Reese moment.”

House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) added that Obama has "got to show he’s able to hit. He’s got to show he’s capable of running the bases. That’s whether the rubber meets the road.”

Despite Jackson’s prediction that the Clintons would help Obama this week, though, former Virginia Gov. Douglas Wilder, who endorsed Obama during the primaries, expressed frustration with some foot-dragging by the Clintons and their supporters.

“What does Barack Obama have to do to convince Clinton supporters that he’s capable of being president of the United States?” Wilder asked.
Now mayor of Richmond, Wilder drew laughter by adding: “You want to speak? Fine. You want to speak, Bill? Fine. You want to be vice president? No. Beyond that, what else can I do? What do you want me to do?”

Wilder also raised the possibility that some voters were turned off by Obama’s race.

“I think you’re going to have a number of people who give you an excuse for not voting for a person,” Wilder said. “I’m not at all suggesting race. But I’m not eliminating race.”

Clinton supporters were not the only ones who came in for some criticism: Jackson also attacked Obama’s Republican opponent, John McCain, for having “so many keys” to so many houses that “he doesn’t know where he is at any given moment” — which could be taken as a reference to Arizona senator’s age. He turns 72 on Friday.

The pioneering politicians who spoke at the panel examined the implications of the campaign by the nation’s first African-American presidential nominee, and whether the country is ready for a black president.

Another panel member, radio and television host Tavis Smiley, said expectations for Obama have become so high that “even Jesus Christ himself might not be able to respond.”

“We have really missed the boat in this campaign on covering race,” Smiley said. “I look at how quick we were to jump on the language of ‘post-racial,’ the language of ‘race transcendence.’ That’s not possible yet in America."

Smiley also criticized the media’s tendency to sugarcoat coverage, asserting: “Nobody’s lying, nobody’s flip-flopping — everyone’s pivoting.”

Clyburn said an Obama victory “will be a redefinition of politics in America, it will be a redefinition of the Democratic Party.”

Wilder agreed, asserting that Obama’s election would also "provide a new era for America to assert its leadership in the world.”

Also, Wilder said Obama “has a shot in Virginia," which has voted Republican in recent presidential races, "to the extent that he continues to meet with people — let them look him in the eye, shake hands, let them ask him a question, answer that question.”

Alexander Burns contributed to this story.