Sharpton's presidential campaign disappoints

USA TODAY, March, 2004 by DeWayne Wickham

When this year's race for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination got underway, a lot of people looked at Al Sharpton and saw Jesse Jackson.

Twenty years ago, Jackson galvanized the nation's black electorate with his attempt to become the Democrats' standard-bearer. He won two primaries and nearly 500 delegates in that failed campaign. Four years later, Jackson finished first in six primaries and amassed more than 1,200 delegates -- not enough to win the nomination, but enough to make him a powerful force in Democratic politics.

Sharpton, who entered this race with three political contests under his belt, hasn't fared as well, despite his surprisingly good showings in the last two of those campaigns. He won 80% of the black vote and 25% of the total vote in New York's 1994 Democratic primary for a U.S. Senate seat. Three years later, Sharpton took a third of ...