Defend, disassociate and regret

The Wall Street Journal‘s Editorial Board calls those the “three stages of Barack Obama” in their editorial piece this morning “Ex-Friends of Barack” (which follows yesterday’s “Friends of Barack“)in discussing the Jim Johnson exodus yesterday afternoon;

As for Mr. Obama, Mr. Johnson now joins an intriguing and growing list of Mr. Obama’s ex-associates that includes the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, Father Michael Pfleger, and former terrorist bomber William Ayers. We might call this list eclectic, except that there is a consistent pattern of bad judgment followed by an initial defense, then followed by rapid disassociation and regret that none of them were the men Mr. Obama “knew.”

We can only wonder if Eric Holder, who is also among Mr. Obama’s veep vetters, will be the next to join this club. As Deputy Attorney General in the Clinton Administration, he played a role in the Marc Rich pardon that also deserves to be fully vetted – all the more so if Mr. Holder is on the short list to be Mr. Obama’s Attorney General. Caroline Kennedy, the other member of Mr. Obama’s veep vetting team, has probably already inherited a stack of files from Mr. Johnson. She might want to take a peek at Mr. Holder’s too.

Ramesh Ponnuru, in the Washington Post, reminds us of Jim Johnson’s last turn at a VP selection committee;

Not to mention the fact that Johnson was involved in vetting Geraldine Ferraro in 1984. She was a disastrous candidate who ended up spending much of the campaign playing defense on, yes, ethics.

Michelle Malkin says he’s going to need a bus with more ground clearance under which he can throw the rest of his staff;

Rick Moran wonders if there aren’t more people under Obama’s bus than riding on it (link sent by Rurik) .

All of this is a direct indication of Obama’s lack of sophistication and experience. He surrounds himself with terrorists , racists and corporate criminals because he’s someone else’s pawn – he can’t speak without a teleprompter and rails at the media for asking him questions he can’t answer. This man is not ready for prime time and he demonstrates that for us every day, it seems.

Category: Barack Obama/Joe Biden, Politics