Obama: Jim Johnson steps down
Posted: Thursday, June 12, 2008 9:05 AM by Domenico Montanaro
Per Obama spokesman Bill Burton, Obama will stump today in Kaukauna, WI, where he will discuss his middle-class tax plan. “Obama,” Burton says in an email, “will also meet with the first in a series families who will help to demonstrate the relief American families will get from his plan as opposed to the policies of President Bush and John McCain. The event comes on the heels of a new Tax Policy Center report showing that one quarter of the tax benefits in John McCain’s plan benefit people making more than $2.8 million, and that Obama’s plan offers three times as much tax relief for the middle class.”
McCain’s campaign is pre-butting Obama’s stop today in Wisconsin. "Barack Obama's assertion that the only problem with higher gas prices is that they've gone up too fast -- saying he'd prefer a 'gradual' increase instead -- shows how clearly out of touch he is with Americans struggling with record gas prices,” McCain spokesman Tucker bounds said in a statement. “At a time when Americans need relief at the pump, Barack Obama's support for higher gas prices and higher energy taxes is just another example of his weak economic judgment."
VIDEO: Jim Johnson, a member of Barack Obama's vice presidential search team has resigned, after details of personal loans became public. NBC's Mike Viqueira reports.
The
New York Times front-pages Jim Johnson stepping down from Obama’s veep selection committee: “Mr. Johnson’s departure deprives Mr. Obama of decades of experience and access to Washington’s power elite. Mr. Johnson has been a fixture in Washington political and legal circles for three decades, and he led the vice-presidential search team for Senator John Kerry, the Democrats’ presidential nominee in 2004.” More: “His resignation highlights the difficulties for Mr. Obama’s campaign in trying to live up to his promises to remain independent of the Washington establishment and the special interests that populate.”
As does the Washington Post: “[T]he Obama campaign found itself on the defensive after the Wall Street Journal reported Saturday that the former Fannie Mae chief had received millions of dollars in home loans -- some of which may have been below average market rates -- from Countrywide Financial, a partner of Fannie Mae and a leading purveyor of subprime mortgages. The Washington Post reported yesterday that alleged accounting manipulations for 1998 had resulted in maximum payouts to Fannie Mae's senior executives -- $1.9 million in Johnson's case -- when the company's performance that year would have yielded no bonuses. Even after he left Fannie Mae in 1999, Johnson received millions of dollars in guaranteed consulting fees and perks that included an office, two secretaries and a car and driver for himself and his wife.”
The Boston Globe adds, “Questions have also been raised about Johnson's work on executive compensation committees that recommended sizable pay packages for CEOs -- while Obama has been railing against excessive CEO pay on the campaign trail. Obama did not immediately say whether he would replace Johnson on his vetting team.”
Obama released this statement yesterday: “Jim did not want to distract in any way from the very important task of gathering information about my vice presidential nominee, so he has made a decision to step aside that I accept. We have a very good selection process underway, and I am confident that it will produce a number of highly qualified candidates for me to choose from in the weeks ahead. I remain grateful to Jim for his service and his efforts in this process.”
The New York Times’ Gail Collins can't believe Obama messed this up. "Keep in mind that the head of the vice-presidential vetting committee is not a job for which there are a limited number of qualified candidates. You could appoint a hero firefighter or a nun to be the public face of the search. You hire experts to do the background checks. You would want your own trusted advisers sitting in on the interviews. The other two committee members, Caroline Kennedy and a former deputy attorney general, could have managed on their own."
The AP on Obama’s handling of troublesome advisers: “One was gone within hours. Another lasted a few days. The most famous hung on for weeks. In dealing with associates who have dragged him into controversies, Barack Obama has shown great patience with a longtime friend, but much less forbearance with those whose ties are weaker. The varying approaches suggest the likely Democratic presidential nominee is feeling his way on how to handle staff crises. He also is learning that it's one thing to set high standards for conduct, and another to enforce them in the imperfect worlds of politics and personal friendships.”
Yet another dictator has something to say about Obama. “Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi said on Wednesday U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama would have an ‘inferiority complex’ because he is black and if elected he might ‘behave worse than whites,’” the AP reports.
