HAIL TO THE REV.(The Talk of the Town)(presidential candidate Al Sharpton)(Interview)

Publication: The New Yorker

Publication Date: 03-NOV-03

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COPYRIGHT 2003 All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission of The Condé Nast Publications Inc.

Imagine, for a moment, Al Sharpton's Washington. Russell Simmons, the co-founder of Def Jam Records, is in the West Wing, at work on hip-hop outreach. In the Oval Office, the President is talking policy with a group of Harvard professors. "I would bring a perfect mixture of the urban north and the southern gospel to the White House--a mixture of Russell Simmons and a good plate of fried chicken while I discuss how we get clean water in underdeveloped countries," the Reverend said last week, in his gravelly preacher's voice. "That would be a normal day at the White House under the Sharpton Administration."

"Rev," as the members of his campaign staff call him, is New York's first legitimate presidential candidate in more...

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