Michael Jackson, Greatest Human Being ... Ever

Michael Jackson was surely a tremendously talented, hard-working, and influential artist. But that's not all.

At today's memorial service, Nelson Mandela remembered how "...he was able to triumph over tragedy on some many occasion in his life." Like the tragedy of being phenomenally wealthy, or the tragedy of being held accountable, almost, for his inappropriate attentions to young children.

The Reverend Al Sharpton gave him credit for the election of Barack Obama -- and more. Pay attention as the man lays it out:

Step 1, Comfort --> Oprah: "It was that comfort level that kids from Japan and Ghana and France and Iowa and Pennsylvania got comfortable enough with each other so later it wasn't strange to us to watch Oprah on television."

Step 2, Oprah --> Barack Obama: "Those young kids grew up from being teenage comfortable fans of Michael to being 40 years old and being comfortable to vote for a person of color to be the president of the United States of America."

Step 3, Barack Obama --> World Peace: "Michael made us love each other."

The details may be blurry, but the good Reverend has always been a strong Idea Man.

Perhaps Carlos Riley of Denver, CO said it best in an NPR interview: "Thousands of years from now, people will freak out when they think that this was a real person who once walked this earth."