The Daily Background

Is Bob Johnson really the type of person Hillary Clinton wants campaigning for her? Several signs indicate that he may be more suited in the Republican Party than the Democratic one, as this exclusive research document will demonstrate.

THE FACTS

• Bob Johnson Attacked Barack Obama For Teenage Drug Use, A Line Of Attack The Clinton Campaign Has Suggested Only Republicans Would Resort To
• Johnson Misleadingly Used Statistics About African American Mortality Rates To Support President Bush’s Social Security Privatization Plan
• Siding With Republicans, Johnson Has Falsely Claimed The Estate Tax Is “Racist”
• Johnson “Pimped Stereotypical Images Of Black People” To Amass His Fortune
• Johnson Opposed Democratic Efforts To Tax Hedge Funds At Normal Rates, Falsely Claiming They Were Racist

Bob Johnson Attacked Barack Obama For Teenage Drug Use, A Line Of Attack The Clinton Campaign Has Suggested Only Republicans Would Resort To

Bob Johnson, the founder of BET, is a prominent Hillary Clinton surrogate. At a recent campaign event which he attended along with Clinton, Johnson brought up Barack Obama’s drug use 25 years ago. Johnson said:

“As an African American, I’m frankly insulted that the Obama campaign would imply that we are so stupid that we would think Bill and Hillary Clinton, who have been deeply and emotionally involved in black issues when Barack Obama was doing something in the neighborhood that I won’t say what he was doing but he said it in his book.”

Hillary Clinton, who had previously apologized to Obama when her New Hampshire co-chair brought up his past drug use in an attempt to smear him, said nothing to denounce Johnson’s vicious attack. The Clinton campaign later sent out a brief statement from Johnson claiming that he was referring to Obama’s community organizing, not his drug use– an assertion that, as Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo puts it, “is too silly to even repeat.”

Clinton’s ex-New Hampshire co-Chair Bill Shaheen has said that Republicans would attack Obama for his teenage drug use, should Democrats choose him to be their nominee.

Johnson also compared Obama unfavorably to Sidney Poitier’s character in 1967’s Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner, a film that dealt heavily with race relations.

Johnson Misleadingly Used Statistics About African American Mortality Rates To Support President Bush’s Social Security Privatization Plan

Johnson was an official member of President Bush’s “Commission to Strengthen Social Security,” the commission that pushed President Bush’s failed privatization plan from 2001-2002, and for his work to destroy Social Security, has been called “a Trojan Horse, an aggressive political operative of the Bush White House posing as a Democrat.”

Johnson said of Democrats (like Hillary Clinton) who were defending Social Security at the time, “We’re all on the Titanic as it relates to Social Security and people are telling us it’s the safest ship afloat… But we are heading for a disaster.”

The Black Agenda Report wrote that Johnson’s privatization crusade on behalf of Bush was “a combination of grossly misapplied numbers, fantasies and false promises, and a few very hard truths that privatization cannot address or ameliorate.”

The New Republic said of Johnson’s contorted use of race in the Social Security debate, “Johnson has his racial analysis backward.”

Siding With Republicans, Johnson Has Falsely Claimed The Estate Tax Is “Racist”

In supporting the Republican Party’s attempts to get rid of the Estate Tax, Johnson claimed that it was “racist” and “took out full-page ads in national newspapers, granted interviews, even gave speeches claiming that a repeal ‘will help close the wealth gap…between African-American families and white families.’”

Think Progress set Johnson straight, saying: “Johnson’s argument is seriously misguided. Roughly 38 million blacks live in the United States. Of those, an estimated 59 — yes, 59 — will pay estate taxes this year, and that number will drop to just 33 in 2009, according to American Progress economist John Irons (using estimates derived from The State Of The Estate Tax As Of 2006).”

Johnson “Pimped Stereotypical Images Of Black People” To Amass His Fortune

One of the shows on Johnson’s BET is “Hot Ghetto Mess,” a show that was “inspired by the Hot Ghetto Mess website that highlights images of blacks in outrageous, often degrading situations and clothing,” according to the LA Times.

The prominent African American blog Jack And Jill Politics writes that “Johnson is not new at the game of selling questionable products to black people. Obviously there have been, shall we say, issues with the programming of BET even before he sold it to Viacom, one of those six massive mega media companies with not a drop of concern nor obligation to the communities they reach… Here’s a question: why don’t you ask Mrs. Clinton why she is so proud to have the support of a man who pimped stereotypical images of black people and worked to privatize social security?”

Johnson Opposed Democratic Efforts To Tax Hedge Funds At Normal Rates, Falsely Claiming They Were Racist

Johnson is reportedly worth around 1.1 billion dollars (that’s billion with a B) and he even started his own hedge fund to avoid paying taxes at normal rates. In order to keep paying artificially low taxes by using hedge funds, Johnson has criticized Democratic efforts to close the hedge fund loophole.

The Hill reported in July 2007, “Democratic presidential hopefuls are ‘playing the class warfare card’ by supporting t\ax increases on private-equity and hedge-fund managers, says Robert L. Johnson, the billionaire founder of Black Entertainment Television, who warns the hike would hit minority-run investment firms.”

Johnson continued: “I believe there’s a tendency of certain members of the Democratic Party to pursue tax changes as part of some soak-the-rich strategy without thinking about the longer-term consequences to the overall economy.”

Among those “certain members of the Democratic Party” are Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John Edwards.

Says Matt Stoller of Open Left, “Robert Johson was a key figure behind the repeal of the estate tax (as were a few other mega-wealthy African-Americans), and now he’s using racial politics to keep taxes on hedge funds lower than taxing work.”

Johnson Is Better Suited To Be A Republican Campaign Surrogate Than A Democratic One

Writes Matt Stoller, “Johnson is simply a corrupt corporate type, and it’s amazing that Clinton would dispatch him as a surrogate.”

Johnson is perhaps not the ideal surrogate for Clinton’s campaign, or the campaign of any Democrat for that matter, though he might fit in better with a Republican campaign…

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