Bond Criticizes Clinton, Endorses Obama?
Remarks Test NAACP Standards
Charles Johnson
Last Updated: 2/25/08 Section: News
At the Athenaeum, as if to prove his non-partisan credentials, Bond claimed to "have stood on stage" with Republican Michael S. Steele, a black candidate for the U.S. Senate in Maryland. But some Democrats pelted Steele with Oreos, and Esquire Magazine called him a "lawn jockey" of the Republican Party along with fellow black Republican Lynn Swann, the GOP's 2006 gubernatorial candidate in Pennsylvania. Bond's NAACP did not issue a statement condemning either attack on Steele.
Although Bond claimed to be a friend of Steele, Steele has been critical of Bond's tenure at the NAACP. Steele, who retains his membership to the NAACP despite his criticisms, told National Review's Jay Nordlinger that "Julian Bond and others have turned [the NAACP] into something else, but the NAACP was always above party and ideology, interested in only what was right, period."
Bond has made controversial statements to college audiences in the past. In February 2006, Bond spoke at Fayetteville State University, a historically black college in North Carolina. The next day, WorldNetDaily.com reported Bond as saying, "The Republican Party would have the American flag and the swastika flying side by side." • Charles Johnson is a freshman at CMC, web editor for the CI, and blogs at claremontconservative.blogspot.com.
Although Bond claimed to be a friend of Steele, Steele has been critical of Bond's tenure at the NAACP. Steele, who retains his membership to the NAACP despite his criticisms, told National Review's Jay Nordlinger that "Julian Bond and others have turned [the NAACP] into something else, but the NAACP was always above party and ideology, interested in only what was right, period."
Bond has made controversial statements to college audiences in the past. In February 2006, Bond spoke at Fayetteville State University, a historically black college in North Carolina. The next day, WorldNetDaily.com reported Bond as saying, "The Republican Party would have the American flag and the swastika flying side by side." • Charles Johnson is a freshman at CMC, web editor for the CI, and blogs at claremontconservative.blogspot.com.
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