Leadership Quote by Al Sharpton

Sharpton’s line lands because it flips the usual campaign mythology on its head: the candidate as moral compass becomes the candidate as weather vane. “Strikes me” is doing quiet work here. It signals opinion, not indictment, which lets Sharpton sound savvy rather than strident while still planting a damaging frame. Then he turns “polls” into the punchline twice, using repetition to suggest a closed loop: Clinton isn’t merely listening to voters; he’s being dragged by them.

The intent is tactical. In Democratic politics, especially in eras when Clinton’s triangulation defined the party’s center, accusing him of chasing numbers is a way to question authenticity without litigating every policy shift. Sharpton, a movement politician with credibility in protest traditions and civil-rights organizing, is positioning himself as the voice of principle against a culture of consultants. The subtext is about power: if a leader’s convictions are negotiable, then marginalized constituencies become bargaining chips, traded away whenever focus groups get squeamish.

It also works as a critique of a broader political style that Clinton came to symbolize: charismatic pragmatism, quick recalibration, a talent for staying just ahead of backlash. Sharpton’s phrasing implies that “leading” should mean risking unpopularity to move public opinion, not mirroring it for advantage. The jab is less about one man’s personality than about an entire governing philosophy, where moral clarity is treated as an unaffordable luxury and the poll becomes the ultimate permission slip.