Not a battle worth fighting.  That said, it still pisses me off that someone serving the campaign in such a limited (although important) capacity needed to be vetted.  I suppose we'll need to have vetters for the vetters for the vetters pretty soon.

Obama should be the one to vet the vetters.  In this case he didn't do it.

dispense with the knee jerk defense of EVERYTHING Obama does.  
When he's wrong - - Wright, Johnson, etc. - - a good loyal democrat tries to get him to auto-correct before he hurts himself.  
In the long run, blind loyalists are not good friends.
PS - Since Obama obviously became worried about the potential negative impact of Johnson, does this make Obama a concern troll?  Because anyone worried about Johnson 2 days ago was called a concern troll!

I wonder if all those Obama fans who were pooh poohing this matter this morning are now having second thoughts. This was clanger but any definition. He doesn't need this sort of stuff.  

My concern (and no I am not a concern troll) is that this is one more instance of semi bad judgment on his part.  Is it fatal?  Obviously not.  But if he keeps having to distance himself from people he allegedly trusts it doesn't look good.  

I think this was a mistake.  VP exploratory committee members are pretty tangential - and by accepting Johnson's resignation Obama is basically giving the go-ahead for Republicans to link anyone involved in his campaign to anything, no matter how remote.

You know who you are...

Running on integrity and bringing people together doesn't mean you're going to get it right all the time. Every campaign is going to make errors.  This is a small blip.  Bill Clinton had to survive HUGE problems during his first campaign (and, as it turned out, all through his presidency) that make this child's play.

Drop all the OMGZZZZZZZZZ bull on this.  He'll be fine.  Next thing you'll be telling me is the guy who painted his house last summer had 4 unpaid parking tickets.  Sheesh.

Agreed.  I think tne can view leaders of political factions as simply the ones who will get to cut the pie in a way that their friends get the larger pieces.  Yes, there are a few idealists (e.g., Wellstone on the left, Jeff Flake, maybe, on the right) and there are idealists among the followers.  But other than that . . .

Deadenders are eating this up. LOL!

is that every single person associated in any capacity is now going to be vetted because it was so easy to do this to johnson.

There could potentially be one thing about 100 people thats just off. (in reality there are about 100 things for every single person that are off), and each and every day there could be a target.

100 days of people "resigning" is not good news.

Now Johnson has had 3 cycles.

1. Picked for VP process
   
2. Oh look something wrong
   
3. Johnson "resigns" from VP process

3 cycles for each person, 2 bad, 1 no one cares about.

NOT GOOD.

He cant let the media dictate what is going on.

Fritz Mondale comes to mind...

Party elder, highly respected, and someone who has been through the process himself...so would do a good job...

You got that right.

but, but, but, he has judgement.  not so much.

I would say, "don't make me laugh," but it's the reason I read half of your diaries.

The wheels of the bus go 'round and 'round...

Weird..

I just went looking for more info on this and I found this article

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/11/us/pol itics/11johnson.html?_r=1&scp=2& sq=jim+johnson&st=nyt&oref=slogi n

Passage of interest:

"One of the more well-known cases involves UnitedHealth Group, a Minnesota company, where Mr. Johnson was a board member and later head of the compensation committee.

The company came under fire after the chief executive was granted more than $1.4 billion in stock options -- some $618 million of which was returned as a result of settlements with federal regulators and shareholders.

The executive, William McGuire, resigned, but he kept $800 million from the package.

Because of cases like UnitedHealth Group, Mr. Obama, Democrat of Illinois, introduced legislation in the Senate last year to restrict runaway compensation."

So, Obama was involved in legislation that was a direct response to actions taken by a company that had Jim Johnson as the head of the compensation committee.

Surely he knew this?

House Reeps just managed to kill the override to Bu$h's veto of an extension of unemployment benefits. 4 dozen of them crossed over to vote for the override, but they will nevertheless suffer for it too come election day.

Another pyrrhic victory for the bu$heviks.

Yeah, big surprise.  Not.  How disappointing.

Rounding down from .0001% to 0%.. No One Cares.

Obama needs to look at all the candidates and then choose Hillary.

Ignoring the 18 million votes she received is extremely politically risky. Too many of her supporters will bolt the party or just sit out the election.

The faster he puts her on the ticket the faster the party can come together, win the election and tackle the problems we all face.

Yes, Hillary could join his cabinet or run for Governor or get on the supreme court, but I'm talking about WINNING the election. Obama can't change a thing if he doesn't win the election and he could easily lose if he doesn't bring the party together by puting Hillary on the ticket. That is political reality.

Bull.

It's politics, it just isn't black and white. Iy's all different shades of grey.

Saying this is politics as usual is saying off-white is the same as pitch black.

Politics as usual is letting a lobbyist that is currently employed  by an industry to push for certain policies write the campaign policies on that industry.

This was somebody who got an above average loan and who was serving in an entirely different capacity.
No conflict of interest.

It's being associated with somebody who has the appearance of resembling politics as usual.

I'm sorry but just because perfection isn't reached doesn't mean being a very good on a subject is the as being average on that subject or if like mcCain; worse.

On an earlier diary complaining about these issues I said Jim Johnson was a legitimately problematic position. I am glad Obama let him go. It was a mistake. Johnson is a long time party insider, which is bad enough. But the Countrywide stuff is disconcerting.

Fineman is right: Obama is and should be held to a higher standard. If he makes a mistake and brings on board somebody not up to his standards then he should just correct the matter and take responsibility. Seems he done that.

What I find annoying is Cilizza's emphasis on McCain's people pushing the matter, and it making Obama look "weak." I don't think holding on to bad decisions is a sign of strength.

I don't know if they were paying the guy to be a vetter or not, but you have to stay away from things that have even a whiff of impropriety.