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07/10/2008: "Jesse Jackson says of Obama: "I want to cut his nuts out.""

Jesse Jackson yesterday issued an extraordinary apology to Barack Obama after the civil rights leader was unwittingly recorded making what he said were "crude" comments about the Democratic presidential candidate's policies. The potential damage to Obama's campaign from Jackson's comments - and the divisions they exposed between him and an older generation of African-American leaders - were underlined by the speed of the clergyman's apology.

In an aside to another guest after a Fox News Channel interview on Sunday, Jackson had said Obama had been talking down to black people and added: "I want to cut his nuts out." Initially, news organisations had hesitated to broadcast the off-air derogatory remarks. CNN's Wolf Blitzer said: "It's so crude we can't repeat it on the air."

Later, Fox television, which had the tape and withheld its broadcast until last night, reported that Jackson "threatened to cut off a certain part of Obama's anatomy". The network played a clip in which Jackson said: "Barack, he's talking down to black people."

But by then, Jackson had already issued a statement lavishly praising Obama's run for the White House. "For any harm or hurt that this hot mic private conversation may have caused, I apologise," Jackson said. "My support for Senator Obama's campaign is wide, deep and unequivocal."

[ Shame it was impossible to see Jackson blushing over the exposure of his honest opinion. ]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/10/barackobama.uselections2008