One wonders what, at this point, Barack Obama thinks about Jesse Jackson. At the very least, he knows he needs to protect his nuts the next time they cross paths. Today, the Obama campaign was once again in damage control mode after a quote from Jesse Jackson about Obama and Israel showed up in the New York Post. Basically, Jackson said that although "Zionists who have controlled American policy for decades" are still powerful, Obama will end the decades-old policy "putting Israel's interests first."

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Sarah Palin has had a big week. Her fabulous interview with Katie Couric aired, her running-mate fake-suspended his campaign, the National Enquirer ran a story about her alleged affair with the first dude's business partner, and she got to take pictures and chat with a number of foreign leaders. The big week continued yesterday with a trip to the Clinton Global Initiative, where she hung out with Cindy McCain and met Jesse Jackson. Going by the pictures, she looks almost starstruck. Maybe we can catch Jackson on a hot mic one day to find out what his first impression of her was.

Al Sharpton recently told the SCLC that just because a person makes a mistake, it doesn't mean that we should forget all of the good things he has done. No, he wasn't talking about himself. He wants black America to apply some Christian forgiveness to Jesse Jackson, who has fallen out of favor after accidentally threatening to violate the sanctity of Barack Obama's balls in front of a live mic.

"We have all made mistakes. We have all erred, and we ought not try to sugar coat when we err," Sharpton said during a meeting of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Kenner, LA.

"But we should not throw away everything when we err, and to say that Rev. Jackson made a mistake is correct, but to act like Rev. Jesse Jackson is not pivotal to our movement, our history … is wrong."

[EUR]

Proudly touting the fact that it was “THE FIRST TO ASK JESSE JACKSON IF HE USED THE N-WORD WHILE CRITICIZING OBAMA,” Inside Edition keeps the Jesse Jackson saga alive by publishing this interview, set to air tonight:

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Bill O'Reilly continues to take the pretend high road on this Jesse Jackson "nuts" business, despite the fact that he was the one who aired a portion of the civil rights leader's hot mic conversation in the first place. Rumors have been swirling about what else was said in the unaired portion of the convo, and earlier today a reliable source told TVNewser that Jackson used the word nigger, as in "[Barack Obama is] trying to tell niggers what to do" but did not use the word to describe Obama (just the rest of black America).

Anyway, O'Reilly confirmed this bit of news to Shepard Smith, but said he hadn't intended to release that portion of the conversation because it was just "trash talk." "I'm not in the business of hurting Jesse Jackson, because it does hurt Jesse Jackson. And I'm not in the business of creating some kind of controversy that is not relevant to the general subject: one civil rights leader disparaging another, over policy. So we held it back." What a sweetie. [TVNewser]

John McLaughlin of the McLaughlin Group, posing a question about cookies to his roundtable:

"Question: Does it frost Jackson, Jesse Jackson, that someone like Obama, who fits the stereotype blacks once labeled as an Oreo — a black on the outside, a white on the inside — that an Oreo should be the beneficiary of the long civil rights struggle which Jesse Jackson spent his lifetime fighting for?"

Nas spoke to MTV about the Jesse Jackson gonads controversy, and, in typical Nas fashion, made a few good points and then completely lost me. He claims that the reason we don't need Jesse Jackson anymore is because we have Nas, Barack Obama, David Banner, and Young Jeezy. Someone please explain.

"I think Jesse Jackson, he's the biggest player hater," Nas fumed during a conference call. "His time is up. All you old n—as, time is up. We heard your voice, we saw your marching, we heard your sermons. We don't wanna hear that sh– no more. It's a new day. It's a new voice. I'm here now. We don't need Jesse; I'm here. I got this. We got Barack, we got David Banners and Young Jeezys. We're the voice now. It's no more Jesse. Sorry. Goodbye. You ain't helping nobody in the 'hood. That's the bottom line. Goodbye, Jesse. Bye!"

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Wherein you, the readers, talk amongst yourselves.

Obviously, Jesse Jackson was dead wrong for threatening to cut off Barack Obama's nuts. But was he wrong about the other things he said? Do you think that Obama has been talking down to black people?

There are live on-air gaffes that news anchors wish they could erase, like the common Obama/Osama mix-up.

But when Jesse Jackson whispered that he wanted to “cut [Obama’s] nuts off” before a Fox & Friends interview on Sunday was set to begin, it was a reminder that public figures often have a hard time keeping their private conversations to themselves when they’ve got a hot mic pack clipped to their hip.

It should be a simple life lesson: When you have a media outlet’s microphone attached to you , by default you should expect other people are listening to your conversation, and very likely recording it. Herewith, some famous examples of people who should know better, but obviously didn’t.

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• Jesse Jackson might have called Barack Obama "the n-word" during the unaired portion of the soon-to-be infamous tape that is in Fox's possession. As soon as it leaks, which it inevitably will, we'll know the truth. Fabulous. [Gawker]

• Young Berg's music sucks. Oh, and so does he. [NB]

• 50 Cent's battle — it isn't even a child-support battle anymore — with his son's mother keeps getting uglier and uglier. [AHH]

• John McCain should work a little harder on those campaign ads and at least attempt to act as if he's living in the 21st century. [TS]

• This sounds like the worst barbecue ever. [C&D]

Jesse Jackson's accidentally-recorded comments about Barack Obama's faith-based initiatives, which he feels are part of a pattern of Obama "talking down to blacks," and his subsequent expression of his desire to personally remove the presumptive nominee's testicles, not only gave the disgusting Bill O'Reilly a chance to gloat and act smug and holier than thou, but it is also causing a serious rift in the Jackson family.

Here's a statement from the national co-chair of Obama's campaign and Jesse Jackson's son, Jesse Jackson, Jr. He might just love Obama more than Dad.

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Rev. Jesse Jackson is distressed. "Very distressed," to be exact. The reason for Jackson's current distress level is this: While waiting to begin an on-air segment with Reid Tuckson, EVP of United Health Group, at Fox News Channel's Chicago Bureau, Jackson said some things about Barack Obama. Apparently, he said some very bad things. Unbeknownst to Jackson, the Fox mics were on and caught every bit of the conversation, during which the former presidential candidate expressed his displeasure over Barack Obama's recent speeches about morality at black churches. The things he said are so bad — and reportedly "racial in nature" — that they will only be able to offer short soundbites on The O'Reilly Factor (of course) tonight. There's no telling exactly what was said, or how bad it is, because no one will actually repeat it. One quote has made its way through the pipeline, courtesy of Matt Drudge. Apparently, Jesse Jackson would like to "cut [Obama's] nuts out." Damn.

Clearly, a preemptive apology from distressed Jesse was in order.

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Barack Obama is clearly the first black presidential candidate with a serious shot at the presidency, but he isn't the first black politician to throw his or her hat in the ring.

Shirley Chisolm ran for the nomination in 1972, followed by Jesse Jackson and others.

In our current presidential election, former Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney is the likely Green Party nominee, and Alan (gag) Keyes is the "America's Independent Party" candidate.