Chicago-based Jesse Jackson is probably considered a competitor to Obama, definitely a competitor to Sharpton although they play nice when on stage together.
The problem isn't just that Sharpton gets away with lying, distorting and misleading on an almost daily basis on his MSNBC program, but that he's gotten away with it for so long. There's also the issue of his unpaid taxes that others go to jail for.
http://www.foxbusiness.com/personal-fina...an-al-sharpton/http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/19/nyregi...uence.html?_r=0Sharpton called the New York Times story biased against him and that people don't like Obama (apparently trying to link himself to Obama, but the New York Times is one of Obama's biggest supporters) and Bill De Blasio (how is that relevant?).
As for Sharpton being Obama's adviser, I doubt Obama gets that far away from him if he's gone to the White House at least SEVENTY-TWO TIMES! Some of those included one-to-one meetings with President Obama. David Axelrod, an official senior adviser, met with Obama in one-to-one meetings 14 times. Sharpton, who is/was not an official adviser, met with him one-on-one 5 times. There was an additional 20 times where he met Obama together with staff and/or advisers. In the end, Rudy Giuliani exaggerated when he called Sharpton a "close adviser," but someone with that many visits is an adviser.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact...up-to-85-times/ 
