CNN Contributor Advises Democratic Presidential Candidates to Emulate Jesse Jackson
Posted by Matthew Balan on June 21, 2007 - 18:03.
CNN contributor Roland S. Martin advised Democrats to emulate two of their past presidential candidates - Jesse Jackson Sr. and Bobby Kennedy - and play up the issue of poverty, which is a place that he thinks "where candidates can make some kind of headway in trying to appeal to voters beyond the middle class or the upper income voters."
Martin makes regular appearances on CNN’s "American Morning," and besides being a CNN contributor, he is a syndicated columnist and talk radio host. Co-host Kiran Chetry on Thursday’s "American Morning" asked to comment on a recent column in which he advised the Democrats to reach out to poor whites, and to focus their attention on the issue of poverty, particlarly in rural areas. As he did in his column, he gave the examples of Jesse Jackson Sr.’s campaigns in 1984 and 88, as well as Bobby Kennedy’s trip down to the Mississippi Delta region in order to reach out to poor people.
Besides focusing on the issue of poverty, Martin repeated the media’s focus on how people from rural areas use the military as "their only way out" of poverty, and how that is linked to the greater issue of the war in Iraq. He also suggested that "we need to broaden this debate, and go beyond Iraq, go beyond immigration, and say, how can we speak to all Americans? The candidate that does that, I think, has a better shot because they're being more inclusive and speaking to the people who desperately need to be addressed." Even with the Iraq war and terrorism polling at the top of what people consider to be important issues, this is Martin’s advice to Democrats.
Besides giving the Democrats advice, Martin emphasized that the media should use their influence to push Democrats towards the issue of poverty. "And to be honest, Kiran, this is our issue, meaning the media. And I look at the people who are moderating these debates. They need to be asking those questions."
Martin apparently wasn’t only one who invoked the memory of Robert F. Kennedy recently. Chris Matthews compared Barack Obama to the late attorney general on Tuesday.
A full transcript of Kiran Chetry’s interview of Roland S. Martin on Thursday’s "American Morning:"
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Last edited by stephanie; 06-21-2007 at 08:37 PM.
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