Obama VP Vetter Johnson Resigns

WASHINGTON — A leader of Democrat Barack Obama's vice presidential research team has resigned amid criticism over his personal loan deals.

Obama announced in a statement Wednesday that Jim Johnson was stepping aside to avoid distracting from the vetting process.

Johnson served on the vetting team with former first daughter Caroline Kennedy and former Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder.

Comments

[TheAlchemist]

I'd love to see an Obama/Powell ticket

[sxm342]

He should step down. Watching Obama's representative on cable news the other day defend Johnson saying they need a Washington insider made me do a double take. Obama's entire message was not to be the insider candidate. This will be a positive for Obama's campaign and remove another attacking point from the Gop's.

[StephenDedalus82]

This is Kerry's guy. I strongly suspect Kerry wants to be VP. Why did he show up on Obama's list when nobody had floated the idea before as far as I know?

[PKSSK]

I find it ironic that the media is so focused on the people associated with Obama's campaign yet there is no word on McCain's inept choices of the people he surrounds himself with. When is the media going to vet McCain's campaign staff and, more importantly, call him on it?? I think the fact the McCain is constantly given a media free ride is a prime example of why we have no trust in the media or the candidate they choose to protect in order to protect their own corp interest. The benefit of the media's lack of focus on McCain is that it paints a clear picture of the candidate we should NOT put in the white house!!!

[RTIII]

They know his new nickname is soon to be McSlain.

[gwhizz]

HA HA! Already the emperor has no clothes.
2 of O.B.ama's hand picked "advisors" make the NYT front page on the same day.

Johnson, Furman, NEXT!

LOL! New politics indeed.
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss!

[avraamjack]

.
The slime machine is poised and ready to attack ...
.

[richfam]

Its worse than that is my guess. This is the democratic leadership "helping" him make decisions. This stuff will come up all the time when he's elected...

[mtrav]

You people have to stop making excuses for the poor choice.

"...what is important here is what this incident says about Obama, not about Johnson. The senator's initial reaction was to portray himself as too busy to keep up with the obscure financial doings of people who are not significant to the campaign and to belittle the media for asking him to "vet the vetters."

To treat Johnson, Holder and Kennedy suddenly as mere fact-checkers is as disingenuous as it is ungracious. Obama is clearly the most intelligent candidate of either party since Bill Clinton. But he can outsmart himself if he goes on expecting the media and the public to accept just about any explanation he gives. "

[mtrav]

But there’s all this other stuff. Johnson is the former head of Fannie Mae, which under his direction, according to regulators, engaged in accounting practices that were, at best, sloppy. At the same time, he sat on the boards of five different corporations, where he appeared to serve as cheerleader for the theory that corporate executives deserve to be paid obscene amounts of money.

How does someone go up to Barack Obama, who once sponsored a bill to curb excessive executive compensation, and say — “You know the vice-presidential search committee? For chairman, how about Jim Johnson? Remember, the guy who tried to give the head of UnitedHealth Group $1.4 billion in stock options?”

How about that? No excuses, he made a terrible choice. You can't blame that on anyone but him.

[ghostwriter5]

What it shows is that he went to a DC insider, probably suggested by other DC insiders, and never thought about it because he is not serious about changing DC--it's just a BS campaign slogan.

[Liberoservative]

Yep... in contrast.. I have NEVER made a mistake in my entire life!!!
and I am sure, neither have you...
Good grief.... we don't want an android for a president....
Oh wait!!!
Here we go... Data for POTUS!

[THEhillbilly]

Give the trainee a break. After all, he's just a run-of-the-mill senator from Illinois. At this point in his life, his magniloquence far exceeds his judgment, experience, astuteness, etc..

One thing the done-nothing senator wants and needs to avoid is a well qualified VP candidate. This could go down in history as "the ill-fated upside down 2008 Democratic Party ticket."

The actual purpose of the VP selection committee is to evaluate the relative risk of either choosing Bill Clinton's mendacious, vainglorious wife, thereby alienating all the independent voters, or sending her packing, thereby alienating the half of the democrats who are already in a snit.

[OverCoffee]

He's very rich, so why didn't he pay for his house in cash?

[SGreen]

Johnson has been in 2 vetting committee in the past, both Gore and Kerry's, before Obama's. He has been with DNC for a long time. He bought a house, borrowing money. What else did the guy do? The charge is he used his connection to borrow money. What's wrong with that? The charge against him has not even been proven. He is innocent until proven guilty. There is no case against him except accusation. To avoid distraction, the guy resigned. The case is closed. What's the noise? Where is the beef?

[dadw5boys]

He paid extra points to get a lower interest rate. I have done that 10 times. Big Deal.

But that fact was left out of the story.

Headlines for FOOLS to believe. Those who are too lazy to read and think!

[Pleidian]

Because Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have one of the worst reputations in Washington.

[najablah]

Just in case people here are losing perspective, McCain has had up to 134 registered lobbyists running his campaign.

http://mccainsource.com/corruption?id=0006

[NotMcCain]

Johnson was a volunteer, working with 2 others to research good VPs. No reason at all for him to resign.

That was "swift-boating", my friends. We're going to see more of it. I hope Obama will be better prepared (with surrogates to hit back, not just play defense--and weakly, at that) next time.

[dadw5boys]

NOT PLAYING THE GAME ---- THE STORY WAS LIES -- HE RESINGED TO END THE STORY--

HE PAID EXTRA TO GET THAT LOWER INTEREST RATE.

THE STORY IS FOR THOSE DUMB ENOUGH TO READ HEADLINES AND BELIEVE THEM.

TYPICAL REPUBLICAN TRICK TO USE THE MEDIA AGAINST THE VOTERS AS A WEAPON!!!!!

[obamajusrocks]

I just love the way Team Obama responded to McCain's weak attempt to squeeze out political capital from this by hitting them hard and where it hurts most - his deep ties to lobbyists and the fact that it took them 15 months to try and do anything about it.

Hit them hard and fast Obama - the best defence is offence - keep them reeling until November

[dansama]

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? or in this case "Who will vet the vetters?"

[dadw5boys]

The report of the home loan was lies he paid extra points to get a lower interest rate!

The report was meant to fool those who onlt cruise headlines!

A common way the Republicans use the MEDIA AS A WEAPON!

[curocat]

Good, he was picking losers anyway...

[vippy]

No wonder this country is in such a mess with ignorant people around. We deserve exactly
what we get for we are backwards, uneducated, no compassion, greedy, war mongers!
In fact, the list is endless. The mix of this hodge podge of people is not progression but regression.

[najablah]

And who exactly is on your short list?

[RTIII]

Everybody's ignorant - just about different things is all.

[SGreen]

Just like you.

[JFyfe]

As I understand it, this guy was just another distraction. Obama is TRYING to talk about the issues and its not easy with these 72 hour news flurries re this kind of nonsense. I agree it will be hard to find a bunch of Mother Theresas, but maybe Caroline Kennedy knows a few of them that she can bring on board **sigh**

[wutzhappn]

Maybe he could ask Father Pfleger to help him pick a VP....

[AMJordan]

Lame. Dead issue. You need to come up with some new material. I know, I heard a rumor that one of M. O-bama's friends, cat's, veterinarian's, sister's, hairdresser's acquaintances might possibly be an actual socialist! You could run with that.

[booksnmore4you]

I heard from someone who heard from someone that Obama exclaimed "Shit!" once when he stubbed his toe on a table end. That ought get you some mileage with the non-thinking right-wing AM radio-fed.

[1ChanceOnly]

Maybe Phil Graham is John McCains vetter. You know the guy from Texas who helped get us into this housing mess...Maybe George Bush...yeah the guy who got us into the War. Maybe...Dick Cheyney...the guy who got all of his friends like Halliburton, KBR, the oil industry that wrote environmental policies and left the Country to move to Dubai after they robbed this Country dry. Stole all of the Contracts in Iraq and New Orleans. Yeah those guys can vet McCain's VP hopefuls. Certainly the citizens and voters have confidence in these people....??? They are of utmost moral character....That's why McSame is running for Bush's 3rd Term. Yeah McSame,, I guess Barack stole your thunder. Look how fast his person resigned. What about all of your Lobbyist campaign friends...how long has it took for them to resigm?...­.Hm....Hmm­....Hmmmm.­..I"m still waiting.

[dadw5boys]

Here more of Grahams handy work along with an ENRON LOBBYIST!

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/07/17/how_traders_gamble_with_your_energy_dollars/

[collima]

We need to work with Obama and get state level candidates elected on the democratic side. We need to end the foolish tactics of the republicans (blocking progress every step of the way).

Large majorities in the house and senate is the solution for democrats.

Democrats have proven their eagerness to fight for all Americans, not just the few wealthing and connected and corporations.

Please join the Obama team and work as hard as you can to get new voters registered and reach out to your community with Obama's message of change and a better direction for our Country.

Barack Obama's The One - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxT8NiZ67-E

[dadw5boys]

Only FOOLS read story titles or headlines and think they know someting!