What context were the remarks made in?  What else did the “hot mic” pick up?  Or is O’Reilly just dissembling and falsely claiming that the rest of the tape is “worse”, knowing it won’t be released?  What could Jackson have said that’s worse than expressing his desire to “cut [Obama's] nuts out”?

And when did Rev. Jackson discover that his comments had been heard? When did he find out that they were going to be released?

Is the Rev. Jackson really inept enough to make these kinds of remarks in a Fox News studio with a microphone on?  Or is he doing Obama a favor out of being self-aware of his place in ‘white’ American politics?

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Jesse Jackson is all over CNN, in full-on damage control mode over comments he made about Obama that haven’t even become public yet (but obviously will).  Such a media-savvy guy; is he trying to do damage-control, or is he trying to hype the comments?  A public fight with Jackson would certainly help Obama a la a Bill Clinton and Sistah Souljah.

My guess is that it’s damage-control, and Jackson has the connections and political savvy to understand the ramifications of what he said and to begin to try to limit the damage.  Whatever he said, it must be pretty bad.  Still, the speed with which Jackson is moving to apologize before the scandal becomes public is impressive – he must’ve learned a lot from being on the other side of the pursuit of scandal.

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Ah, memories.

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Secondly, Obama also had a private meeting with Sen. Clinton. This move will add fuel to the fiery rumors and demands that Obama ask her to join the ticket, which will warm Clinton supporters to his campaign — even if he doesn’t end up choosing her. It may come at the cost, as Marc Ambinder points out, of peeving his traveling press corps — a group he’s already annoyed in the past with restrictions on press access to the candidate and elements of his campaign. On the other hand, Chuck Todd points out that “It’s a frustrating game campaigns play when it comes to these private meetings. But they rarely pay a real price because secretly the press corps enjoys the chase.”

But the press corps will only chase for so long, as Gore learned the hard way in 2000: “Things weren’t always so good. Early in the campaign, a green advance staff left reporters to fend for themselves. Gore floundered–and his press coverage was dismal. [...] Has the care and feeding paid off? Hard to say, but as life on the road has improved, so have Gore’s coverage and his poll figures. Says one aide: ‘An advance man can’t win the campaign for a candidate, but he can lose it.’”

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