“Barack Obama is an impressive guy,” said Reverend Al Sharpton. “I just don’t know what he stands for.”

Over a breakfast of lightly peppered scrambled eggs, turkey bacon, and piping hot tea, at Harlem’s Amy Ruth’s southern-style restaurant, a relaxed Sharpton told the AmNews his thoughts on Obama, Hillary Clinton and whether or not he will jump in the presidential race.

Kingmaker? Seasoned media massager, struggle-minded activist, a genuine Brooklyn article? Or all of the above – or just a couple? When the real Al Sharpton stands up, it usually comes with headlines and sound bites.

About to whip the media once again into some sort of frothy frenzy, head slightly inclined, and with that look on his face, Sharpton hints that if certain factors are not aligned just so, he may jump in the presidential candidate fray.

His decision to revisit his 2004 campaign will be determined, he said, “if I feel that our social issues are not being addressed.”

For a hot minute, there’s been something of a buzz in certain circles around the rumor that the minister was mulling another long-distance run incorporating all corners of the nation.

“If I were to not run, it would be because that I felt social issues and the issues of our community were going to be represented – win, lose or draw – in the debate and going forward. But, if Obama’s not going to – and I’m not saying that he won’t, but I don’t know that he will – that does not satisfy the social justice needs.

“For example, in the 1980s when Rev. Jackson ran, we knew what he was running for. When I ran – the same thing I’m still not clear, and the people I talk to are not clear, on what Obama is running for other than the media hype of Obama.”

Sharpton spoke about a New York City tabloid, which ran an article on Sunday about the “good Black versus the bad Black,” meaning Obama being contrasted to Sharpton.

And the article continued, Sharpton added, “‘If he defeats Bush, he defeats Sharpton.’ What does that mean? How does he defeat me?” asked an incredulous and seemingly slightly affronted Sharpton.

Perception is everything, the Reverend said, and right now it might just look like the newly appointed media-darling is trying to be “all things to all people.”

Recently, Sharpton went to D.C. to meet with presidential candidates Senators Obama, Chris Dodd, Hillary Clinton, and Joseph Biden.

His meeting with Obama apparently it did not ease his particular concerns.

Sharpton noted that the senator from Illinois voted for the tort reform bill, which would, put a ceiling on awards in police brutality cases. He said that he did not want the lawyers to get all this money. Sharpton said that he pointed out that this affects the victims more.

“Louima, Diallo, we wouldn’t have gotten any of that money for them – that bothered me. Number two: Obama voted for the wall in Mexico. How are you going to roll with a Latino coalition if you voted for the wall to block Mexicans? The third thing was [previously] he said that he was not for reparations. These were the type of things that I raised with Obama.”

Asked about a certain almost involuntary reaction he has when he is asked about Obama on the television, Sharpton replied, “I roll my eyes because people are creating something that is not defined to me.”

With his new Harlem National Action Network headquarters, [that has] chapters all over the nation, a daily national radio show and his Sunday broadcasts, Sharpton told the AmNews, “I’d prefer to not run in 2008. But I also am not going to let a season go by with our issues not raised. I would run rather than us not being in the debate. I’m not going to let them act like we’re not there. That’s why I had these meetings with Obama and I said, ‘You’re going to stand up for us; if you’re not, somebody’s got to do this.’”

Sharpton said that he met with Obama two weeks ago for several hours. He came out of it feeling that Obama is “a very smart guy, very talented. But I don’t think that it’s very defined.”

So while the world and his wife are lining up to throw their collective hat into what might be a three-ring circus, Sharpton seems particularly unexcited about any of the announced candidates.

“Hillary and I have agreed and disagreed. We’ve battled on certain matters of policing. Hillary and I have agreed on certain matters. But, I don’t see Hillary as the social justice candidate – no.”

He acknowledged that some in the Black community view her in a favorable light, but Sharpton proclaimed, “I’ve been the guy who questioned Blacks who called Bill Clinton the first Black president.”

This presidential campaign stretch will not be a kissing-the-babies, pressing-the-flesh, fake-promise extravaganza of old, Sharpton stated.

“I’m going to invite all of them to a national meeting of Black activists from around the country – so that we can question them. All of them,” he said.

And then there is Rudolph Giuliani. Anyone who lived in pre-Sept 11 New York may just recall how the city, the residents, the activists, the artists, the workers and the media were at war with the former mayor. He was persona non grata on September 10th, 2001 – and then the towers fell, and the image of him walking through the rubble of downtown Manhattan made a John Wayne out of the ex-prosecutor.

“America’s mayor,” reviled by many New Yorkers, including tabloids and broadsheets in the run-up to the World Trade Center collapse, has so far enjoyed an unquestioned revival.

“The reinvention of Rudolph Giuliani is the most blatant media bias I’ve ever seen,” said Sharpton with disdain. “Rudy Giuliani operated in a way that was totally detrimental to the majority of the city, which is people of color. If he runs and is the nominee, I will campaign against him all over the country to tell the American people the way he dealt with us with police matters; with not having Blacks really involved in his administration; with his leading the police riot against Mayor David Dinkins – I mean they need to know the real Rudy. “

As with the police-brutality-riddled era that colored the Giuliani administration, the bloody specter has reared its head during Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s [administration].

On his Sunday night show, Sharpton interviewed Joseph Guzman and Trent Benefield – survivors of the 50-shot police barrage that killed Queens groom-to-be Sean Bell in November 2006.

“I wanted to remind people that the key to this case is them,” Sharpton told the AmNews. “Unlike Amadou Diallo – they lived. They were in the car, they can say what happened.”

As the arguably belated Queens grand jury looks into the case at Queens Criminal Court, Sharpton said, “I am still very suspect of local prosecutors’ grand juries. I think there must be a special prosecutor. The question is, do they create the climate that we can continue to cooperate in?”