What will Jackson do?:

...Jackson's ego will be an issue, and there will be questions about his conduct in the aftermath of King's assassination...

...Farmers, workers, mothers, students, blacks, Hispanics, gays and lesbians are "right" in their claims, Jackson told the Democratic Convention, but can prevail only ' 'when we bring the patches together...

...While Jackson became a media celebrity, his supporters dominated delegate selection in almost every caucus state except Iowa (including Alaska, of all places...

...He would be wise to curb his penchant for personal diplomacy, which has taken him into more than one political minefield...

...Already, Jackson is being urged to run for public offices— the Senate, in South Carolina, or the mayoralty, in Chicago— or, if Dukakis wins, to accept a position in the new administration...

...It looks like a good bet that eventually he will be nominated and almost a sure thing that he will win a place on the ticket...

...He cannot pretend that they will vote Republican...

...This pluralistic image may be attractive, but it is emphatically not biblical: in the Scriptures, Jerusalem is blessed only to the extent that it is a culturally homogeneous community, a city of one God, not many...

...It is not clear, however, that blacks will be as indifferent in the future...

...He can count on being treated respectfully, but the free ride is over...

...Despite a few intoxicating moments, there never was a chance that Jackson would be on the Democratic ticket this year...

...At bottom, however, Jackson's case does not rest on such calculations but on the claim that he provides moral leadership...

...but "What will Jesse do...

...Governor Dukakis had the grace to invoke John Winthrop, who taught that a common faith is the foundation of political community...

...They set a moral tone, define priorities, and forge a mandate for change.'' Yet while Jackson quickens his audiences to the promise of politics, his own teaching, closely examined, seems indifferent to the higher, sometimes tragic dimensions of political life...

...Another master of oratory and political organization, William Jennings Bryan, won the Democratic nomination three times and, more important, changed the shape of American party politics...

...Paradoxically, Jackson's very successes reduced the power of black votes in one decisive respect...

...Jesse Jackson is that political rarity, a master of both the old and the new politics...

...Success in any public trust would strengthen Jackson's claims on the presidency, answering the charge that he is only a speechifier...

...Back then, reformers and agrarian radicals had no clear affinity for either the Republicans or the Democrats, and Bryan could argue plausibly that many progressive voters would defect to the GOP unless the Democrats met his demands...

...Conservatives and progressives," he said, are right "when you fight for what you believe," although here too, each should know that "your patch isn't big enough...

...But the conservative and moderate Democrats who are offended by Jackson are likely to vote Republican, so that the mathematics of elections works in favor of Jackson's enemies: since a voter alienated by Jackson is likely to amount to a loss of one vote for the Democrats and a gain of one by the Republicans, the voters attracted by Jackson, a Democratic gain but no Republican loss, are only half as potent as those he offends...

...Despite these dangers, it is doubtful that Jackson can stand aside: having made his career as a critic of establishments, Jackson needs to prove that he is equal to the burden of authority...

...Jerusalem was "blessed," Jackson said in Atlanta, ' 'because it provided a crossroads where different cultures and different civilizations could meet and find common ground...

...In 1984, and for all but a few weeks in 1988, Democratic candidates assumed that Jackson could not be the nominee and that the real contest involved others...

...it is the extreme wing of the Democratic party...

...His realistic aim was not nomination but legitimation and Jackson's success can be measured in his oozy anointing by virtually every Democratic leader who spoke in Atlanta...

...The suspicion of anti-Semitism will nag him, even if—as Jackson feels—such aspersions are unfair...

...Cameras caressed him, commentators speculated about his feeling and intentions...

...WILSON CAREY McWILLIAMS Wilson Carey McWilliams teaches political science at Rutgers University...

...In these terms, Jackson's doctrine amounts to a debased version of liberalism, in which right is reduced to personal authenticity, modified by calculations of utility...

...In fact, when Jackson did refer to political beliefs, he appeared to deny that there are any beliefs which are intrinsically worthy or—to use the old language— naturally right...

...His rhetoric is overpraised, but it does combine the ability to stir a crowd with the short quotabilities ("sound bites") beloved by television news...

...Jackson will need discipline and craft because his political position has serious weaknesses, in practice and in theory...

...Biblical teaching and political practice unite in indicating that simple "inclusiveness" is a false standard, and that the political good presumes some first-ruling principles...

...In 1988, this may not have mattered much, since all the Democratic candidates were more or less acceptable to black voters...

...It is a question that Democrats, and Americans generally, can expect to be asking for a long time...

...Jackson set out to build local organizations and a national image, and to a considerable extent, he succeeded in both goals...

...White Democratic candidates virtually conceded the black vote to Jackson and did little to cultivate it...

...The next time Jackson runs for the presidency, after all, he will be subject to more criticism than in the past...

...That view of politics is nobler than Jackson's, and also more severe, since wrong is the corollary of right: for Democrats and for Americans, racism is an unacceptable teaching, to be so labeled whether it is voiced by Botha or Farrakhan...

...Jackson can threaten that, if he is denied, many of his supporters will stay home or support third parties...

...The great question at the Democratic Convention was not, "Who will we nominate...

...At the same time, Jackson cannot take his supporters for granted...

...if his candidacy falters, he will be called noble but ineffective, a leader who has had his day...

...Jackson could afford to be a good soldier: a relatively young man, he will be candidate material for twenty years...

...In other words, good conscience—fighting "for what you believe"—hallows any cause, but in practice, one must be willing to compromise...

...They did just that in 1904, when the Democrats chose Alton Parker, a moderate conservative, to run against Theodore Roosevelt...

...And while Christianity embraced many peoples, it did so in the name of the one King...

...Jackson was treated gingerly, as a power to be feared, but not as a serious rival...

...When Jackson speaks of politics as a "moral arena where people come together to find common ground," he means that politics is a space in which citizens can act morally according to their private lights, not one which has a public moral character...

...That has changed: in the future, Democratic candidates are likely to jockey for the position Dukakis achieved this year, as the leading alternative to Jackson...

...He was the dominating presence in Atlanta, as he had been throughout the campaign for the nomination, holding the media as well as the delegates under his spell...

...Be that as it may, the stronger any future Jackson candidacy proves to be, the closer the scrutiny to which Jackson's views and character will be subjected...

...Disillusionment stalks inspiration: if Jackson turns toward the center, hoping to broaden his coalition, he will be—is being—accused of betrayal...

...At the same time, any public office would tie Jackson to specific policies and accountabilities, to committees, compromises, and administrative details, and it would also expose him to the risk of failure...

...Looking to a longer term, Jesse Jackson has even more reason to see to the foundations of his politics...

...His talents, like his ambitions, are suited to the long haul...

...The road to the presidential nomination is full of potholes...

...But this sort of prediction is something of a crap-shoot...

...He is the author of The Idea of Fraternity in America (California...

...But Bryan's hand was stronger than Jackson's...

...Authentic leaders do not follow opinion polls, they mold opinion...

...In this sensible plea for party unity, however, Jackson did not acknowledge that there is likely to be conflict between the goals of this diverse coalition, requiring the sacrifice of some hopes and goals on behalf of more fundamental principles...

...In 1984, by contrast, Walter Mondale probably owed his nomination to the support he received from a respectable minority of blacks, particularly in the South...

...In more secular terms, would Jackson really want to argue that contemporary Jerusalem is "blessed" because of its "different cultures and civilizations...

...Jackson is adroit enough to overcome such difficulties, but they strain his resources and limit his freedom of maneuver...

...Rival black leaders, restive under Jackson's preeminence, may be tempted to try candidacies of their own, and the "rainbow coalition" has other internal tensions...

...He can expect his domestic programs to be dissected, and he had better be less sciolistic in his view of international affairs...

...Bryan's constituents held something like a balance of power between the parties...

...Since Jackson's nomination was never a real possibility, black voters played no role in the selection of the eventual nominee...

...He will be a leading Democratic contender in 1992 or 1996, depending on Dukakis's fortunes...

...Jackson has no such advantage: his "progressive coalition" does not float between the parties...