Remember Jim Johnson? The former head of Fannie Mae was on Obama’s VP-vetting team until the media highlighted his shady Countrywide loan deals–a bit of a problem since Obama has criticized Countrywide for such deals. As expected, Johnson resigned because he “would not dream of being a party to distracting attention from” Obama’s campaign. Bloggers agree that Obama’s initial defense of Johnson could cause problems. The Washington Post‘s Dan Balz says, “It isn’t clear whether the uproar over Johnson is a passing storm or a more serious problem for the Obama campaign. For now, the campaign has decided to treat it as a minor annoyance that will soon disappear. But the candidate’s response has raised questions about the candidate himself that could well linger past the moment.” Joe Gandelman at the Moderate Voice adds, “His initial reply to this controversy didn’t help him and made him look like one more evasive pol, or an incredibly naive candidate.” Right-wing bloggers are more blunt. Hugh Hewitt says, “Obama has blown his first week as the Democratic nominee defending a DC insider who took the special deals from the deep pockets which Obama has been blasting his opponents for for months.” And NRO’s Jim Geraghty explains that “we see that Obama’s first instinct when encountering a skeptical questioner is to challenge the questioner; ‘no, you’re wrong.’ Twenty-four hours ago, this was ‘a game’ and Johnson didn’t work for Obama. Once again, as with Wright, and the flag pin, and Trinity United, etc., the initial answer is now inoperative.” As Townhall’s Amanda Carpenter notes, Obama has had quite a few “distractions.” And Hot Air’s Allahpundit says, “Doesn’t this qualify in Obamaworld at the very least as a ‘distraction’? Or does the fact that it’s being presented as Johnson’s own decision mean Barry can’t use his favorite rhetorical device?” Perhaps Obama should find some new VP vetters. After all, as Ramesh Ponnuru says at The Corner, “A large part of that job is to keep Obama from forming an unfortunate association with a shady character or a person who could prove politically dangerous. A person, that is, like James Johnson.”
