Not realizing that his microphone was already on as he waited for a Fox News interview, Jackson angrily told a fellow guest in a whisper that Obama is "talking down to Black people." And then he added, "I want to cut his nuts off."

The gaffe, which sent high voltage shock waves when later aired by Fox and other national news channels, drew scorching criticism from even Jackson’s closest allies, including his son, U. S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., a co-chair of the Obama campaign.

"I reject and repudiate his ugly rhetoric," said Rep. Jackson Jr.

Rev. Jackson told NNPA that the conversation with the guest was about recent personal responsibility speeches made by Obama at Black churches and about faith-based programs, which denotes community-based initiatives in which Black people help to meet their own needs.

"By ‘talking down’, I did not mean he was talking in a contempt way, but, talking with a message that did not correspond to the size and depth of our crisis. We’re in crisis. We’re in crisis," Jackson stressed.

Part of the criticism from Jackson – also a former presidential candidate – was sparked by Obama’s Father’s Day message that strongly urged Black fathers who are absent from their homes to be more responsible to their children.

In an NNPA interview two weeks ago, Obama explained that he did not mean to stereotype Black males in that message and stressed that he has been talking about America’s sins against the Black community.

"The fact that I made one speech about the very real problems of the fathers not looking after our kids doesn’t negate everything that I’ve been talking about during the course of this campaign, about people lacking health care about the problems of the unjust criminal justice system. I’ve given multiple speeches on these issues and I will continue to," he said.

But Jackson, whose 1984 and 1988 presidential campaigns focused almost solely on the need for the "rainbow" of America’s cultures to hold government accountable for disparate treatment of the underserved and disadvantaged, says the senator’s message is not balanced enough.

"Personal responsibility will not offset the impact of plants closing, jobs leaving, drugs and guns coming. We are simply overwhelmed by the structural collapse. We believe in faith-based if faith-based means day care and after school programs," Jackson says.

Despite the crude remark, Jackson described his scrutiny of the Obama campaign as "loving criticism."

He says, "Our appeal is a loving criticism because I voted for Barack as a state senator, as a U. S. Senator, and as president I have endorsed him unsolicited and unequivocally," he said.

Nevertheless, he says his expectation is that Obama will speak to African-American groups with the same balanced and pointed messages that he brings to other groups.

"You go to a Latino group and speak about the road to citizenship, bilingual education and wages. You go to labour and you talk about the right to organize, the task of securing jobs. When you go to business leaders, you talk about tax benefits, incentives and market growth. You go to women and you talk about self-determination, Title 9 and Row v. Wade. So there’s an attempt there to make a message that has broader application to speak to the particulars of those group situations," he says.

"We have chronic levels of unemployment….There are 2.3 million Americans in prison. A million are Black. There are 900,000 young Black men in jail. We’re number one in infant mortality, number one in life expectancy, number one in unemployment, number one in the home foreclosure crisis," Jackson said. "So, we have a malfunction of structural inequality that must be addressed if America is to grow. And so my only appeal was that the message must appeal to the nature and size of our problem. That’s the point."