Inside Jesse Jackson’s 1988 Presidential Campaign| Running with Jesse (full documentary) | FRONTLINE

0:05 The big surprise of the 1988 presidential

0:07 race was the phenomenal campaign of Jesse Jackson.

0:10 WE THE PEOPLE CAN WIN.

0:12 Inside the campaign, it was hope and hype driving the Jackson caravan.

0:17 But in the end, Jesse lost.

0:19 Or did he?

0:20 I was amazed that America did as well to understand Jesse as they did.

0:25 But it never approached electability.

0:28 Somebody has to start it.

0:30 I don't think things this big and this important get lost.

0:34 Tonight on Frontline, Running With Jesse.

0:43 My name.

0:46 NOT ONE BORN WITH A SILVER SPOON IN HIS MOUTH.

0:50 WHO HAS HAD SHOVELS IN HIS HANDS.

0:54 My name.

0:57 BORN OF A TEENAGE MOTHER.

1:00 FATHERLESS CHILD.

1:03 MY NAME.

1:06 ONE OF THE FORGOTTEN CHILDREN, NOT ONE OF THE BEGOTTEN ONES.

1:12 MY NAME.

1:14 YARDS WITHOUT GRASS.

1:17 HOUSES WITHOUT INDOOR BATHROOMS.

1:19 MY NAME.

1:24 [applause] TIN TOP ROOF.

1:25 [cheering] MY NAME.

1:31 [cheering] MY NAME GOES IN NOMINATION.

1:33 EVERY FATHERLESS CHILD.

1:38 EVERY POOR PERSON.

1:41 [applause]

1:42 WHO HOLD THEIR HEADS HIGH.

1:47 [applause] SAY MY NAME IS HIS NAME.

1:50 THE MORNING AFTER THAT SPEECH,

1:52 our team from Frontline was in the crowd waiting for Jesse

1:55 Jackson to begin the final trip of his 1988 campaign.

2:01 There was an air of expectation,

2:03 even though technically it was too late for surprises.

2:12 It was now the week before the Democratic Convention.

2:16 Jackson did not have enough delegates

2:18 to become the Democratic candidate for president,

2:20 and he had pointedly not been chosen by Michael Dukakis as his running mate.

2:25 Yet he was still on center stage, and he was doing nothing to discourage rumors

2:31 that something dramatic would happen on this bus trip.

2:35 Others were taking a plane to the convention in Atlanta,

2:38 but in a conscious echo of the civil rights days,

2:41 Jackson was taking a bus all the way from Chicago.

2:48 Our team was in the caravan,

2:49 watching both the candidate and the people who covered it.

2:54 It was old-fashioned travel with newfangled technology.

2:59 We had now been covering Jackson's run

3:02 for the Democratic nomination for 6 months.

3:05 This last campaign trip became for us an emblem of the whole Jackson campaign,

3:10 a combination of hype and hope.

3:13 I think, quite frankly, it was a media coup for Reverend Jackson.

3:17 As far as I'm concerned,

3:18 it was Reverend Jackson at his best in terms of manipulating the media.

3:24 Uh here were most of us thinking that um

3:27 this was going to be a caravan of supporters,

3:30 that they were going to pick up buses along the way,

3:32 and there would be thousands and thousands

3:34 and thousands of Jackson people marching into Atlanta.

3:38 Well, it turned out it was Reverend

3:40 Jackson and four busloads of the national press.

3:45 By now, reporters Mike Frisby and Doreen

3:48 Carvajal were well aware of Jackson's media savvy.

3:52 It was all prop.

3:53 It was all staging and it was it was very very shrewd.

3:58 Um it helped him steal the thunder going into uh the convention.

4:05 The focus was on him, not on the the top candidate.

4:09 He had all these um reporters with nothing else to write about except him.

4:15 I mean we were it was like being a hostage on the bus.

4:20 Only a few members of the press could fit on Jackson's bus at a time.

4:24 The caravan stopped by the side of the interstate

4:27 to let reporters on and off the front bus.

4:32 Jackson's press secretary, Delmarie Caugh, tried to keep order.

4:35 I was told it was a bigger bus than this and that we

4:38 were going to have at least 10 people on it.

4:40 There's no room to even turn around on the bus.

4:42 Is there room for more people to stand here and not block the aisle?

4:44 We can still have a fire at least.

4:45 We're not even supposed to be standing stopping

4:47 here except that you all got off the buses.

4:50 We stopped.

4:51 This was vintage Jackson campaigning.

4:54 A kind of structured free form.

4:56 There was a schedule, a map, and a plan, but getting the schedule,

5:00 seeing the map, or learning the plan was the challenge.

5:06 Our turn on the front bus came when we

5:08 stopped 20 miles outside Atlanta to pick up extra passengers.

5:14 Waiting by the side of the road was CBS News

5:16 anchor Dan Rather escorted by Jackson's political adviser, Bert Lance.

5:29 New cops came in on a number one ship.

5:31 My folks came on a slave ship.

5:32 But same boat now and our destinies are bound.

5:38 If we were living in a royal blood arrangement maybe our ships would never meet.

5:43 In a democracy, our ships are not passing in the night.

5:46 Our ships are in the same dump.

5:49 That's the gentlest of all this democracy that you said that you said it.

5:53 And what's happening At the beginning of this campaign,

5:55 political analysts often dismissed Jackson as a protest

5:59 candidate who would appeal only to blacks.

6:02 But 7 million people, not just blacks, voted for him.

6:07 Jackson had never once been elected to political office.

6:10 Yet here he was entering Atlanta, the runner-up for the Democratic nomination.

6:18 The official nominating process had begun here in February at the Iowa caucuses.

6:29 In Iowa, politics is personal.

6:33 They say if a candidate doesn't come shake your hand,

6:36 then you don't vote for him.

6:44 Jesse Jackson, determined to run in all 50 states,

6:47 brought his small campaign to Iowa early.

6:51 He was not expected to do well.

6:53 He did not attract much national press.

6:56 We were just traveling around in a couple of vans.

6:59 One van was for the reporters.

7:03 Uh we were just this little band of survivors.

7:06 Uh Uh there were maybe four or five of us.

7:10 And um it was extremely cold then.

7:14 We were all bundled up in our, you know, thermals and things like that.

7:18 And we would uh chase him through the snow.

7:24 The population of Iowa is mostly rural, 97% white.

7:34 [applause] So the black preacher from Chicago was an event.

7:38 Some of them were there out of curiosity and they're of dazzled

7:42 by him and would go up to him and ask for autographs,

7:45 and you know, would try to hug him or hold him or touch him,

7:50 and uh um it was just a very innocent time.

7:54 Um people weren't paying as much attention to him.

7:57 The focus was almost the other candidates.

8:00 I was facing foreclosure, had gotten THE FORECLOSURE NOTICE,

8:05 AND in the spring of '85,

8:08 and got a hold of Jesse, and we got a telegram to our local banker.

8:14 He offered to come, sit down at A MEDIATION TABLE,

8:17 AND TRY to work this thing out between myself and my bankers.

8:21 And we wound up going through some reorganization, giving some things back,

8:25 but we still got every acre, and we're going to farm,

8:28 and we're going TO CONTINUE TO FARM.

8:32 [cheering] BUT WE COULDN'T HAVE DONE IT WITHOUT JESSE, AND WE NEEDED HIM.

8:38 JACKSON brought that farmer from nearby Missouri to speak

8:41 at a rally in the tiny town of Greenfield.

8:46 Most of the candidates had their Iowa

8:47 headquarters in Des Moines, the state capital.

8:50 Jackson put his in Greenfield to make

8:52 the point that this was a populist campaign, a campaign for ordinary people.

8:58 Jesse Jackson came to the church I attend in Greenfield,

9:02 and we thought maybe we'd have 50 people there.

9:05 So, we had a potluck and lemonade.

9:07 We got lemonade for 50 people, and hoped we wouldn't be embarrassed.

9:11 And the church was filled to overflowing.

9:13 There were almost a thousand people there.

9:15 And uh he spoke to us that night,

9:17 and talked about rural people joining forces with urban people,

9:22 and he said uh rural feeders and urban eaters.

9:27 [laughter] And that sort of caught everyone's attention.

9:31 Some presidents hang pictures on the wall of the White House.

9:34 I'm going to hang a map of Greenfield on the wall of THE WILD CARD.

9:38 [cheering] [applause]

9:40 MONTHS LATER, AFTER THE CONVENTION, Jackson still spoke fondly of Greenfield.

9:46 How can I ever forget the love in Greenfield, Iowa.

9:50 These people reached out and grew and got and got bigger than themselves.

9:55 Uh it was this whole trauma where people wrestled

9:57 with with race earnestly

10:01 but in a rather non-threatening non-confrontational way.

10:07 Where people would say, "Well, we like the Jesse Jackson message.

10:10 We like his courage.

10:12 We like the way he presents his argument.

10:15 We like his positions.

10:17 We like he's standing with us at the plant gate, the farm gate.

10:21 But they could not get across the butt to the therefore we will support him.

10:28 Jesse Jackson is our name.

10:30 You take a stool and he's going to be our next president.

10:35 In Iowa, Jackson won 10% of the delegates, finishing fourth in a field of eight.

10:42 I remember the stink that coming out of Iowa, moving toward New Hampshire.

10:46 Although we had run into double digits,

10:49 which was beyond what the projected expectation was.

10:53 Um we won network TV that week for 15 seconds.

10:59 Uh Dukakis, Simon, Gephardt between 22 and 24 minutes of network time.

11:04 So, we were dismissed.

11:08 A week later, in the New Hampshire primary,

11:11 Jackson did no better than he did in Iowa.

11:15 A distant fourth.

11:17 Once the campaign began, I was determined to see it to the end.

11:22 I knew if we survived Iowa, survived New Hampshire and got south,

11:28 we were going to change the the equation

11:30 because we would have uh a running chance

11:33 of people who would put their hopes

11:35 and their beliefs and their votes in the same direction.

11:39 Jackson was counting on the South.

11:43 For the first time, almost all the Southern

11:45 states were holding primaries on the same day.

11:48 Super Tuesday was devised by Southern Democrats to give

11:51 the South more clout in nominating a conservative Democrat for president.

11:56 Yet Jackson strategists saw Super Tuesday

11:59 as a golden opportunity for their candidate.

12:02 Yes, see mom, please.

12:05 Our joke was, let's not tell them what that really means for us.

12:11 Um we like the idea that they are organizing a Super Tuesday.

12:18 And you know, to the degree that they

12:20 think that it will make them more powerful,

12:22 it's all right because we really know what that means.

12:31 In the South, almost 20% of eligible voters are black.

12:35 Jackson's strategy depended on a large black voter turnout.

12:40 In March of 1988, at the United House of Prayer in Charlotte, North Carolina,

12:45 we saw something we had not seen a month

12:47 before in the chilly [music] towns of Iowa.

12:50 Instead of polite interest in the Jackson campaign, we saw enthusiasm.

13:03 Here, there was a feeling of homecoming

13:05 and the belief that this campaign could succeed.

13:10 [cheering] [cheering] The challenge for Jackson was to find a way

13:22 to compete in 20 states at once with no money.

13:27 By March, the campaign was already hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt.

13:32 For a strategy, Jackson turned to his campaign manager, Gerald Austin.

13:38 We decided that the best way to deal with Super

13:41 Tuesday is we never would have a million dollars for media.

13:47 But if we were able to get a large enough plane to take the media with us and go

13:52 to four or five or sometimes even six different

13:55 media markets in a day, that was our media.

13:58 The campaign picked 82 congressional districts

14:01 where they thought Jackson could win delegates,

14:03 and the candidate started running with the press

14:06 chasing behind to the beat of a campaign song.

14:09 Ready for another one?

14:10 I'm ready.

14:10 Let's go.

14:18 [music]

14:26 We would start [music] in Georgia, fly to Texas,

14:28 fly to Maryland, back to North Carolina, overnight in Alabama.

14:32 People would say, "Oh, where'd you just come from?" And I I would feel like

14:36 an idiot cuz I'd have to pause and think, "I can't remember." [music]

14:52 He'd get out there and he'd give that speech,

14:54 he'd [music] see the crowd, that was the elixir.

14:56 Boom.

14:57 You know, all of a sudden he turned on, he was magic.

15:01 And he'd get back on the bus and he'd look like the rest of us.

15:20 Yeah, the guy, the kids will Look at this, they got a Mexican spring dance.

15:23 Let's go.

15:24 I'm looking Look at them.

15:33 Brownsville, Texas.

15:35 One of many stops on the day before Super Tuesday.

15:38 The crowds were large and enthusiastic.

15:43 When Jackson ran for president in 1984, he talked about a rainbow coalition.

15:48 But most of his support came from blacks.

15:52 In this election, he was still getting

15:53 little help from [music] the white Democratic establishment.

15:57 One of the few nationally known Democrats to endorse

16:00 him was Texas Commissioner of Agriculture Jim Hightower.

16:04 He had learned from '84.

16:06 And I'm not I'm not trying to say here he was

16:08 more strident in '84 or or more black-oriented in in '84, though I think he was.

16:16 But I think more significant is that his his message

16:21 was clearly one of populism and and he wouldn't talk

16:24 to any audience without talking about the inclusive inclusiveness that is

16:28 needed within the Democratic Party and for for the country.

16:34 [applause] And new taxes.

16:35 I WANT THE WOMEN PRE-NATAL CARE.

16:37 AND IN HEAD START.

16:39 AND DAY CARE.

16:41 ON THE FRONT SIDE OF LIFE RATHER THAN JAIL CARE AND WELFARE ON THE BACK SIDE.

16:46 LET'S EDUCATE OUR CHILDREN AND GIVE OUR CHILDREN

16:50 [applause] [cheering] [cheering]

17:05 JACKSON!

17:07 [screaming] [cheering] GIVE ME MY JESSE!

17:17 GIVE ME MY JESSE.

17:19 GIVE ME MY JESSE.

17:23 THE ENDLESS RALLIES AND plane rides and practically

17:26 no sleep seemed to be paying off.

17:29 Polls were showing a burst of support for Jackson.

17:35 But in this campaign, Jackson had not received something he wanted very badly.

17:44 Martin Luther King Jr.

17:45 had been his mentor, but when Jackson ran for president in 1984,

17:50 he did not receive the endorsement of Coretta Scott King

17:53 or Andrew Young or other veteran leaders of the civil rights movement.

17:58 Keep the dream alive.

18:00 Let the quest This time most black elected officials did endorse Jackson.

18:07 But once again, his movement colleagues kept their distance.

18:13 We the people can win.

18:15 I didn't endorse anybody.

18:17 But I tried to work with everybody.

18:20 I even tried to work with some Republicans behind the scenes because I

18:23 think it's important that the issues affecting

18:28 this country are not just partisan issues.

18:31 Issue like South Africa, issue like drugs, issue like child care.

18:35 Those are not partisan issues.

18:37 I never harbored any uh bitterness or hostility.

18:41 Even toward those toward those who did not support because

18:44 I knew it would just be a matter of time.

18:47 You weren't hurt?

18:49 Not really.

18:50 Uh I was I was prepared.

18:52 It's like if you're running a football through the line of scrimmage.

18:56 You may get real hit real hard, but you're so focused on the goal line

19:01 and you're so conditioned to expect to be hit.

19:05 You're hit, but you're not hurt.

19:07 Even without that support,

19:08 Jackson got 91% of the record black vote on Super Tuesday.

19:12 Although he received only 7% of the white vote, he won the overall popular vote.

19:17 If we can RUN IN 20 STATES IN ONE DAY WITH A $100,000 BUDGET OH,

19:26 WE CATCH THEM STATE BY STATE

19:30 [cheering] AND DAY BY DAY.

19:31 THEY GOT HIGH-TECH.

19:34 WE GOT GRASSROOTS.

19:36 THEY GOT COMMERCIALS.

19:38 WE GOT A MESSAGE.

19:42 [cheering] THEY GOT A RICH CAMPAIGN AND LOOKING FOR A LEADER.

19:46 WE GOT A LEADER.

19:49 [cheering] WE CAN MAKE IT.

19:48 WE GOT LEADERSHIP.

19:50 WE GOT COURAGE.

19:51 WE GOT DIRECTION.

19:53 WE ARE EXTRAORDINARY AT THE PULPIT.

19:55 WE THE PEOPLE CAN WIN.

19:58 WE the people can win.

20:00 We the people can win.

20:02 WE THE PEOPLE CAN WIN.

20:04 WE THE PEOPLE CAN WIN.

20:07 WE THE PEOPLE CAN WIN.

20:09 WE THE PEOPLE CAN WIN.

20:11 THE DAY AFTER Super Tuesday, we followed Jackson home to Chicago.

20:21 [music]

20:33 It was in Chicago in the 1960s [music] that Jackson

20:36 first made his mark as a civil rights activist.

20:42 [music] [music] [singing] [music] People in Chicago know Jesse Jackson well.

21:08 He is not universally admired.

21:11 But on that day at Operation PUSH headquarters, he was among friends.

21:17 I WANT TO WRITE A HEADLINE.

21:20 JACKSON FEEDS HUNGRY.

21:25 JACKSON

21:28 [applause] SETS THE CAPTIVE FREE.

21:30 [cheering]

21:32 JACKSON INSPIRES CHILDREN.

21:33 JACKSON [screaming] BRINGS PEOPLE TOGETHER.

21:37 JACKSON [cheering] BUILDS.

21:39 JACKSON BRINGS PEACE.

21:42 I WANT TO MAKE A HEADLINE.

21:43 I WANT TO MAKE A HEADLINE.

21:45 THE one reason why Jesse is not as popular in Chicago as he is in the rest

21:49 of the country is that people here have known him too well for too long.

21:52 They remember the early, more brash, more arrogant Jesse Jackson,

21:56 and they look with a much more jaundiced eye when you start saying,

21:59 "Well, Jesse has changed.

22:01 He's He's He's He's He's more humble now."

22:04 Uh Chicagoans just have a hard time believing that.

22:07 Even though Jackson won the Super Tuesday popular vote,

22:11 Michael Dukakis was still ahead in the race for delegates.

22:16 Both Dukakis and Jackson saw the coming Illinois primary as crucial.

22:25 [music] Complicating the situation was the United

22:33 States Senator from Illinois, Paul Simon.

22:41 Simon did poorly in the early primaries.

22:44 He did not run on Super Tuesday, but resurrected his campaign in Illinois.

22:50 Jackson saw Simon as a spoiler.

22:56 He held on to run a a one-state

22:58 campaign propped up by the Democratic state party machinery.

23:04 As a in fact favorite son for the state.

23:09 And then he loved Illinois and with a fine effort lost again.

23:16 And rather than withdraw in an honorable way from the campaign

23:21 process which time since I came in number two,

23:24 I would have gotten 47 delegates he did

23:28 not quit the campaign and he suspended the campaign.

23:33 Uh I thought that that maneuvering was beneath the dignity

23:39 that Senator Simon and the fairness that he'd always projected.

23:45 I'm sure he feels that way, but Simon was playing practical politics and Jackson

23:51 is also now a very practical politician.

23:54 And the fact of the matter is is that the entrenched

23:58 political structure here is still mainly a white-dominated structure.

24:03 Those people on the Democratic Central Committee did not want Jesse Jackson.

24:07 They wanted to go as Paul Simon delegates

24:10 to the national convention and they weren't going to switch.

24:15 [cheering] [applause] Five days before the primary,

24:22 Simon and Jackson appeared together at a Democratic Unity Dinner.

24:26 There simply is is no better and more aggressive

24:30 and more sensitive senator in in Washington today than Paul Simon.

24:35 And [cheering]

24:38 [applause] And I intend to keep him there.

24:44 That's my real point.

24:47 [laughter] That's my real point.

24:51 He's so great, we need to keep him right there in that Senate.

24:54 When Jackson was not playing hardball politics,

24:57 he was often in a high school gym.

25:00 [cheering] He made a point of going to two or three high schools a week,

25:04 even though the students could not vote.

25:08 [cheering] At Naperville North High School near Chicago,

25:12 Jackson's presence electrified the students.

25:17 [cheering] These events seem to rejuvenate Jackson as well.

25:22 [cheering] [applause] On the day of the Illinois primary, though,

25:25 future voters were of no use to Jackson.

25:29 He needed people who could vote for him now.

25:33 He went to the Robert Taylor Homes,

25:35 a high-rise housing project, to get out the vote.

25:51 These were people he knew.

25:53 He hoped he could count on.

25:57 I'd I'd walk through that area many times before.

26:01 That was Harold Washington's ward, and he wasn't old enough, for example.

26:05 And when he ran for mayor, we campaigned together in that same area.

26:14 [cheering] Just as on Super Tuesday,

26:16 Jackson needed a record black turnout to put him over the top.

26:20 But the Jackson campaign worried that blacks here were not well organized,

26:24 and that voter registration rules might keep many away from the polls.

26:35 CALIFORNIA SHOWS THAT IF THE election were held today,

26:38 not one of the Democratic candidates could beat George Bush or Bob Dole.

26:43 Pat Island, Channel 5 Eyewitness News, Chicago.

26:47 Our campaign in Illinois is winning.

26:48 I feel very good about it.

26:50 Senator Simon won the Democratic primary in Illinois.

26:53 Jesse Jackson was a distant second.

26:55 Blacks did not vote in record numbers, and once again,

26:58 Jackson received just 7% of the white vote.

27:02 There was much to celebrate.

27:06 It seems that the people of this great

27:08 state has done well by its two favorite sons.

27:14 Tonight, they paid their respects to a sitting

27:19 senator who focused on on one state.

27:24 And they've done well by campaign as we focused on in every state,

27:31 every race, against all odds across this country.

27:37 [applause and cheering]

27:42 The next big hurdle was Michigan, another large industrial state.

27:47 Despite the Illinois loss, Jackson still led the Democrats in popular votes.

27:54 But many analysts felt he had reached his peak.

27:58 Key local and national Democrats began to endorse Dukakis.

28:03 Early statewide polls in Michigan predicted a sure Jackson defeat.

28:08 No one was caught more off guard by what

28:11 happened next than those of us who were covering Jackson.

28:15 Good evening.

28:16 Jesse Jackson's shocker landslide in yesterday's Michigan caucuses has

28:20 put the Democratic presidential fight in chaos again tonight.

28:24 The numbers tell the story with Jackson beating

28:26 Governor Michael Dukakis by roughly a two-to-one margin.

28:29 Jesse Jackson, the Democratic front-runner, today, that's the way it looks.

28:38 [music] NBC Nightly News.

28:40 The same media that's that said uh he shouldn't run.

28:45 Uh he never should have run.

28:48 Um, he can't do as well in '88 as he did in '84.

28:53 Uh, can a black run?

28:54 I mean, can a black win?

28:56 Is he electable?

28:58 That same meter came out of uh, out of Michigan in trauma.

29:03 For many in the party hierarchy, Jackson's surge is a mind-blower.

29:07 They dreaded that it would happen in Michigan, but it did happen.

29:11 I cannot wait to defeat George Bush in November.

29:15 [cheering] Jesse Jackson's victory in Michigan last weekend has

29:17 drastically changed the shape of the 1988 campaign.

29:21 Stunned party professionals are saying, sometimes unhappily,

29:24 he really might be the nominee.

29:27 Somebody's either got to beat Jesse Jackson at these rules,

29:31 or they've got to change the rules and say

29:33 it's the first white guy across the line who wins,

29:36 not just the first guy across the line.

29:37 I think that everybody was shocked.

29:40 Uh, people in Washington were apoplectic.

29:43 Uh, the the mood in this town was "Oh my god,

29:46 this guy could win the nomination." And it wasn't only in this town,

29:51 it was all over the country.

29:52 All of a sudden, Jesse Jackson won a significant state,

29:56 one he was not expected to win, and now he's a serious candidate.

30:04 In one week, headlines changed from what does Jesse want to can he win?

30:17 After Michigan, Jesse Jackson was ahead of all the other

30:20 Democrats in both the popular vote and in convention delegates.

30:25 He arrived in Wisconsin with polls predicting he might win again.

30:32 [applause] Those were really magical times for that for that campaign.

30:35 Some office holders are not leaders.

30:38 And some leaders are not office holders.

30:40 I'm a leader.

30:41 My experience has brought me He went to Wisconsin to this dairy farm.

30:46 Who's uh their population that he got in Watts

30:50 in LA when he um in the middle of the day?

30:55 And uh there was just this this this tension in the air what what's happening?

31:02 What's happening?

31:04 Can he do it?

31:05 I think you saw Reverend Jackson a little bolder.

31:08 Um I think you saw his supporters a little more spirited.

31:13 Um on the downside though, when Reverend Jackson gets bold,

31:18 uh sometimes it's not the best political thing to do.

31:22 Jackson was now under intense media scrutiny

31:25 and suddenly one of his bold moves backfired.

31:28 As long as he kept moving he was fine,

31:30 but when he paused after a rally in front of a union hall to take questions,

31:34 they were nearly all about this.

31:36 Panamanian General Noriega's letter in response to Jackson's

31:39 offer of help in arranging Noriega's exit.

31:42 The General offered to meet with Jackson,

31:43 but but Jackson today seemed to be backing out of the Noriega issue

31:47 in all directions as if he decided

31:49 it wasn't a good political opportunity after all.

31:51 Would he meet with Noriega?

31:53 I would not do that now.

31:55 I simply will appeal to members of the Congress to get more information.

31:59 I didn't I didn't know about it till after it was done.

32:01 Uh I think it was a mistake, but I don't think it was the mistake.

32:05 Um I think that it wasn't helpful.

32:08 Uh people especially reporters were out there

32:11 waiting for Jesse Jackson to make a mistake.

32:13 Uh he did.

32:14 That was a mistake.

32:16 But I think that the the reason we didn't

32:18 do well in Wisconsin was a combination of things.

32:20 That's our America AND THAT'S OUR CHALLENGE.

32:26 [cheering] NUMBER ONE, because we won in Michigan,

32:27 people were saying this guy could be president.

32:30 This guy could win this nomination.

32:32 I don't know that I want to vote for him.

32:34 When I I voting for him it was sort of a protest

32:36 cuz I like what he had to say, that was one thing.

32:38 But now I got to look at it a different way.

32:40 It's a different kind of vote.

32:44 Jackson lost in Wisconsin almost two to one.

32:47 For a brief week, he had momentum.

32:50 Win, Jesse, win.

32:51 Win, Jesse, win.

32:54 Now, the analysts were saying, to keep going, he must win the next primary.

32:59 And the next primary was in New York.

33:01 He believed, and I believe that he could win in the state of New York,

33:05 and then use that to go on and maybe win at the convention as well,

33:11 because he did win in a number of states,

33:14 took a lot of southern states, and some northern states, and came in second.

33:18 So, in a large number.

33:20 So, I perceived him as a very important candidate who had to be carefully

33:25 scrutinized like you would any first-rate candidate

33:29 running for the Democratic Party's highest nomination.

33:32 South Africa?

33:33 New York City Mayor Ed Koch is seldom hesitant about expressing his opinions.

33:37 He soon let the media know his views on Jesse Jackson.

33:40 But on the other hand, he's praising Arafat,

33:43 and he thinks maybe Jews and other supporters of Israel should vote for him.

33:47 They got to be crazy.

33:48 In the same way they would be crazy if they were black and voted

33:52 for someone who was praising Botha

33:55 and the racist supporters of the South African administration.

34:00 You understand what I'm saying?

34:02 He's got two standards.

34:04 They're not my standards, and so I have said that it's

34:08 very bad to contemplate having Jackson as president.

34:14 remember arriving at uh Newark Airport and walking by a newsstand

34:19 as I usually do when I come into a town,

34:20 just looking at the headline of the paper.

34:22 And you know, there's so many papers in New York,

34:24 but I I concentrated on Newsday.

34:27 It's the Long Island paper, and the headline was Jesse Jackson and the Jews.

34:32 I thought it was a new rock group.

34:34 And I thought to myself, I'm in for it here.

34:37 In 1984, Jackson had called New York City Jaime Town.

34:41 Newspapers carried pictures of him with PLO leader

34:43 Yasser Arafat and Black Muslim leader Louis Farrakhan.

34:47 In this campaign, people were still passionate on these subjects,

34:50 even if they didn't always have their facts straight.

34:53 What do you think of Jackson?

34:54 Not very much.

34:55 Why?

34:56 What?

34:57 Because he he he stands on all the wrong things.

34:59 He I was just telling these gentlemen here the same thing happens.

35:03 He he says that he won't deal with South African governments or South South

35:07 American governments because they're terrorists.

35:09 Yet he embraces and kisses Anwar Sadat of the PLO.

35:13 He loves the PLO.

35:13 He loves the PLO.

35:14 And they're admitted Anwar Sadat admitted on television

35:17 that he's in fact a terrorist a terrorist.

35:20 So where does he stand Mr.

35:22 Mr.

35:22 Jackson?

35:23 What is going to happen, you know?

35:25 I I like Reverend Jackson.

35:27 My problem was Farrakhan.

35:31 And I have not heard him cut himself loose from him yet.

35:34 And that was my problem.

35:35 Cuz I do like the man.

35:37 I think he's fantastic.

35:39 But his connection with Farrakhan frightens me.

35:53 New York was hell.

35:55 Uh it was a situation where uh obviously there were so many

35:59 death threats on Reverend Jackson's life

36:03 that the Secret Service was very uptight.

36:06 Um by uptight, I mean that uh they were super precautious.

36:10 It was difficult for reporters to get close to Reverend Jackson at those times.

36:15 Um everything was tense.

36:17 Every single day of that campaign was filled with tension.

36:26 This week with David Brinkley.

36:28 Well, I don't want to talk about black

36:30 Jewish confrontation cuz I don't think that's the issue.

36:33 I think the issue is who's good for America and I

36:35 want to talk about Jesse Jackson's character flaws, if I may.

36:39 Why do you think that Coretta Scott King and Hosea Williams

36:43 and Andy Young as of last week have not endorsed Reverend Jackson?

36:47 It is I think because when he was under stress and and Dr.

36:52 King was assassinated, he didn't tell the truth.

36:56 He said he cradled Dr.

36:58 King's head in his arms.

37:00 The last man to speak with him.

37:02 His shirt was bloody and he wore it for two days.

37:05 It wasn't truthful.

37:06 When under stress again, when he uttered the words Hymietown and I'm not

37:11 faulting him in this election as a result of that.

37:14 I'm faulting him for lying and saying he did not.

37:17 Do you want a president who under stress is not capable of telling the truth?

37:22 I never attacked him personally.

37:24 I always said that Jesse Jackson was one of the smartest,

37:27 if not the smartest candidate running and the most charismatic.

37:31 But I didn't agree with his philosophy.

37:34 It was personal.

37:36 And it was racial.

37:38 It was mean.

37:39 It was ugly.

37:41 It was unprovoked.

37:42 It was unnecessary.

37:44 It was the worst of leadership.

37:47 Was I doing my job when others were not?

37:50 Now, maybe I didn't do it as well as I could have and I plead guilty to that.

37:55 But if you're a lonely voice, you know,

37:57 and there's no one else talking, you sound loud.

38:00 You sound strident.

38:03 Two days before the New York primary,

38:04 Mayor Koch marched in the Israeli Independence Day

38:07 parade with his preferred candidate for president, Al Gore.

38:12 Michael Dukakis was also there.

38:14 Jesse Jackson was conspicuously absent.

38:23 At that moment in another part of town,

38:25 Jackson was leading a parade of his own across the Williamsburg Bridge,

38:30 which was closed for repairs.

38:34 He said he wanted to draw attention to the city's crumbling infrastructure.

38:40 But Jackson found it hard to get away

38:42 from accusations that he was simply avoiding the Jewish community.

38:47 The constant public challenges by the uh uh council of Jewish

38:52 leaders who kept challenging us to come meet with them.

38:56 In one sense, not so much to to dialogue

39:00 in that atmosphere and get a better understanding,

39:02 but it was a big political tug of war.

39:05 Is that why you didn't meet with them?

39:08 correct.

39:08 Uh the mayor led the charge with the religious

39:10 and uh and ethnic litmus test for support.

39:15 And it was a lot of fury in the air,

39:18 and I refused to bring our campaign down to that level,

39:22 and so I suffered it to be.

39:25 In other primaries, Jackson had often ventured into unfriendly voter territory.

39:29 In New York, he stuck closer to his constituency,

39:32 and as usual, he looked to future voters.

39:36 If I was old enough, I'd vote for him so many times.

39:41 Do you think that he can become president?

39:42 Yes.

39:43 Do you think he'd be a good president?

39:44 Yes, I'm putting all my WISHES TO HIM.

39:50 WHEN I WIN, THE CHILDREN WIN.

39:55 [cheering] WHEN I WIN, SENIORS WIN.

39:56 WHEN I WIN, JUSTICE WINS.

39:59 WHEN I WIN, HOPE WINS.

40:02 YOU MUST KEEP HOPE ALIVE.

40:05 KEEP HOPE KEEP HOPE VOTE.

40:12 VOTE.

40:14 VOTE.

40:17 [screaming] VOTE.

40:18 VOTE.

40:19 KEEP HOPE ALIVE.

40:21 KEEP HOPE ALIVE.

40:22 GO.

40:22 Jackson lost the New York primary decisively.

40:26 The next morning, as the campaign moved on to Pennsylvania,

40:29 the atmosphere was thick with disappointment.

40:33 Have your attention, please.

40:34 In approximately 3 minutes, we will arrive 30th Street Station, Philadelphia.

40:39 We ask that you check the seats to have all of your personal belongings.

40:45 For those of us covering Jackson, the campaign seemed to be on its last legs.

40:51 Wasted days and wasted Even campaign insiders were discouraged.

40:59 It's obvious to me that we were not going to win this nomination.

41:04 And we went into Pennsylvania,

41:05 which was going to be the worst big state

41:06 in the country for us because it was winner-take-all.

41:10 Uh and except for, you know, uh votes in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia area,

41:15 there's a vast wasteland there for us.

41:18 We were not filed in all the congressional districts.

41:22 And I think the campaign at that point went from a campaign to a crusade.

41:28 And basically fell back on a lot of what went on in 1984.

41:32 Became a movement.

41:34 The The campaign shifted dramatically for Jesse at that point.

41:37 As long as we were on the uh interstate,

41:41 on the thoroughfare, Jesse was managing a regular campaign.

41:45 When we went to Pennsylvania, we had to go to alternate route.

41:48 And he was not equipped emotionally for the alternate

41:51 route as he had been for the regular route.

41:55 After New York, Al Gore withdrew from the race.

41:59 But Jackson kept campaigning.

42:01 He sat still only long enough to get prepared for the next appearance.

42:05 This time, a debate with Dukakis in Pittsburgh.

42:13 You bring them home to steel.

42:15 in the sense that there's research for new uses of steel.

42:20 The Jackson staff continued publicly to campaign as usual.

42:24 Do me a favor.

42:25 I'll be right back.

42:26 Sorry.

42:27 Jackson had doubts.

42:29 He kept them to himself.

42:30 Knox is proud.

42:32 Many around me felt a sense of let down because of New York.

42:38 And I could not be down.

42:39 I I had to lift them up.

42:41 I had to I had to keep people moving

42:44 because once we left New York and and only Dukakis

42:48 and I remained I had to keep earning votes against

42:54 the media saying that we were going to inevitably lose.

42:57 If we did win, it would be a catastrophe with all that doomsday talk.

43:03 Now I knew I had to go from Pennsylvania to California.

43:06 And and we could not surrender.

43:10 And now forward and swing with him,

43:12 Governor Michael Dukakis, and then Reverend Jesse Jackson.

43:24 [cheering] It was a confusing time in the campaign.

43:35 The press kept reporting there was no way Jackson could win.

43:38 That Dukakis was the inevitable nominee.

43:41 Consumer advocate.

43:43 But Jackson kept trying to seize some advantage while his campaign seemed

43:47 to be disintegrating from within as key

43:50 staff members voiced their private doubts publicly.

43:55 And I uh pissed him off on more than one occasion by something I said.

43:59 Um most of the time it was uh the wrong thing to say.

44:03 Uh couple of times I thought I was right in what I said,

44:05 but his attitude was I shouldn't have been saying anything.

44:08 What I should have been doing was making sure the money was there,

44:10 doing the administrative part, and let the speaking be to him.

44:12 Jackson's response, which was correct,

44:14 was you can't get screwed by a reporter if you don't talk to him.

44:19 I know you will do it.

44:20 In the jargon of the 1988 campaign, Jackson was his own spin doctor.

44:26 He made a habit of calling reporters whose stories were not to his liking.

44:31 Hey Ben, how you doing?

44:33 Good.

44:33 Good.

44:33 Good.

44:35 Great.

44:36 Let me bring you a little clarity on this article yesterday.

44:39 First of all, our campaign is in high gear and driving

44:44 toward the uh June 7th with great hope of winning the nomination.

44:52 He don't screw around with small fry.

44:53 I mean, if he's got a problem with CNN, he calls Ted Turner.

44:57 Don't call the president of CNN, he calls Ted Turner.

45:00 He's got a problem with the Washington Post, he calls Ben Bradlee.

45:03 He don't And he's not shy about doing it.

45:05 So, my brother, I don't want the people back home to have any mixed signals.

45:09 Our campaign is in full gear.

45:13 Okay?

45:14 Cuz I I still think the article was a bit misleading.

45:23 Life can be quite miserable with people who uh on the plane learning their trade

45:32 at your expense and opinionating every day

45:36 and having such an impact upon your career,

45:38 your destiny, interpreting what you're doing.

45:42 If somebody writes something that he doesn't like, you know,

45:44 he has a he'll call you up to front of plane, you know.

45:48 What about this?

45:49 What about this?

45:51 Uh you know, you you'd see him.

45:53 I mean, he he's very good at that.

45:54 He's very good at intimidating people.

45:57 Um and a lot of people fell for it.

45:59 And they would allow themselves to be intimidated.

46:02 We will not did not have an antagonistic

46:04 relationship with the people on the plane, people who travel with us.

46:10 Basically because I did not watch very much television during the campaign.

46:15 I read very few articles about myself.

46:18 No way.

46:20 No way.

46:21 I mean, he he know he he read every chance he got.

46:25 We stand and stuff on the plane.

46:27 He you know, he read everything about him.

46:33 [cheering] [applause] At a get-out-the-vote rally in Canton, Ohio,

46:38 Jackson let his irritation with the press show.

46:43 [cheering and applause]

46:43 You talked to Jerry Austin and Willie Brown about not speaking up

46:46 so much about the direction of the campaign and letting you handle that?

46:50 We constantly have talked within our inner

46:53 circle about how to interpret where we are.

46:59 And so that's just standard operating procedure.

47:01 I choose as you raised it to bring clarity.

47:04 Number one, make this very clear.

47:07 We are running right through June 7th.

47:12 Write that down.

47:14 We're running hard in Ohio.

47:17 Write that down.

47:19 We are gaining popular votes and delegates in every campaign.

47:24 Write that down.

47:27 [applause] We intend to get our share delegates based on popular votes.

47:35 Write that down.

47:37 We intend to come out of California and New Jersey in search

47:41 of a management team and a running mate to confront Bush.

47:49 All right, that down.

47:51 That is authoritative, fresh, clear, without fear of contradiction.

47:57 Thank you very much.

48:00 [cheering] It was still a political campaign.

48:03 I mean, the logistics were all in place.

48:05 We still followed the same form, but um the the tension was gone.

48:13 Um there was just a certain looseness as we traveled.

48:16 A looseness in the sense of um people were more quick to make jokes.

48:21 Jackson was more quick to make jokes.

48:24 People began to study hand jive and hand

48:28 gestures that we became thing unto itself.

48:43 So, I do miss miss Mrs.

48:45 Reagan's Mrs.

48:46 Mrs.

48:47 Reagan's The one that you really created, what does this mean, Reverend Jackson?

49:02 It was just so a question of dexterity, flexibility.

49:08 Now, you put two like this.

49:10 Put these two together.

49:12 Put these two together and then and then separate them.

49:14 You got that?

49:17 There you go.

49:19 Put it out there.

49:19 Put it out there.

49:20 Come on, let's put it Reverend Jackson, what does it mean?

49:27 I guess, huh?

49:28 All right, put these put these together.

49:30 I can't do it.

49:34 [laughter] Of the dozen primaries in the last 6 weeks of the campaign,

49:42 Jackson won only the District of Columbia.

49:45 Dukakis won Indiana, Ohio, Nebraska, West Virginia, Oregon, Idaho, Montana,

49:51 New Jersey, New Mexico, Dakota, and the crucial state of California.

49:58 Yet, Jackson never stopped running.

50:00 He competed in every primary, and his name would be placed in nomination

50:04 at the Democratic National Convention in Atlanta.

50:10 But, what did that mean?

50:12 What had been accomplished by the Jackson campaign?

50:26 If Jesse Jackson had not run,

50:28 we really never would have known that there would have been so many

50:32 people of all colors and all economic backgrounds that would have voted for him.

50:38 Somebody has to start it, and someone has to build upon it.

50:42 I don't think things this big and this important get lost.

50:47 I think that you can only improve on it.

50:51 Jesse Jackson would go to the convention with 1,200 delegates,

50:55 three times as many as in 1984.

51:00 Yet, in none of his victories,

51:02 did Jackson ever come near a majority of the white vote.

51:08 [cheering] This is America.

51:09 And America is a 90% white country.

51:13 And not only is white in its skin color, it still thinks white,

51:16 and it couldn't I was amazed that America

51:20 did as well to understand Jesse as they did.

51:24 And I think it was a tremendous victory for lots of reasons.

51:29 But, it never approached election.

51:32 I mean, it never approached electability, either as president or vice president.

51:42 [cheering] We saw Jackson with black crowds and white crowds,

51:45 with friendly audiences and hostile ones.

51:49 In every situation, he was a magnet.

51:51 [screaming] He was the center of attention.

51:57 He's 47 years [music] of age.

51:59 He can run for president again in 20 years

52:01 and still be younger than when Ronald Reagan first ran.

52:04 Jesse Jackson has a constituency.

52:06 Uh he had it in 1984.

52:08 Mondale went on to oblivion, for Ferraro to oblivion.

52:12 Jesse Jackson still a major player.

52:15 Bozeman, Montana, the end of the campaign.

52:19 In 2 days, Jackson would lose the Montana primary.

52:23 Jesse, you doing me a favor?

52:25 Like my mom No.

52:27 I'm Ronald Reagan.

52:28 You become a big politician.

52:30 You deserve [laughter] I'm Ronald Reagan and I'm down out.

52:34 Stand and then you'll give me a little nose.

52:39 [laughter] Love you.

52:40 Love you.

52:41 Please in Washington.

52:42 Oh, yeah.

52:45 On a sunny day in Montana,

52:46 we saw one last time Jackson's ability to connect with all kinds of people.

52:54 For us, this was the end of the campaign.

52:57 But for Jesse Jackson, the campaign may never be over.

53:03 You have to have tough skin and a tender heart.

53:07 Don't shout too much when you win.

53:11 And don't cry too much when you lose.

53:13 You really have to be able to bounce back, take a position.

53:18 Uh yesterday was tough.

53:20 Made some mistakes, slipped up and fell.

53:23 But this day is the first day of the rest of my life.

53:26 Move on.

53:28 I love you, Jesse.

53:29 I love you, too.

53:30 Thank you, Jesse.

53:32 Love you, Jesse.

53:33 Thank you, Jesse.

53:42 [music] From the network of public stations, a presentation of KCTS Seattle,

53:46 WNET New York, WPBT Miami, WTVS Detroit, and WGBH Boston.

53:54 This is Frontline.

54:20 [music] [music]

54:59 Frontline is produced for the documentary consortium by WGBH Boston,

55:03 which is solely responsible for its content.

55:07 Funding for Frontline is provided by this station

55:11 and other public television stations nationwide,

55:14 and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.