The Black House

At a dinner honoring University of Colorado president Hank Brown, a businessman reading pretend telegrams to the honoree said, "I have a telegram from the White House. They're going to have to change the name of that building if Obama's elected." The audience reportedly gasped. The businessman has apologized.

Hit And Run

Black Entertainment Network founder Bob Johnson, at a South Carolina campaign appearance with Senator Hillary Clinton, said the following to the audience: "And to me, as an African American, I am frankly insulted that the Obama campaign would imply that we are so stupid that we would think Hillary and Bill Clinton, who have been deeply and emotionally involved in black issues since Barack Obama was doing something in the neighborhood--and I won't say what he was doing, but he said it in the book--when they have been involved."

What was Johnson referring to? Obama's published admission of past drug use. What did Clinton say about Johnson's statement when she spoke after Johnson? Nothing. That's not even plausible deniability.

Johnson later explained that he was only speaking about Obama's "time spent as a community organizer, and nothing else." To be polite, that's simply not true. And the game continues.

Shucking And Jiving

Last week New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo made the following statement in a radio interview in which he discussed primary campaigning: "You have to sit down with 10 people in a living room. You can't shuck and jive at a news conference; you can't put off reporters, because you have real people looking at you, saying 'answer the question.'" Cuomo's spokesperson, Jeffrey Lerner, later explained that Cuomo "meant no offense to either candidate because he was praising both in the interview. 'Bob and weave' would have been a better phrase . . ." You think?