Remember When Jesse Jackson Wanted to Cut Obama’s Nuts Off?

Jesse Jackson has waded into the reenergized Birther debate.

In an interview with Politico, Jesse Jackson entered the Birther debate.

Doubts about Obama’s birthplace quieted down as the Tea Party grew from a protest movement to a legislative powerhouse. Their focus shifted from Obama’s birthplace to federal spending on entitlement programs. Then Donald Trump, whose media presence is unrivaled by any other would-be 2012 Republican contender, resurrected the Birther debate in a ploy to launch a presidential campaign.

Rev. Jesse Jackson says Trump’s focus on Obama’s birthplace “calls upon ancient racial fears.”

Jackson went on to say, “This the most personal attack on any president ever. Whose personal religion has ever been challenged before? That has strong racial overtones.”

Is it the most personal attack ever? Threatening to cut a man’s testicles off on live television might qualify as a fairly personal attack, no? Especially after accusing him, a black man, of talking down to the black community.

Obama does not have an easy way with the popular reverends of the black community (see: Wright, Jeremiah). In this instance, Jackson, a presidential aspirant, comes across as the schoolyard bully who, when all the kids are finally the same size as him, decides to extend an olive branch to atone for the past.

It’s within reason for a popular figure in the African-American community to respond to Trump’s ongoing slander. No white president’s birthplace has ever been contested. However, shining more light on the issue widens its breadth in the popular debate and gives Trump more of the media attention he craves.

Perhaps with the release of his long-form birth certificate, Obama can put an end to Birtherism. Though the arc of his presidency appears to be a game of whack-a-mole: beat Bachmann and Trump down with a mallet and wait for the next moron to pop up and replace them.