was regarded as--and saw to it that he was regarded as--the portal to every black voter in the country.
Clinton's courage involved not only facing down Jackson per se, which would have been pointless and merely macho, but it was a statement as well--the first such made by a Democratic candidate in many years--that black Americans were not to be treated as some bloc-vote property, but were to be accorded the dignity of being seen as individuals. Yes, it was thinkable that a Democratic candidate could criticize a black celebrity in public for trying to stir up trouble, just as he might criticize a white. And it was thinkable that he could do so under the eye of Jesse Jackson.
