Today, the Rev. Jesse Jackson announced that he was supporting Senator Barrack Obama’s candidacy for President. “He has my vote,” Jackson told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

Sen. Obama wants Americans to believe that he is a visionary leader who has turned away from the politics of the past. But hitching his wagon to Jackson’s fallen star undermines the image that the Senator is working so hard to cultivate.

Obama likes to suggest that, as President, he will put aside the politics of division, raise the level of discouse in Washington, and bring together a divided America under a banner of renewed hope for the future. Jackson has built his political career by relying on the politics of division. Rather than forward-looking optimism, Jackson’s politics dwell in an unhappy past which, Jackson believes, entitles him and a whole group of Americans to special treatment.

I have no idea whether Sen. Obama sought the Rev. Jackson’s endorsement or not. And no candidate is ever going to turn down an offer of support — nor should they. But this endorsement is one that Senator Obama doesn’t need, and, ultimately, doesn’t help his candidacy at all.