Obama should not have picked Jim Johnson in the first place to vet the field of potential vice presidential candidates. Johnson is a long term Washington insider in the crux of the self dealing and kleptocracy that passed for corporate and governmental leadership in this country. We find out now that Johnson received $7 million in cut rate loans via a friends of the chairman of Countrywide Financial Program. Salon. This article goes into tit for tat mode with the Obama campaign pointing out how conflicted the McCain campaign is on the topic of the mortgage meltdown. But Obama was not supposed to be about tit for tat. Obama was not supposed to be about tapping a complete Washington insider to head his VP search. Obama did not win a majority of Democratic delegates for us to see him be coopted by a dysfunctional establishment. Some may joke about McCain's comment that he is using the google to check VP candidates. Maybe Obama could learn from McCain on this one.
Unrepetent update below the fold
Update I: OK saw the reaction - changed the title so that it is a question. Understand the criticism that Johnson is in a temporary ministerial position. Presumably that means that his team does not come up with names - just goes through them and does diligent fact checking and interviewing of those that are of interest. If that is the case, no need for a high profile guy like Jim Johnson - remember we don't want drama since we have found out most of our current crop of elder silver haired statesmen have been as much on the make as the assholes that need to be booted. Maybe Jim Johnson was brought on to add some gravitas and insiderness to the process - keep the MSM and establishment happy. But since he views the world from the imperial capital which has been listless if not hostile to the interests of hundreds of millions of Americans, what is his optic? What does he bring in terms of new leadership and understanding of what really is going on in the country and where a VP candidate might fit in? OK - I knows we is supposed to close ranks, but this far back from November is the time to make misgivings known.
A more valid question is how good is this "news" about Jim Johnson. No one is denying it.