The New Jesse Jackson?

Is Al Sharpton positioning himself to replace Jesse Jackson as the leading spokesman for African Americans in the Democratic Party? CBS News' Susan Semeleer checks out the New York civil rights activist.

Since then, Sharpton has been studiously -- and uncharacteristically -- reticent about his 2004 plans. But he is clearly unhappy with what he sees as his party's shift to the right and abuse of the loyalty of black voters.

Since Sharpton has never been shy about making his displeasure known, it will come as little surprise if he does, indeed, make a run for the White House. He has been making the rounds on the speaking circuit, and he is the only potential Democratic candidate with an exploratory committee in place.

He appeared Monday at a $1,000-a-person fundraiser at the New York City home of super-lawyer Sanford Rubenstein, the first in series of fundraising events. The apparatus is already in place, ready for Sharpton to make his final decision, he says, by the end of the summer.

In an interview with CBS News, Sharpton said he is "clearly inclined" to make a run, but wanted to ensure that, even if he did not win the nomination, his campaign would bring about some gains.

"Most people compare my potential run to Rev. Jesse Jackson's runs," Sharpton said, noting that Jackson's unsuccessful 1984 and 1988 presidential runs affected a sea change within the Democratic Party. Jackson's two campaigns sent millions of African Americans to the polls, many for the first time, and solidified Jackson as a major force in the Party.

"The biggest effect of a Sharpton presidential run, which is why he is doing it, would be to solidify him as a major power broker in the Democratic Party," said Robert Smith, author of "We Have No Leaders," a book that examines African American politics. "Sharpton's real aim is to give him some leverage in the party along with [Jesse] Jackson, or even to displace Jackson as the number one black power broker in the Democratic Party."

While Sharpton bristles at the notion that he is trying to replace Jackson as the preeminent black voice within the Democratic Party, if past is prologue, the stage clearly isn't big enough for the both of them.

So who is Al Sharpton? If the child is indeed father to the man, the path Sharpton has chosen is no surprise. In 1964, at the age of 9, he was ordained a minister and preached on a tour with gospel legend Mahalia Jackson. That same year, Sharpton's parents split over an ugly situation involving Alfred Sr.'s relationship with Al's half sister, a union that presented Al with a nephew and a brother in a single birth.

The Sharptons' divorce also displaced the young Al from a comfortable middle-class neighborhood in Queens into a welfare-subsidized existence in a Brooklyn housing project. Sharpton would write of his father's affair in his 1996 autobiography, "Go and Tell Pharaoh."

"I had to watch my mother, whom I loved more than anyone, live with the fact that her daughter had stolen her husband, and that the two of them had given life of a child, out of wedlock. To this day, I don't know how [my mother] lived with the humiliation."

Sharpton first snagged national headlines in the 1980s, when he inserted himself into the center of a series of racially charged incidents in various New York City neighborhoods. From the Howard Beach demonstrations, to the shooting of black teenager Yusef Hawkins by a white mob in Bensonhurst, to subway shooter Bernard Goetz -- Sharpton was there, sporting his famed pompadour and facility with the incendiary sound bite.

But he is probably best known for his role in the Tawana Brawley case, in which a 15 year-old black girl alleged she had been abducted and raped by six white law enforcement officers. Her claims were ultimately found to be a hoax. Sharpton writes that at some point the Brawley case "stopped being about Tawana, and started being me defending my mother and all the black women no one would fight for. I was not going to run away from her like my father had run away from my mother."

And therein lies the Sharpton paradox. He has achieved power and influence by championing (some would say, exploiting) the powerless. He has fought racial prejudice using rhetoric that appeals to bigotry. Sharpton has been blamed for inciting two early 1990s clashes between blacks and Jews in New York, both of which escalated into bloodshed. Sharpton himself was stabbed in 1989 at a demonstration in Bensonhurst. Since then, he has worked to tone down his rhetoric.

"It really came home to me that if you're going to die for something, you ought to make sure that it's more than some slogans and some loud talking -- that you really get something done," Sharpton said in a 1993 "60 Minutes" interview with Mike Wallace. "I made up my mind that I was going to try to make a difference."

As a result of his carefully cultivated new image, a visit with Al Sharpton has become a necessary stop on the political itinerary of any Democrat, white or black, who has designs on elective office in New York, and beyond. In 2000, Sharpton played a major role in organizing a debate between Democratic presidential hopefuls Al Gore and Bill Bradley at the Apollo Theater -- the first debate ever in Harlem -- further evidence that the former bomb-thrower was easing into the mainstream.

These days, when he's not busy not yet running for president, Sharpton heads the National Action Network, a civil rights organization he founded in 1991. But clearly, Sharpton's current focus is on Democratic politics, in which he is determined to play a major role.

Sharpton has proved over the years that his name on a ballot can move African Americans to the polls en masse to support him. In 1994, he launched a primary challenge to iconic Democratic Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan. Though Moynihan won easily, Sharpton drew over 80 percent of the black vote -- 26 percent of all votes cast. Three years later, he made an even more impressive showing in New York City's Democratic mayoral primary, winning 32 percent of the vote. He lost to Ruth Messinger by a surprisingly slim 8-point margin.

Sharpton often points out that he has more political experience than the Democrats' current fair-haired boy, North Carolina Senator John Edwards, who of late has been the focus of much speculation, much media attention and much fundraising.

"Look at the fact that now you have a lot of people who've only done things like get rich and go straight into the U.S. Senate," said Sharpton, a clear jab at Edwards, a multimillionaire trial lawyer elected to the Senate in 1998. "Clearly someone who's spent two decades or more working on public policy issues certainly has more of a background to run for the White House than that."

Sharpton refers to a recent New Yorker piece declaring Edwards "The Next Bill Clinton."

"How come the media doesn't say I'm the next whatever? Why not say I'm the new Jesse Jackson or the new Adam Clayton Powell? With Edwards, it's continuity. With me, it's conflict. It shows the double standard in the media."

Sharpton also noted that while Edwards has recently been making the glossy puff-piece rounds, it was he who first appeared in both the New Yorker and a recent GQ spread, the latter on his recent substantial weight loss.

"I hope Edwards will continue to follow in my footsteps," joked Sharpton.

Sharpton won't rule out a third party run if he does not win the Democratic nomination, but says he has never run in a Democratic primary and not supported the winner.

That's not to say, however, that the Democratic nominee, whomever he (or she) may be, can or should take for granted Sharpton's backing.

"I do not think that it is in the best interest of any community to be in the back pocket of one that will sit down on you," Sharpton warned in a speech at the National Press Club earlier this month. "No one should have the comfort of feeling that they can play push off politics in 2004. The party today is not the party of Roosevelt, or of Lyndon Johnson, or of Adam Clayton Powell. There are those that hold too much sway in the party that are pro-death penalty, pro-military buildup, pro-cut social programs, pro-silence on social justice, and I think they must be challenged. They will be challenged in 2004."

Though most agree Sharpton stands no real chance of winning the Democratic nomination, he doesn't see himself as a spoiler or a crank: Sharpton insists that he would be in it to win it. Which begs the question: given Sharpton's oft-expressed views on the dismal state of race relations in America, does he really believe a black man whose name isn't Colin Powell has a chance not only to win the presidential nomination of a major party, but to win the presidency? And if, indeed, Sharpton does believe he has a shot at the Oval Office, has he exaggerated the extent of the racial prejudice he has devoted his life and career to eradicating? Does a nation in which Al Sharpton has a legitimate chance at the presidency really need Al Sharpton?

Certainly, race-card politics work, and Sharpton has a full deck. But in recent years, he has learned when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em. He's not going to walk away, but we'll know by the end of this summer whether he's going to run. If he does -- and it's looking more and more likely -- Democrats would be wise not to underestimate his potential to do damage. If Sharpton was able to win 80 percent of the black vote against Moynihan, it is not inconceivable that he could do the same against Al Gore, Edwards, Tom Daschle or any of the rest of the prospective Democratic field.

Sharpton has said that his decision to run will be dependent on his prospects in 20 key primary states. It is not difficult to envision a scenario in which Sharpton could either win or place a close second in many, if not most, of these key states. No, he probably won't win the nomination, but early Sharpton primary victories could have the same impact on the eventual Democratic nominee as Pat Buchanan's New Hampshire primary win against George Bush the Elder in 1992. It was a body blow from which the Bush campaign never recovered.

Despite his protests to the contrary, Sharpton has proved that he is willing to play spoiler if it serves his purposes.

Several days after Democrat Mark Green's loss to Republican Mike Bloomberg in the New York City mayoral election -- a defeat many attribute to Sharptonian machinations -- Sharpton told supporters, "We may have a bad date with Michael Bloomberg, but I'm not going to be the battered wife for the Democratic Party. That's what battering husbands do: beat their wives, talk about 'Nobody wants you but me,' slap them around, say 'Who else is going to buy you a dress?' Well, I'd rather walk around naked than wear your wretched dress."