By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist

So Sen. Barack Obama quickly accepts Jesse Jackson's apology for the reverend's remarks that "Barack's been talking down to black people ... I want to cut his nuts off." What's wrong with this picture?

For one thing, Jackson has a shameless excuse for why the remark even made it on the air, saying he thought the Fox News microphone a few inches from his mouth wasn't on.

"It was very private," Jackson said of his remark.

Oh, so Jackson didn't mind saying it -- or the thought behind it -- but only that the remark actually became public?

This is the kind of gaffe that the old-school Jesse Jackson would have gone wild over. He would have sought out every microphone in sight to denounce such a degrading comment.

And probably for good reasons, too.

Yet Obama turns the other cheek. Why? Partly, it wouldn't look good for two different generations of black leaders to be publicly quarreling with each other over this matter.

Obama wants to look presidential, after all.

Besides, Jackson's son -- Democratic Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. of Illinois -- blasted away at his father.

"I'm deeply outraged and disappointed in Rev. Jackson's reckless statements about Sen. Barack Obama," said Jackson Jr., who's one of Obama's top campaign leaders.

Of course, Rev. Jackson felt obliged to make it clear he supports Obama. And he was quickly trying to do damage control on his remarks.

Jackson said he told a fellow panelist on the Fox News show that Obama "comes down as speaking down to black people."

That doesn't, of course, exactly explain away the "nuts" part of Jackson's comment.