By George Curry | SACOBSERVER.COM WIRE SERVICES

(NNPA) - Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton should take a page from Denzell Washington’s character in the movie “American Gangster” and cut out the middle man. Presidential surrogates are engaging in slash and burn politics while the candidates posture as being above the fray, above the personal attacks. If this continues, Democrats won’t have to worry about a Republican beating them in November because by then, they would have defeated themselves.

This was clearly demonstrated by BET Founder Robert L. Johnson’s back door attack on Obama. Johnson is a long-time supporter of the Clintons and a major Democratic fundraiser. Campaigning for Hillary in Columbia, S.C., 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 – and I won’t say what he was doing, but he said it in his book – when they have been involved.”

It was clear that Johnson was referring to Obama experimenting with drugs during his youth. Obama wrote about the subject in “Dreams From My Father,” his 1995 memoir.
If using drugs disqualifies one from being president, neither Bill Clinton nor George W. Bush would have been elected. Bush was noted for his heavy drinking and who can ever forget Clinton’s tortured explanation of his experience with marijuana – he tried it but didn’t inhale.

Under increasing pressure, Johnson issued a statement claiming that he had been “referring to Barack Obama’s time spent as a community organizer and nothing else. Any other suggestion is simply irresponsible and incorrect.”

Asked about Johnson’s comment during a debate in Las Vegas, Hillary Clinton said, “Well, Bob has put out a statement saying what he was trying to say and what he thought he had said. And we accept him on his word.”

In the end, it turned out that Bob Johnson had been the one irresponsible and incorrect.

Black surrogates of Clinton in particular will go to any length to engage in slash and burn politics.

Rep. Charles Rangel defended Hillary Clinton’s poorly phrased comment that although Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a civil rights leader, it took President Lyndon B. Johnson to sign civil rights legislation into law. Obama called Clinton’s comment “ill-advised.”
Rushing to the defense of Clinton, Rangel said it was “absolutely stupid” for Obama to attack Hillary for her comment and claimed that Obama, not Clinton, had needlessly injected race into the presidential contest. “How race got into this thing is because Obama said, ‘race.’” Rangel said in an interview on NY1-TV.

Civil rights icon John Lewis, another Clinton middle man, could not resist joining the anti-Obama bandwagon. After describing Obama as “a friend,” Lewis declared, “He is no Martin Luther King Jr.” Come on John, despite your many contributions, you are no Martin Luther King. Jr. Nor were Roy Wilkins, Whitney Young, Bayard Rustin, Andy Young or even Martin Luther King III. There was only one Martin Luther King Jr. and no one should look for a reincarnation of him.

NBA great Earvin “Magic” Johnson, who is 6’9,” is also one of Hillary’s biggest supporters, physically and politically. In a radio ad airing in South Carolina, Johnson recounts his first year with the Los Angeles Lakers: ''We won our first game on a last second shot. I was so hyped. But the captain of my team said, 'Take it easy rookie, it's a long season, it's a long road to the championship.' He was right.''

Of course, the implication is that Obama is a political rookie. But the rookie analogy can be turned on its head. In Johnson’s NBA rookie year, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar suffered a sprained ankle and point guard Johnson was switched to center. He responded by scoring 42 points, grabbing 15 rebounds, made seven assists and three steals. The Lakers won the championship over the Philadelphia 76s and Johnson was named the NBA finals’ Most Valuable Player. So, a rookie can lead a team to a championship.

Andy Young, perhaps the most conservative of the Clinton surrogates, is the one who has gone off on the deep end. First, there was the stupid statement that, “Bill Clinton is every bit as Black as Barack.”

And as if that wasn’t stupid enough, Young added, “He’s probably gone with more Black women than Barack.” He quickly added, “I’m clowning.”

On that we agree – he was acting like a clown. And so are many Clinton surrogates as they rush to prove their loyalty to the Clintons by demeaning Barack Obama. It’s bad enough that Bill Clinton is a middle man, leading some people to think that he will become co-president. The candidates need to make their own case. We don’t need middle men between them and the voters.

George E. Curry, former editor-in-chief of Emerge magazine and the NNPA News Service, is a keynote speaker, moderator, and media coach. He can be reached through his Web site, www.georgecurry.com.