Sharpton takes Biden to task on remarks

Suggests campaign should stress issues of concern to black community

	Rev. Al Sharpton, on Thursday took Sen. Joe Biden to task for calling Democratic rival Sen. Barack Obama "articulate" and "clean," questioning how the description reflects on other blacks.
Darron Cummings / AP

AP	Video: In his own words Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., touches upon the primary themes of his presidential campaign.

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updated 9:35 a.m. ET Feb. 2, 2007

NEW YORK - Civil rights activist Al Sharpton on Thursday took Sen. Joe Biden to task for calling Democratic rival Sen. Barack Obama "articulate" and "clean," questioning how the description reflects on other blacks.

Biden, still trying to deal with the fallout from his remarks, spoke by telephone on Sharpton's radio show. The Delaware lawmaker spent his first day as an official presidential candidate Wednesday explaining his statement that Obama is "the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean."

Biden told Sharpton he regretted the comments and said he hadn't meant to disparage other blacks who had run for president in the past, including Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and the late New York Rep. Shirley Chisholm, who sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 1972.

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But Sharpton told Biden: "A lot of people took it from you that because (Obama) is Harvard-trained, that people don't see someone as good and clean unless they are less connected to the struggle of the African-American community."