Sharpton's Speech

I need time to digest it, but my initial impression is that the Rev. Al Sharpton was disappointing in his speech. His, oddly, was the first speech I caught that didn't surprise me quite favorably.

Sure, Sharpton is a polarizing figure and a lot of us squirm a bit at some - although not all - of the causes in which he has involved himself. Still, he's still managed to reach a certain level in American politics.

There are those who want to announce Sharpton as the successor to Jesse Jackson, but I don't think that's fair to either man and unlike the Repubs, I'd like to think the Dems have room for many different voices of many different colors.

Sharpton's message was "our vote is not for sale" but I did not believe anyone was trying to buy the black vote (in fact, Bush doesn't seem to care period which just astounds me - lots of politicians just give African-Americans lip service, but he's barely doing that). I thought they were trying to steal or invalidate it. And that's not just limited to blacks.