Al Sharpton: Obama's Racial Pyromaniac

Politico's Glenn Thrush reports in this week's edition of the magazine that Al Sharpton has become President Barack Obama's "go-to man on race" in Ferguson and elsewhere. Thrush tells the story as one of Sharpton's own reform and revival, dwelling on his weight loss, his self-professed caution with words, and criticism (envy?) from his old allies on the left. Yet he leaves out a few crucial details that are important to the Sharpton story.

For one, Thrush makes no mention of Sharpton's role in the Trayvon Martin fiasco. As Breitbart News reported at the time, Sharpton played a tripartite role. First, he used his activist network to inflame public outrage about the case, pushing the false line that Martin had been shot by a "white" man. Then, Sharpton used his primetime perch at MSNBC to report on the protests he was instigating. And finally, he was advising Obama throughout.

There is a reason Thrush leaves out Martin: it interferes with his attempt to portray Sharpton as a moderating influence, someone to whom the president and his arch-henchman Valerie Jarrett could turn to "talk down" the violent demonstrators, someone who represented "hardheaded pragmatism" rather than extremism. In reality, Sharpton's role is to stoke divisions, acting as Obama's agent, as well as his eyes and ears on the ground.

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