Sharpton's Not-So-Psychic Network

Now mind you, I think Sharpton would make an awesome keynote speaker at the Dem Convention and I dig the guy, but we've heard this ludicrous meme repeated by many folks, and I wanna address it head-on. This exchange from Wednesday's Crossfire between Tucker Carlson, Paul Begala and Rev. Al Sharpton (the opening DLC stuff I just threw in for good measure):

CARLSON: The Democratic Leadership Council two days ago described the lurch to the left of the party. Senator Evan Bayh said the party is in the thrall of left-wingers like you and that the end result is, quote, "assisted suicide." Are you the Jack Kevorkian of your party? [...]

SHARPTON: Well, first of all, my party does not control the House, the Senate or the White House. So it is very difficult for someone laying in the funeral home to talk about assisted suicide. All we can talk about is a resurrection. And I think that I'm the candidate in this race that can talk about that.

BEGALA: Let me ask you about that, then. The criticism not only on the right, on the liberal side of the part it seems to me, Governor Dean, Howard Dean, the former governor of Vermont, seems to have all of the energy. He is surging and you're not. Why is that?

SHARPTON: Well, according to how you look. If you look at any of the polls, I've been just about tied with Dean. So how is he surging and I'm not, unless it is a misconstrued reading? And I didn't raise $7 million to get where I am in the polls.

BEGALA: Well, that's the question. He is surging. He's way ahead of you now.

SHARPTON: I don't know. I think that if you look at the fact that in most polls we're four or five. The people that are behind me, at least three or four people don't think we're not doing well. And I think when you look at the fact we're just starting to raise money. Imagine what we're going to do later. The question becomes not who is the flavor of the month. You know, a couple of months ago it was Edwards and now it's Dean.

The question is where we will be when the primaries start in January. And one of the things that I've learned from my experience in politics is that you must have a strategy and a plan. And one is them that you shouldn't do in August what you hope to be doing in December going into January. Peaking early does not lead to good...

...what? Begala cut him off. But regardless, here is the truth. We haven't peaked too early. In fact, we haven't peaked at all. This campaign is not even close to where we are hoping to be in December, or January for that matter. We have come many miles, and we have many, many more to go. As an example, Dean was virtually uknown in California this January. Now we are in the lead. Is 16% good enough? Of course not. To combine two appropo cliches: We've only just begun, and baby, you just ain't seen nothin' yet!