Sharpton Often Dazzles but Also Disappoints

Much has been made of the new "Rev," as Sharpton is known -- the one who lost the James Brown hairdo and replaced loud sweatsuits and gold medallions with pinstripes. Although he has toned down his image, Sharpton insists he will never give up his agenda -- stopping the war in Iraq, controlling guns, establishing universal health care and launching an enormous public works program to create jobs. He plans to tout those issues at the Democratic National Convention in July.

"I plan to be speaking in prime time," Sharpton said. "They can decide whether that's inside the hall, or out in the parking lot somewhere."

But political professionals say Sharpton cannot rely solely on his powerful voice to help convince voters and get them to the polls -- particularly in early Democratic contests such as South Carolina and Michigan where Jackson did well.

He is still looking to find a replacement to energize his South Carolina campaign, after his first coordinator there quit. In Michigan, a Detroit campaign office is finally about to open.

Sharpton campaign manager Charles Halloran said he found a campaign woefully disorganized when he took over last month.

"We are now trying to worry about the basics," such as opening campaign offices and raising more money, Halloran said.

As of Sept. 30, Sharpton stood last among the Democrats in fund-raising, with $258,729 collected this year and just $24,070 in his treasury.

Jackson himself has not endorsed anyone in the presidential race and has steered a broad course around his onetime protege -- who once led a Jackson program that boycotted retailers deemed unfair to African Americans.

The two talk, but mainly about personal matters. The Rainbow-PUSH Coalition leader has signaled that he favors a candidate with a real chance of beating Bush.

Some see in the cool relationship between Jackson, 62, and Sharpton, 49, a generational rift, typical when a younger leader strives to take the torch from his predecessor.

"He has done very well in the debates. He has such a good mind and a real grasp of the issues," Jackson said in an interview, declining to judge Sharpton's campaign as a whole.

"I do not know very much about his infrastructure or his fund-raising, which are so key to a campaign."

Sharpton insists he can make himself heard, as Jackson did, helping to register 2 million voters before the 1984 election and swaying the Democrats, for instance, toward a tougher stand against apartheid in South Africa.

Preaching since age 4, Sharpton is confident he has the voice. It was the voice that coaxed the black professionals out of their chairs in New York, whooping, as Sharpton preached on the beauty of Ray Charles' "America the Beautiful."

"It occurred to me that Ray wasn't singing about anything he knew," Sharpton said, pausing to let each line sink in. "Because Ray has never seen no purple mountain majesties. Ray has never seen no fruited plain.... Ray is blind. Ray was singing what he believed.

"And it occurred to me that all African Americans have some Ray Charles in them. We never fought for an America we knew. We fought for an America that we believed in ...

"We can make America beautiful. If we try."