I s Rev Jesse Jackson crying tears of joy... or tears of frustration?

Tears streamed down the face of the Reverend Jesse Jackson as he waited to hear Barack Obama's victory speech.

But cynical commentators wondered if they were tears of joy for America's first black president or of frustration because the veteran civil rights leader knows he will be an outsider looking in at the new administration.

Sincere? Reverend Jesse Jackson reacts after projections show that Senator Barack Obama will be elected to serve as the next President of the United States of America

Relations have been frosty since Jackson was caught out crudely criticising Obama when a microphone was switched on before a television interview in July.

While celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey were in the Obama inner circle to celebrate his victory in Chicago's Grant Park, Jackson was lingering at the back.

He insisted his tears were because he was thinking of the history of black people in the U.S. and their rise from slavery to president.