Jackson Stakes Another Claim to VP Spot

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, returning triumphantly to his oldest and most faithful constituency, delighted supporters Saturday with an impassioned speech that staked a clear claim to the vice presidential nomination and added to the reasons he said would make him the Democratic Party’s logical choice.

A vice president with “experience and sensitivity” to Third World issues, Jackson argued, could broaden the focus of American foreign policy by serving as an ambassador at large, “allowing us to relate effectively to the entire world, rather than to limited parts of it.”

“Mr. Dukakis says he wants a vice president with foreign policy experience,” Jackson said. “Well . . .” The crowd of about 1,200 interrupted the expectant pause with a roar of affirmation that echoed through the headquarters of Operation PUSH (People United to Serve Humanity), the civil rights organization Jackson founded 17 years ago.

‘Not an Unimportant Job’

“Don’t let them convince you how unimportant and how meaningless any particular job might be,” Jackson told them. “One heartbeat away from the leadership of the free world and of Western civilization is not an unimportant job.”

Jackson’s hourlong address followed a veritable vice presidential nomination speech from the Rev. Willie Barrow, PUSH’s executive director and one of Jackson’s senior advisers.

“Jesse Jackson has stood the test of time and risen beyond the occasion,” Barrow said, “and now the eyes of the world are on America to see if this great country of ours will live up to its own code of conduct and declare its racial independence by rising to this political occasion where a slave child . . . can be placed on the Democratic ticket.”

But Jackson distanced himself from Barrow’s overt plea and said he would have to “rassle with” a decision on whether to accept the vice presidency if offered, thus once again sending contradictory signals on a matter that has befuddled his most senior advisers.

Seem Frustrated

Those advisers, divided themselves about whether Jackson should seek the vice presidency, seem uniformly frustrated with his conflicting statements. In the last 10 days, he has at times said he deserves to be offered the post and at others said the nomination is merely one of “several considerations” he hopes to discuss with Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis, the party’s all-but-certain presidential nominee.

Jackson gathered a dozen of those advisers together at a hotel here later Saturday to open a strategy session that was expected to focus on the vice presidency.

Among those attending the meeting was Gerald F. Austin, Jackson’s campaign manager, who has been notably absent from campaign gatherings in recent weeks. But his role appears for the most part to have been usurped by Ronald H. Brown, the convention manager Jackson appointed last month, who is expected also to fill much of the power-broker role that California Assembly Speaker Willie Brown, Jackson’s campaign chairman, had been expected to play.

Progressive Agenda

In his speech at PUSH headquarters, Jackson vowed to continue his campaign of “hope and empowerment,” coupling self-congratulation for a job already done with a pledge to continue to advance a progressive agenda on the Democratic platform and after the convention.

But the ecstatic response from his loyal supporters to Jackson’s talk of the vice presidency raised yet again the question of whether those supporters would turn away in disappointment from the Democratic Party if Jackson were not offered a spot on the ticket.

Jackson dodged that question Saturday at a news conference conducted in front of the crowd. But he had insisted the day before that there was no danger in heightening those expectations.

“My supporters have shown maturity, loyalty, consistency.” Jackson said. “They do not have a fixation on one position.”