Twenty-four years ago, the three leading Democratic candidates in the presidential primary were, from left, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, former Vice President Walter F. Mondale and Senator Gary Hart of Colorado. (Photos: Associated Press)

Imagine this. For the first time in years, New York’s Democratic presidential primary actually counts. The leading candidates have opened campaign offices, held fund-raisers, bought TV ads and scheduled visits. Angering some of his fellow black politicians, Representative Charles B. Rangel, the dean of Harlem politics, has endorsed the establishment candidate over an insurgent African-American challenger. It sounds a lot like 2008 — but this was New York 24 years ago.

More than 1,350,000 New York State Democrats went to the polls on April 3, 1984, to choose among three leading candidates for the party nomination — former Vice President Walter F. Mondale, Senator Gary Hart of Colorado and the Rev. Jesse Jackson. Black New Yorkers turned out in record numbers. The contest exposed social and racial divisions that would affect future state and city elections for years to come. And many of the operatives from that race are still active in local politics.

In addition to Mr. Mondale, Mr. Hart and Mr. Jackson, the original field of candidates included Senators John Glenn of Ohio, Alan Cranston of California and Ernest F. Hollings of South Carolina, former Governor Reubin Askew of Florida and former Senator George S. McGovern of South Dakota, who had been the party’s presidential nominee in 1972.

Mr. Mondale had won handily in the Iowa caucuses on Feb. 20. Then, just days before the New Hampshire primary, Mr. Jackson admitted having privately referred to Jews as “Hymies” and to New York City as “Hymietown,” as The Washington Post had reported.

‘’Even as I affirm to you that that term was used in private conversation,’’ Mr. Jackson told a congregation in a Manchester synagogue, ‘’I categorically deny that I am anti-Semitic.”

The episode jeopardized Mr. Jackson’s description of his supporters as a “rainbow coalition” of Americans from all walks of life. On Feb. 28, Mr. Hart won the New Hampshire primary in a startling upset over Mr. Mondale. Slowly, the field narrowed to the three main contenders.

New York, which had traditionally held its primary fairly late in the campaign cycle, moved it earlier in 1984, placing it after Pennsylvania and before Illinois in the calendar. “New York — after a generation of being irrelevant in picking the party nominee — has become crucial in this year’s helter-skelter schedule of primaries and caucuses for all the Democrats who want to be President,” Maurice Carroll wrote in The New York Times on March 17, 1984.

Most of New York’s Democratic establishment — including Gov. Mario M. Cuomo early on, and later, Mayor Edward I. Koch — supported Mr. Mondale, a former Minnesota senator who had been vice president during President Jimmy Carter’s one term.

But other Democrats in the New York area were divided. Mr. Hart’s state effort was led by Mark Alan Siegel, then a Manhattan assemblyman. The political consultant Joseph Mercurio worked for the Hart campaign. On March 27, Mr. Hart won the Connecticut primary — with help from Senator Christopher J. Dodd (who ran himself this year but abandoned his bid after a weak showing in Iowa).

Albert Vann of Brooklyn — then a state assemblyman and now a city councilman — led Mr. Jackson’s campaign across the state, while David N. Dinkins — a future Manhattan borough president and mayor who was then the city clerk — coordinated Mr. Jackson’s campaign in the city.

In 1984, despite the surge of interest in Mr. Jackson among black voters, Mr. Rangel endorsed Mr. Mondale — just as he has endorsed Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton this year over a spirited challenge from Senator Barack Obama.

Mr. Rangel has frequently defended Mrs. Clinton, explaining in a recent interview with The Times: “There’s just no question in my mind that Hillary would be in a better position than a freshman senator. This ain’t no time for a beginner.” But even he acknowledged that Mr. Obama’s success attracting white voters “changes him from being just a black candidate.”

The Clinton campaign has encouraged the comparison to 1984. Bill Clinton drew attention on Saturday when, in the aftermath of his wife’s defeat in South Carolina, he noted that “Jesse Jackson won in South Carolina in ’84 and ’88. Jackson ran a good campaign. And Obama ran a good campaign here.”

The comparison rankled some Obama supporters, who believe Mr. Obama has a much better chance of winning the nomination than Mr. Jackson, whose message was much more centered around race than Mr. Obama’s. (Mr. Jackson himself says he found nothing offensive in the remarks.)

In an interview at City Hall on Sunday, Councilman Vann said he saw similarities between the Jackson campaign in 1984 and the Obama campaign — but differences, too. Mr. Vann, an Obama supporter, said:

I think you have the same kind of enthusiasm and the inspiring message. Jesse also had that. He also brought thousands in New York State to the Democratic Party as new registered voters. He organized the Rainbow Coalition. There were some similarities. But obviously there are differences, too. Jesse Jackson’s campaign was primarily church-base driven, if you will. His connection was with the pastors and churches and congregations. I think Obama has gone far beyond that, particularly in his ability to reach into every community. It’s unparalleled. I think who he is, I think for the first time, Americans are looking into the man, himself. They believe in him. It’s not so much about his view in the issues and policies. They see him providing leadership in this country. And I think that view is contagious.

In 1984, the three main Democratic contenders barn-stormed across the state. Mr. Hart, with strong support from white urban liberals, stumped in Buffalo; Mr. Mondale, an establishment stalwart, met with Jewish and black voters in Harlem; and Mr. Jackson addressed students in Syracuse. Mr. Jackson even spent a night with a family in a housing project in the South Bronx to draw attention to the plight of low-income families.

In the end, Mr. Mondale won New York decisively with about 45 percent of the vote, with Mr. Hart finishing second and Mr. Jackson a close third. Mr. Mondale won every borough of New York City and every suburban county in the metropolitan area, but Mr. Jackson ran ahead of Mr. Hart in every borough except Staten Island. The delegates were allocated on the basis of the primary results; Mr. Mondale received 132; Mr. Hart, 73, and Mr. Jackson, 47. Mr. Jackson’s close third was not reflected in the delegate totals because most of his votes were concentrated in five predominantly black Congressional districts that he won in the city.

In November, President Ronald Reagan won re-election in a landslide, winning every state except Mr. Mondale’s native Minnesota.

The 1984 primary had important implications for New York politics.

A New York Times/CBS poll of presidential primary voters found strong voter approval for Governor Cuomo throughout the state and somewhat less approval for Mayor Koch in New York City. Mr. Koch had defeated Mr. Cuomo in 1977 for the Democratic nomination for mayor, and Mr. Cuomo had beaten Mr. Koch in 1982 for the Democratic nomination for the governor. Each man would ultimately serve three terms and then be defeated for re-election: Mr. Koch in 1989 and Mr. Cuomo in 1994.

In the final weeks before the primary, Mr. Cuomo dispatched his son Andrew to help run Mr. Mondale’s campaign in New York. Andrew M. Cuomo would go on to be the federal housing secretary in the Clinton administration. In 2006, he was elected state attorney general.

Although Mr. Jackson lost, analysts would later point to the 1984 race as an important catalyst for black political mobilization in New York City. In 1984, no citywide or borough-wide elective office was held by a black or Hispanic. (Now, in 2008, the city comptroller is black, as are the Bronx district attorney and Queens borough president. The Bronx borough president is Hispanic.)

In a campaign speech in Brooklyn on April 2, 1984, Mr. Jackson declared: “It was Chicago, it was Philadelphia, it was Atlanta. New York, your time has come.” He was alluding to cities that had elected their first black mayors: Atlanta’s Maynard H. Jackson had been elected in 1973 and Chicago’s Harold Washington and Philadelphia’s W. Wilson Goode in 1983.

It was not until 1989 that New York City elected its first — and so far only — black mayor, Mr. Dinkins. He served one term, from 1990 to 1994, and was narrowly defeated for re-election by Rudolph W. Giuliani, ushering in a period of Republican control of City Hall.

Jonathan P. Hicks contributed reporting. Read more Primary Journal blog entries from the New York region.

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Now, was it necessary for the NYT to post this article? To fathom comparing the candidacy of Rev. Jesse Jackson to the candidacy of Sen. Barack Obama? This is 2008, eight years into the new millenium, a world and a time apart from 1984, when race was truly the most deciding—and divisive factor in that campaign. To say America was not ready for a black president then, was an understatement, and to say that America is ready now, is still fraught with the ambivalence that so many non-black Americans show towards the candidacy of Obama.

In 1984, Rev. Jackson was pilloried and castigated for his “Hymie-town” remark. Per the article:

“Mr. Mondale had won handily in the Iowa caucuses on Feb. 20. Then, just days before the New Hampshire primary, Mr. Jackson admitted having privately referred to Jews as “Hymies” and to New York City as “Hymietown,” as The Washington Post had reported.

‘’Even as I affirm to you that that term was used in private conversation,’’ Mr. Jackson told a congregation in a Manchester synagogue, ‘’I categorically deny that I am anti-Semitic.”

The episode jeopardized Mr. Jackson’s description of his supporters as a “rainbow coalition” of Americans from all walks of life. On Feb. 28, Mr. Hart won the New Hampshire primary in a startling upset over Mr. Mondale. Slowly, the field narrowed to the three main contenders.

New York, which had traditionally held its primary fairly late in the campaign cycle, moved it earlier in 1984, placing it after Pennsylvania and before Illinois in the calendar. “New York — after a generation of being irrelevant in picking the party nominee — has become crucial in this year’s helter-skelter schedule of primaries and caucuses for all the Democrats who want to be President,” Maurice Carroll wrote in The New York Times on March 17, 1984.

Most of New York’s Democratic establishment — including Gov. Mario M. Cuomo early on, and later, Mayor Edward I. Koch — supported Mr. Mondale, a former Minnesota senator who had been vice president during President Jimmy Carter’s one term. ”

Yes, the infamous Hymie-town remark. Jackson has never been able to live that down. On the other hand, George W. Senior Bush, with his racist, hateful, rapacious campaign of “Willie Horton” ads against the Dukakis campaign in 1988, a campaign that sought out the most racist, anti-black hatred of white Democrats and Republicans, his remarks are always conveniently forgotten, constantly swept under the debris of collective amnesia. That Bush, Sr. ran a campaign on hate and lies (“crime” is always connected to black people—never to WASP/Anglo whites, ethnic “whites” [Italians, Greeks, Armenians, Jewish, etc.] Latinos, Native Americans, Asian-Americans, Arab-Americans—no, always black citizens as if no one else in this country has criminal elements in their race/ethnic group), garnered him millions of votes to win the popular vote as well as the Electoral College vote.

GHOSTS.

And this concerning Rep. Charles Rangel:

“In 1984, despite the surge of interest in Mr. Jackson among black voters, Mr. Rangel endorsed Mr. Mondale — just as he has endorsed Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton this year over a spirited challenge from Senator Barack Obama.

Mr. Rangel has frequently defended Mrs. Clinton, explaining in a recent interview with The Times: “There’s just no question in my mind that Hillary would be in a better position than a freshman senator. This ain’t no time for a beginner.”

Yep. He supported Mondale in 1984.

He supported a loser then (Mondale lost) just as he is supporting a loser now (Hillary).

And when I state “loser” I mean in the moral and integrity sense, for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has no integrity in how she has run her campaign, with her bringing race into this presidential campaign, with her “MLK/Johnson” remarks. Her attacks against Obama indicate her grasping at whatever straw she can grab hold of to fight against him, sitting on her past laurels which mean nothing in 2008 America. No, she is a supposed usurper who wishes to continue the hoped-for (at least in her and Bill’s eyes) Clinton Dynasty that she wishes to see come to fruiton if much of America still wants to see more of the same ol’ same ol’.

But, back to Rangel.

He also made this comment, per the article:

“But even he acknowledged that Mr. Obama’s success attracting white voters “changes him from being just a black candidate.”

The Clinton campaign has encouraged the comparison to 1984. Bill Clinton drew attention on Saturday when, in the aftermath of his wife’s defeat in South Carolina, he noted that “Jesse Jackson won in South Carolina in ’84 and ’88. Jackson ran a good campaign. And Obama ran a good campaign here.”

The comparison rankled some Obama supporters, who believe Mr. Obama has a much better chance of winning the nomination than Mr. Jackson, whose message was much more centered around race than Mr. Obama’s. (Mr. Jackson himself says he found nothing offensive in the remarks.)”

“Changes him from being just a ‘black candidate’ “? Hmm, well he is a black man the last time I looked, and America still is on the outs with black men, women and children in this country. And to compare Obama to Jackson is ludicous. They are both men of their times—Jackson not too long after the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., race riots in major cities in the North, the backlash of Reaganomics and the vicious greed of the 1980s. Obama who has come later, via the path that Jackson paved for him—Obama able to rally various races/ethnic groups around him in a time when after too many years of savage Bush attacks against each and every insitution in America:  educational, military, political, legal/judicial, economical—Bush with his slash-and-burn cowboy mentality that has put this country on the brink of war with more than just Iran. Obama represents a change, a hope that this country can still turns itself around before it is too late, and believe me it is still possible for this country to go down in the next few decades or less, if it does not cease its headlong furious pace towards destruction.

GHOSTS.

Yes, the attempted candidacy of Jackson looms over Obama, nevermind that before both of them there was Rep. Shirley Chisholm who opened the door for both Jackson, Obama—and even Clinton. And since she was a black woman she received no respect from either white men, black men or white women. Rep. Chisholm deserves just as much mention as does Jackson, for if not for her, neither one of these candidates, past or present, would be even considered as candidate material by either their party or this country’s non-black citizens.

The campaign of 1984 was in a time when America could not truly fathom acknowleging the leadership capacity of a black citizen. Mondale went on to win 45% of New York, Gary Hart finishing second, with Jackson in third place. In November, Ronald Reagan won the election, and the era of hell was ushered in.

There is much that can be given to the candidacy of Jackson. At the time of his campaign, many black people had beome extremely disillusioned with this country:  the murders of Dr. King, Malcom X, President John F. Kenendy,  Robert F. Kennedy—people who represented hope for a change in America, a change from the old hatreds, lies, evils, cruelties and abominations that America had come to accept as normal life for so many of its citizens. Jackson’s PUSH, Rainbow Coalition and poverty programs, which were started by Dr. King, and Jackson’s relentless drive to get millions of young black people to go out and register to vote should never be forgotten. When so many young black people saw the hypocrisy of this country, when so many of them were giving up on America because America had given up on them even before they were born, Jackson sought to compel the young black people that:  “You too, have a part, a stake in this country. Make it work for you. Put this country to the task. Call it out on the carpet and make it live up to its supposed ideals of a country based on equality and the rights of all citizens”. That was the message of Rev. Jackson, and because of that many young black people mobilized and voted in record numbers that had not been seen since at the time of the enactment of the Voting Rights Act of 1964. That was Jesse Jackson’s message of hope, that black people be a part of America, included in America, not excluded from America.

Just so does Obama represent that hope, but, in his own way. Hope for all Americans that we all do have a claim to this country:  Black, white, Latino, Asian, Native America, Arab-American—Jew, Gentile, Moslem. We all should have a country that works for us, not a country that work against us.

GHOSTS.

Yes, the campaigns of 1984 and 1988 of Jackson were a challenge to not only the status quo of America, but also a challenge to the rest of America. After Jackson’s candidacy run, the faces of politics began to change:

“Although Mr. Jackson lost, analysts would later point to the 1984 race as an important catalyst for black political mobilization in New York City. In 1984, no citywide or borough-wide elective office was held by a black or Hispanic. (Now, in 2008, the city comptroller is black, as are the Bronx district attorney and Queens borough president. The Bronx borough president is Hispanic.)

In a campaign speech in Brooklyn on April 2, 1984, Mr. Jackson declared: “It was Chicago, it was Philadelphia, it was Atlanta. New York, your time has come.” He was alluding to cities that had elected their first black mayors: Atlanta’s Maynard H. Jackson had been elected in 1973 and Chicago’s Harold Washington and Philadelphia’s W. Wilson Goode in 1983.

It was not until 1989 that New York City elected its first — and so far only — black mayor, Mr. Dinkins. He served one term, from 1990 to 1994, and was narrowly defeated for re-election by Rudolph W. Giuliani, ushering in a period of Republican control of City Hall.”

Yes, there were victories, and there were defeats, but, black citizens saw that they could wield power through their vote, that they could make a difference with their ballots, which became black citizen’s voices. Yes, America has come a long way in how it faces the issues of politics, race, gender, the economy, and how this country intrudes into other countries with its wars (Vietnam, then; Iraq, now). But, America still has a very long way to go.

Rev. Jackson’s campaign was based on giving black citizens equal standing in America.

Sen. Obama’s campaign is based on a “majority” of Americans wanting a major break from the last three decades of inhumane politics that has rendered the civil liberties and rights of all Americans as so many rags to be torn apart and flung into a dumpster.

Yes, Sen. Obama’s campaign is described as “diverse” “awe-inspiring” “hopeful” “the wave of change”.

But, America was not ready for Jackson, and I still have to ask myself, is America really, truly ready for Obama?

Has America finally come to accept that it must slay the dragons of race enmity, racial animus, racial superiority, racial provincialism—the relinquishing of white privilege that the highest office in the land holds?

GHOSTS.

Has America really changed all that much?

I do not think so. I would give anything to have my faith restored in this country.

And I will be the first to say that the election of a black president certainly will not cure America of her present day racial ills.

But, it certainly would not hurt.

If anything, it will certaily show that the majority of America is finally ready to step out of the Dark Ages of American hypocrisy and say:

“We, of America, want to end the divisive past of anti-human, anti-American ideals that have literally, and figuratively, torn this country apart. We are definitely ready for a change, a change that embraces not only a black president, but a change that embraces all of our citizens—especially our black citizens.”

Is America ready to rise above the sordid political machines that have run this country into the ground? Is America ready to rise above and away from dirty, mud-slinging politics, attacks that reach below the common-denominator, the race-baiting that the Clintons so gleefully committed in their onslaughts against Obama?

Super Tuesday is next week.

The rest of the primaries will come after that.

On the day after the first Tuesday in November, 2008, we will find out who will sit in the White House.  We will see whose hand will be placed on that Bible in the year 2009, as that person is sworn in by a U.S. Supreme Court Justice as the Next President of the United States of America.