Bob Johnson gives an interview to the WaPo in which he offers his further deep thoughts on Obama and race:
"We've always said we need a perfect, well-spoken, Harvard-educated
black candidate who would prove we've transcended race," the
billionaire African American businessman and supporter of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) said in an interview yesterday. "Well, now we've got him and nobody knows how to campaign against him."
Except, of course, by insinuating that he was a crackhead.
"What has happened, in my opinion, is that what we have created is the
quote-unquote 'perfect candidate' that's like in the movies, that has
absolutely no blemishes," a vision that is unrealistic, said Johnson,
who started Black Entertainment Television and has been a friend of the Clintons for two decades.
Which is why he needed to allude to the drugs--because nobody's perfect.
He said Obama has avoided talking about race, a tactic that Johnson said made him acceptable to the largely white electorate of Iowa.
Obama won the state's Democratic caucuses on Jan. 3. "White America is
saying, 'He's safe for us, he should be safe for you guys,' " Johnson
said, referring to blacks. "We're letting other people pick our
leaders."
Because Obama isn't running for President of the United States, just President of Black America.
"The Obama campaign -- win, lose or draw -- is going to have to
address race," Johnson said. "If we don't have this debate about race
within the Democratic Party . . . we could find ourselves with a division in this party as we go up against whoever the Republicans put up."
Because there's a lot of latent African-American support out there for McCain or Romney.
--Jason Zengerle