Al Sharpton: Slicker Than Your Average..

Whatever you think of him, the boy is sharp. I saw him last night on MSNBC being very deferrential to Obama. I'll try and dig up that clip. Then he pivoted and took on Julian Bond and the NAACP for arguing, foolishly, that the delegates from Florida and Michigan should be counted. Shartpon made the credible argument that changing the rules--as Clinton is arguing for--basically constitutes a civil rights issue. Anyway here is some follow-up from my old friend from back in Washington, Jake Tapper.
Holler at em Tapp:

Yesterday, Clinton's side of the argument got a boost when NAACP chairman Julian Bond wrote to DNC chair Howard Dean to express "great concern at the prospect that million of voters in Michigan and Florida could ultimately have their votes completely discounted." Not seating the Michigan and Florida delegations would remind Americans of the "sordid history of racially discriminatory primaries," Bond said.

This morning, Rev. Al Sharpton sided with Obama, writing to Dean to express the opposite sentiment.

"I firmly believe that changing the rules now, and seating delegates from Florida and Michigan at this point would not only violate the Democratic party's rules of fairness, but also would be a grave injustice," Sharpton wrote. "Changing the rules in the middle of a presidential contest is patently unfair both to the candidates (including Senator Edwards) and to Democratic voters everywhere."

Sharpton said that Bond's argument of disenfranchisement "should have been made many months ago before the decision was made to strip these states of their delegates, and, once the decision was made, it should have been vigorously objected to and contested by those who felt it disenfranchised voters. To raise that claim now smacks of politics in its form most raw and undercuts the moral authority behind such an argument."

Shock of all shocks, I think Sharpton is basically right. Bond should have made this argument months ago, not mid-contest. Furthermore, I think it's quite savvy of Sharpton as it puts him on the winning side. He's always been good about navigating the shifting political terrain,