Jesse Jackson Jr. says so. Via Ken Shepherd at Newsbusters, here's a quote from Josephine Hearn's piece in the Politico on reaction to the end of the nomination fight. The emphasis is Shepherd's:

On Capitol Hill, as across the country Wednesday, African-Americans reflected on Illinois Democratic Sen. Barack Obama's historic rise as the first black presidential nominee to lead a major political party. They noted that only a few decades ago, African-Americans were fighting across large swaths of the South for basic human rights, hardly pondering the possibility that one of them might soon lead the country.

Many black lawmakers said they were elated at Obama's victory.

Many said they never thought such a day would come.

[...]

Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.), son of the one-time presidential contender, said Obama's victory overwhelmed him.

"I cried all night. I'm going to be crying for the next four years," he said. "What Barack Obama has accomplished is the single most extraordinary event that has occurred in the 232 years of the nation's political history. ... The event itself is so extraordinary that another chapter could be added to the Bible to chronicle its significance."

As Shepherd points out, no mainstream media source has commented on this intriguing little bon mot, even though the Politico is one of the most oft-quoted sources in political coverage these days and even though (do I even need to write this?) it would certainly be a top story for days if someone said something similar about John McCain or (Shepherd's example) Mike Huckabee.

Chris Clukey
Contributing Editor