Was Jesse Jackson Right (about Cory Booker)?

Cory Booker

Like many of you I watched the Democrats running for President debate last night. At one point during the debate, in an apparent attempt to show he isn’t part of a political machine, Cory Booker said, “I, with a bunch of tenant leaders in Newark, New Jersey, in 2002, took on the political machine. And boy did they fight back.”

I laughed, not because it was funny, but because like many New Jerseyans I know Booker is very much a machine politician. Many “progressives” called Booker out for a fundraiser hosted by George Norcross and Joe DiVincenzo. Republican U.S. Senate candidate Tricia Flanagan whacked Booker for the fundraiser.

Apparently Jesse Jackson might have known before all of us that Booker would turn out to be a machine politician. Jackson once warned that Booker was a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

I learned of Jackson’s warning by taking an action Booker asked me to. Okay, he didn’t ask just me, Booker asks anyone who signs up for his campaign’s emails to “check out Street Fight, the story of Cory's first campaign for mayor of Newark.”

So, I did exactly as the Booker welcome email asked and watched Street Fight on Netflix. About an hour into the movie the narrator explains, “Jesse Jackson comes to town and calls Cory a wolf in sheep’s clothing.”

If all those years ago Jesse Jackson knew Booker was no good, what’s taking New Jersey’s Democrats so long to figure it out? Maybe they will. Time will tell.