WaPo: Unrepentant BET founder Bob Johnson Defends His Recent Criticism (Makes things worse)

[flpoljunkie]

(Will the Clintons now try to separate themselves from Bob Johnson? That is the question.)

BET Founder Johnson Defends His Recent Criticisms of Obama

By Frank Ahrens
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 15, 2008; A04

A day after his remarks about Sen. Barack Obama helped fuel a rancorous debate about race in the Democratic presidential contest, an unapologetic Robert L. Johnson described how frustrating it is to be on the other side of a candidate he compared to Teflon.

"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.) sai

Johnson reiterated that he was referring to Obama's earlier career as a community organizer when he said during an appearance on behalf of Clinton on Sunday in Columbia, S.C., that the senator from Illinois needs to explain his past. And he elaborated on what he meant when he called Obama "Sidney," a reference to Sidney Poitier's well-mannered character in the film "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner."

"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.

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."

"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."

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/14/AR2008011402980.html