In His Quest to Be Both Symbol and Affirmation, Jackson May Not Be Able to Settle for Less Than VP

Former Vice President John Nance Garner, who served two terms under Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933-41), is supposed to have said that the job was worth no more than “a bucket of warm spit.” John Quincy Adams wrote to his wife in 1793 that the vice presidency was “the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived . . . . I can do neither good nor evil, I must be borne away by others and meet the common fate.”

So why has Jesse Jackson indicated an interest, apparently growing daily, in the position when even a man as powerful as Lyndon B. Johnson had to gobble humble pie until the day John F. Kennedy was killed? It is clear that Gov. Michael Dukakis does not want to flat-out say “no dice.” The Democratic Party bosses are equally reluctant to voice public opposition to Jackson as Dukakis’ running mate. However, should Jackson be offered the post and accept, that acceptance would be less symbolic than closer to the fruition of the American dream wherein every boy--even a black boy--can grow up to be President of the United States. (Despite the Walter Mondale-Geraldine Ferraro ticket four years ago, the same inference may not be drawn about girls.) Jackson in fact would then be both symbol and affirmation.

Lately the point has been made that a great showing during the primaries does not automatically gain a candidate the No. 2 spot on the ticket, that other considerations like time-tried and time-worn regional representation are more important. Since both Dukakis and Jackson are Northerners, such a ticket wouldn’t work. It didn’t for Mondale-Ferraro, where the hope was that the male/female consideration would overcome this ancient mating ritual. But regional representation no doubt will remain a factor for Dukakis and the Democrats to kick around.

Jackson demands consideration because, he says, during the primaries he garnered 7 million votes and owes it to his supporters to carry their aspirations to the convention floor and beyond. He has a point, for he has revitalized elements of the Democratic Party that had given up on the process. (An estimated 84 million eligible voters sat out elections since Jackson first ran in 1984.) The 748 delegate votes that were handed to Dukakis by Albert Gore, Richard Gephardt, Paul Simon, Bruce Babbitt and “undetermined” fall more than 350 short of Jackson’s total of 1,105 delegate votes. Jackson’s supporters remain a bloc that cannot easily be dismissed without some untoward boomerang effect on the dream, the Democratic Party and the political process. Jackson, it would seem, should be offered an active and visible position within a Dukakis administration and the party.

One scenario orchestrated by the party might have Dukakis offering Jackson the job, with Jackson refusing because he thinks that he could be of more value to the party and his constituency in some other spot. Another scenario would be that Jackson would do a sudden turnabout and withdraw all claims to the post for similar reasons. Of course, the question here is which spot? Jackson is too powerful a personality to be anyone’s vice president. The energy booms off the television screen in voice, diction, gesture, glance, movement and--not the least--message. He has been called vain, and he may indeed be; he is, as he was the last time out, labeled a demagogue. But there are few politicians or other public people who are not to some degree both and more. Jackson is quick, often lyrical and, obviously, learns fast. He is witty in the street-smart, slightly biting sense.

He may not have governed, but much of politics is on-the-job training anyway. Those who have governed have not, since the beginning of time, done so without advisers. Jackson could not be any different, and certainly might be better at evaluating such advice. He has a certain, if not expertise, rapport with some of the leaders of the non-Western world whose colored populations vastly outnumber the whites of the West. Few American politicians have been genuinely concerned with that world on a moral basis--shade, yes. Jackson’s scheme to tax at higher levels the big corporations (and rich individuals) is as old as the existence of rich and poor people. Anyone lucky enough to have read Gustavus Meyers’ classic, now out-of-print, book, “History of the Great American Fortunes,” would hardly disagree with Jackson on this issue.

Jackson’s biggest problem besides his race, however, is not even domestic; it is the Middle East and the Yasser Arafat kiss and the Hafez Assad handshake for which, it appears, he will never be forgiven by supporters of Israel inside and outside the Democratic Party. This is ironic, of course, with Secretary of State George P. Shultz shuttling back and forth over there on what appears to be a futile mission to bring peace between the warring factions. As the United Nations ambassador, Andrew Young, now mayor of Atlanta, lost his job in pursuit of the same goal. Nor will Jackson be forgiven for Louis Farrakhan, and Jackson’s reference to New York City four years ago is inexcusable. However, without Farrakan’s Fruit of Islam bodyguard, it is debatable whether or not Jackson would have survived assassination before the Secret Service took over during the 1984 campaign.

This year’s campaign issues did not include lengthy debate on South Africa except by Jackson, and even he did not stir up a storm on the issue, probably because South Africa dropped out of the news. But Jackson is now an international figure with an unpredictable political future in American and world politics. That future will depend in great part on the job that he is offered by Dukakis and the Democratic Party, or the job that he asks for and is given. Secretary of housing and urban development? Who remembers Bob Weaver and who knows that Samuel Pierce quietly has remained one of about half a dozen original Reagan appointees? U.N. ambassador? Well, there was Andy Young, followed by Donald McHenry. The United Nations is not the place where one can leave big tracks unless he is the secretary-general, and Jackson is a big man who wears big shoes and loves being noticed.

The problem is acute. Jackson’s position should be both symbolic and real--which is to say, important. However, the bet is that he will not be given a position in which his luster and his rap can diminish the spotlight on the presidential candidate--and certainly not the President. An observer has the sense that a game has been played out, with no little sense of relief, but that Jackson has not seen it that way at all. He seems to see life imitating art, as in Irving Wallace’s novel, “The Man.” Does he want the vice presidency or not? Over the weekend in Chicago he said, “Don’t let anybody convince you that the position of vice president is unimportant. One heartbeat away from the leadership of the free world and of Western civilization is not an unimportant job.” His wording here will not give Michael Dukakis and the Democratic Party any reason to hope that he won’t fight for the job.