Al Sharpton: I think that is the media. Most polls have me in the middle. The guys behind me take me seriously, and the guys ahead of me take me seriously because we are gaining momentum. And if I do a sizeable vote, which I certainly will, they are going to have to deal with that. I think it's wishful thinking on the part of some of the mainstream media. I think they are being dismissive of people on the left in general, particularly people of color. The good news is that because they do that, they are going to wake up shocked when I come in with the vote. I bet a lot of pollsters are going to lose their jobs when we get finished with these primaries.

PB: If you could look into the future and see that your role in this election was going to mean George Bush would keep the White House, would you drop out right now?

AS: If I felt that, yes. But I don't feel that. I feel the opposite. I think that unless someone can galvanize the kinds of people I can galvanize then we are going to have a repeat of 2002, 2000, 1998. The swing vote is not conservative white males. The swing vote is in the young voters in the hip-hop generation and those older voters who have become disaffected and disillusioned. And I am the candidate that can most galvanize and attract those voters.

PB: Major aspects of your platform are based on passing constitutional amendments -- the right to a public education of equal high quality, the right to health care of equal high quality and the ERA. Aren't constitutional amendments a drastic and ultimately doomed approach?

AS: If you look at the right wing, they have used constitutional arguments to energize their base -- the right to bear arms, prayer in schools. In the progressive political community we have not talked about permanent change. As I have campaigned around the country and particularly in the South, people become energized for permanent change. I think candidates, particularly in the Democratic Party and on the left, are too shortsighted. We bring people from election to election, rather than talk about changing the very fabric of America. The right appeals to people who want to see the fabric of the country changed. I happen to disagree with their social change, but I think as an organizing technique, they have been far superior to the progressives and the left side of the political spectrum. I am not willing to concede the Bible and the flag to the right. I think that at some point we did and it was a grave error. At one of the first forums we had as candidates, some right-to-lifers were marching and a young lady said to me, I am not only disappointed in you for crossing our picket line and being pro-choice because you are a candidate, I am disappointed in you as a minister. And I told her, It is time for the Christian right to meet the right Christians.

PB: One of your main reasons for running deals with the continued need for affirmative action. What do you say to whites who believe blacks have gotten preferential treatment long enough?

AS: It's important because we have not achieved an even playing field. And if the commitment of the nation is to repair damage done, then you do it until it is repaired. You don't do it for a time cycle and then say, okay time's up. One of the things I argue with critics of affirmative action is that you can't say government should not be involved in repairing damage when government was involved in doing damage. We're not talking about government correcting something government didn't do. Blacks were not discriminated against out of cultural habit. This was law. It was against the law for us to go to certain institutions. It was against the law for us to have certain jobs. So government must undo what government did. Isn't it interesting that these same right-wingers feel we have to repair Iraq and other places where we have done damage? So we have an obligation to repair our enemies, but we don't have an obligation to our citizens who built the country?

PB: What is your take on the rumor that Carol Moseley Braun is in the race to dilute your chances?

AS: I talked to Miss Braun several times last year, and she was talking about running for her senate seat in Illinois. Then I heard through the media that she was running for president. So I don't know what motivated her. We'll see what happens. She certainly has a right to run, but so far, according to most polls, I am favored by a majority of black voters. So if that was the strategy, it doesn't seem to be taken well.

PB: Would Jesse Jackson have made a good president?