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Obama's Veep-Vetter Steps Down
Jim Johnson, who took a hammering from the McCain campaign and the GOP for his special mortgage from Countrywide, has decided to resign from the campaign.
Here's the statement, from Obama himself...
"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."
Late Update: The obvious political context here is that Johnson isn't just a distraction from the Veep search; he also made Obama's attacks on McCain over the subprime mortgage crisis tougher to sustain.
Late Late Update: Johnson's departure might have been hastened by the fact that the flap hit the front page of today's Washington Post.
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Acted fast and quick. Good for them.
June 11, 2008 2:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
GOOD!!!! I dont understand why Obama chose the person that vetted Geraldine Ferraro for Mondale. He was an awful choice to begin with. Caroline Kennedy is the best choice anyway.
June 11, 2008 2:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Haha, yeah, when I first saw that I thought the same thing. But hey, maybe Ferraro didn't turn into a raving lunatic/bigot until after they lost the election.
June 11, 2008 3:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
I just figured that during the interview, he said "man, did I learn a lot from that process. Like, for example, I really should have checked up on whether her husband was mobbed up before approving her."
June 11, 2008 3:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Pretty funny. Actually, it took a couple of days. And who does that leave, that great public servant, Caroline Kennedy and who? Not an auspicious start. No need to vet the vetters? Duh. Amazing.
June 11, 2008 3:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
Bill Glad is a Republican Trojan Horse Troll. Tune him out. Begone Grackle Bird. You are not able to pass as a Democrat any longer.
June 11, 2008 4:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Right. Coming from you, that's a compliment.
June 11, 2008 5:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
You are mistaken about Mr Glad
June 11, 2008 6:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Predictable response. (Like Clinton never made any mistakes.) In any case, Obama's easy win in November will put an end to the Monday-morning kvetching of embittered Clinton supporters.
June 11, 2008 6:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Classy!
June 11, 2008 2:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
If they'd only been that quick with Rev Wright and Bill Ayers (has he even dumped Ayers yet?).
June 11, 2008 2:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
From....?
June 11, 2008 2:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
Obviously he's supposed to hire Ayers and then fire them.
June 11, 2008 2:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Campaign Bomb Maker?
June 11, 2008 2:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Barack's Friendster account.
June 11, 2008 2:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
has mcThuseleh fired phil subprime gramm yet? (i know apples and oranges - gramm is actually part of the mcSame campaign)
June 11, 2008 2:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
OTOH, there is some consistency. mcWar wants to keep out of the mortgage crisis. gramm (and his pimps) wants the government to keep out of the mortgage crisis.
has he gotten rid of burmese junta frontman charlie black?
June 11, 2008 3:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
Youz is usually more astute than this:
Wats in that joint yer lightin (an not sharin)?
Phil Gramm jus luvz gummint ridin to da rescue of alla dem Sterny Bares. Texass Rangers be mannin dat Bilge Pump Express! Pass dem bucketses!
Jus longin as underprime snookerees don get Acksess to bankruptin courts. Deyz only fer biznitzess sneakin away wid workers retirin eggy nests.
Phbbbt!
June 11, 2008 3:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
your point and saliva are well taken. what i meant is mcSame doesn't want gumint to go around helping poor foreclosed folks, and gramm is okay with that.
June 11, 2008 3:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
...and not a terrorist...
June 11, 2008 3:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
and part of the campaign. here, i'll slow down for you:
phil
gramm
is
part
of
the
grampy
mcWar
campaign.
shall i dumb it down more for you?
June 11, 2008 3:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Which was why it was dumb for McCain to even respond to this "scandal." But he did, and now some talking heads are chatting about lobbyist in campaigns, and guess how that breaks?
I have way to much time on my hands. . .
June 11, 2008 5:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Once again, you expose yourself as a complete idiot.
June 11, 2008 3:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
when it comes from you, I know I've been successful.
June 11, 2008 3:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
Successful at being a complete idiot? That's an accomplishment?!
June 11, 2008 3:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
...well I figure that since I think the arguments a lot of you make are idiotic (though I wouldn't stoop to just calling someone an idiot, it's not very condusive to having a reasond debate, I'm assuming that y'all find my arguments as idiotic. Kind of like, if an insane person thinks you are sane you should probably get some help.
June 12, 2008 8:41 AM | Reply | Permalink
Seem like legit questions to me. Wish they got more coverage!
June 11, 2008 3:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
I wish he had resigned tomorrow, so coverage of the "Not too important" comment would continue.
And one other thing: why is JOhnson considered such an expert "vetter" when he didn't do the job with Geraldine Ferraro's husband?
Or is he considered good because of that unanticipated problem posed by Zaccaro (was that his name)?
June 11, 2008 2:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
Seconded. Timing doesn't always work in your favor. But, If I were a Sunday Show program director I'd go with the Attack rather than the insignificant resignation. And they have a couple days of preparation for the blow-up to take full shape.
June 11, 2008 2:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
Then again, good timing for him to go now since There is something better to distract the MSM.
June 11, 2008 2:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
That's a good point. Otherwise, it would be an incessant discussion about whether Obama has a subprime problem.
June 11, 2008 2:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
I disagree. This is bad news for Obama, but it now competes with bad news for McCain. The Johnson firing isn't the only thing that gets covered today, though.
McCain created a soundbite that will follow him through the rest of the campaign. This is bad for him today, and will likely be bad for months to come. Hopefully it rises to the level to which Kerry's "voted for it before I voted against it" comment rose.
In any event, this is a similar tactic to the one Obama employed yesterday, when he came out with a response to McCain's speech on the economy minutes after McCain's speech ended.
My point: Obama seems to know how to intrude on McCain's media in a way that benefits Obama.
June 11, 2008 4:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is ridiculous. Johnson did nothing wrong but I guess it was a target for the republicans since they have so little to run on. Sheez.
June 11, 2008 2:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think it is a clear indication that this was the tip of the iceberg for this guy. He did not want to come under closer scrutiny, so he removed himself from the campaign.
June 11, 2008 2:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
Only if they're squeaky clean can they get traction to lob the lobbyists on the McShame side. It's like sacrificing pawns to go after the bigger pieces.
June 11, 2008 2:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
What bullshit. The link there was insignificant, which can't be said about Mr. Hypocrite himself:
"Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCainโs national campaign general co-chair was being paid by a Swiss bank to lobby Congress about the U.S. mortgage crisis at the same time he was advising McCain about his economic policy, federal records show."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24844889
June 11, 2008 2:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, on the bright side, this resignation allows Obama to go after McCain more freely on this issue.
June 11, 2008 3:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
someone explain to me why he had to resign because i don't get it.
nothing illegal or even improper took place. johnson isn't advising on economic or mortgage policy, he's not even technically "advising" on anything. He's just an information gatherer. He's a glorified intern, doing the legwork so that his boss can get all the credit.
johnson isn't a paid part of the campaign, he has no real influence in decision making. he's simply one of three people gathering information so that Obama can make an informed choice about his vice-president.
the fact that he got a good deal on his mortgage doesn't bother me, and its entirely irrelevant to what he's doing.
I wonder who else will have to resign from the obama campaign because they got a really good interest rate on their credit card or because they have really good credit.
This is absurd.
June 11, 2008 2:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
I agree as well.
June 11, 2008 2:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is absurd
Well, sure. But there it is.
McCain is a "maverick". That's insane. But it gets repeated, over and over and over. Johnson didn't do anything illegal, but he got a bunch of loans, and that must mean something wasn't quite right. It's insane, and it's how we elect presidents here.
June 11, 2008 2:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yep.
June 11, 2008 3:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
clearly they want no more distractions.
June 11, 2008 3:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's mainly because Obama just barely won the nomination, has huge problems in Appalachia and needs to keep selling himself to the Clinton half of the Party. He's already started out in a pretty amateurish way. Caroline Kennedy? What was she doing the last couple of years that qualifies her to vet anybody? Johnson. A complete insider. I don't even remember who the other person vetting people is. Some old politician probably. All very disappointing. And he times all this to give McCain it doesn't matter when we come home McCain a break. Are we learning that running a general campaign is a little different from winning caucuses and splitting delegates in a proportional system?
June 11, 2008 4:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
Billy Glad working hard to make sure that a Democrat does not take back the Presidency.
Bill Glad is a Republican Trojan Horse Troll. Tune him out. Begone Grackle Bird. You are not able to pass as a Democrat any longer.
June 11, 2008 4:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
That makes you wrong twice.
June 11, 2008 6:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
The other fellow on the VP team, Eric Holder, was involved in the decision by President Clinton to pardon Marc Rich.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/wire/sns-ap-holder-obama,1,4138470.story
I think that maybe Senator Obama needs to demonstrate better judgment in his selection of people for critical posts.
June 11, 2008 4:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
except its not a "post" in his campaign or in his cabinent or his government.
its just some folks doing a bunch of background checks on potential candidates.
June 11, 2008 4:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
My friend, I am a former supporter of Hillary Clinton who has committed to supporting Senator Obama, and whose vote will count for him just as much as anyone's vote who may have supported Senator Obama from the beginning. That said, from my perspective as a former supporter of his opponent, your argument seems absolutely ridiculous. What you are saying is that it doesn't matter who the people are who are going to analyze and make recommendations with respect to the monumental decision of choosing a vice president.
June 11, 2008 4:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm as much of an Obama fan as anyone, but bslev has a point.
In an election which should really be stacked for an easy win, Obama should play this as close to the vest as possible. Anyone that does anything of significance should be vetted to make sure they're clean and can't be used as a weapon come November. That should include the vetters themselves.
To say, except its not a "post" in his campaign or in his cabinent or his government," isn't fair because the average voter isn't likely to know, understand or care about the difference.
June 11, 2008 4:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
The problem I'm having with these people right now is they're acting like they have a mandate instead of a slim victory. Who does that remind you of? Another fearless but inexperienced leader?
June 11, 2008 5:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
The mandate presumption has indeed been used before in the recent past. And the person who cited his wealth of political capital in November of that year was reorganizing under a political chapter 11 after his social security debacle just a few short months later.
June 11, 2008 5:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
The sky is falling!!! Dooooooooooooommmmmm!!!!!!
June 11, 2008 6:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
I know. And only this morning we had McCain by the cojones. I can't tell you how many times as a Clinton supporter I thought we had Obama cooked. And he bested us anyway. That old electorate. Who knows what they're thinking? Still, I think Obama could take this vetting ritual a little more seriously. Especially since he probably already knows what he's going to do. I think Caroline is a safe choice, though. Don't you?
June 11, 2008 6:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
Seems to me that winning the media spin cycle for the day isn't all it was cooked up to be.
June 11, 2008 7:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sad but, in the current climate, necessary. If the McCain staff holds itself to its own standard, then the question is, "When will McCain get rid of his Campaign Manager (Davis) and Senior Advisor (Black)?
If both campaigns only had people who had no skeletons, they would be staffless. Heck, they would be candidate-less.
June 11, 2008 2:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
And Gramm still works for the McCain campaign writing economic policy...
June 11, 2008 3:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
June 11, 2008 3:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
Midwest Katrina
Would everyone wake up please
The midwest is suffering their Katrina as we speak,
where is the leader of the GOP party -
oh thats right he is at windsor castle with the queen.
Should he not be at home reassuring all those people that it's government
will help, and rallying the nation to this crises.
Oh wait that help and money is in Iraq, so "it's not too important"
as McCain would say
oh GOP
June 11, 2008 3:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Losers.
June 11, 2008 3:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
This just means it's going to be a long time until November.
June 11, 2008 3:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yep! The search for the non-perfect figure will continue
June 11, 2008 3:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
No one can do what Countrywide can . . .
June 11, 2008 3:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
It makes no difference, anyway. This "selection" process is all just to make it appear that others were considered, before Hillary Clinton is chosen.
June 11, 2008 3:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Greg:
McCain was also caught in a flat-out lie about Obama's climate change plan:
Uh, minor problem here, John McCain. You co-sponsored the Obama-McCain Climate Change Reduction Act with Obama and yes, Lieberman.
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/1/12/17937/0703
June 11, 2008 3:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
uh-oh.
i honestly can't tell if he's just a really really bad liar, or if he honestly can't remember these things.
either way...its not good to have a president who lies to you (badly) or can't remember where he stands from one day to the next.
people seriously need to wake up to this fact.
June 11, 2008 3:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
If I could recommend a comment, this would be the one!
June 11, 2008 3:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Second that! Can you extract it and repost as a separate post? Please?
June 11, 2008 3:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
We are truly headed into uncharted territory!
What a candidate they've got!
June 11, 2008 3:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
I tried to post it separately, but got the HTML messed up. I hate TPM for not having the preview function.
June 11, 2008 4:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
That link wasn't working for me but here's another one for people who are curious: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s110-280
June 11, 2008 3:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ack!
Noooooo! He ain't lyin! Senatator CoCain jus haz Alzhummers!
Ya can't go discriminatin gainst him jus cuz he bein disablebodied. We gots laws bout dat! Gotta be accommodatin em. Not like he bein brain-ded! Not yet ennyway.
June 11, 2008 4:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
Johnson's two VP vetting committees let to Geraldine Ferraro for Mondale and John Edwards for John Kerry. Hell you'd think the GOP would want Johnson doing the vetting...
June 11, 2008 3:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
I believe Johnson came out opposed to Ferraro and she was approved despite his efforts. Could be wrong about that ...
June 11, 2008 3:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
I wanna know who vetted for Bill Clinton. Al Gore was one of the few uncrappy VP candidates in recent history.
June 11, 2008 3:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
WORD
June 11, 2008 4:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
F**king garbage. This is a total non-story. Oh well. At least he steps out of the way and ends the silliness.
I can't believe the press would play along with this story considering the the many McCain people who are much much more compromised then this guy.
No one is even alleging that he did anything illegal. Crap.
June 11, 2008 3:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm glad this guy is gone. He was an odd choice for Obama anyway. I have a feeling he may have been picked because of his relations to the Clintons. According to one article, Johnson was a member of the "Friends of Hillary" PAC, though it doesn't say in what capacity. The guy is an ultimate DC insider and even lives on the top floor of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Washington.
http://www.minnpost.com/stories/2008/06/03/2078/obama_turns_to_trusted_political_insider_jim_johnson_for_key_campaign_role
The best part of this is that it makes it easier for Obama to slam McCain for his incredible hypocrisy.
June 11, 2008 3:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Obama and Campaign need to go hard after McCain's top guys with strong lobbyist connections, instead they take a hands off approach. Gramm should have been hammered into submission.
June 11, 2008 3:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Absolutely.
June 11, 2008 3:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
On Fox News this morning (I was a captive audience at the gym)they were doing their usual straw man thing and saying "some people are saying Obama is a hypocrite for putting someone in charge of his veep search that has been linked to the subprime mess." At no point was Gramm mentioned, nor was it said that Johnson actually had no input re Obama's economic policy.
June 11, 2008 3:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thank you! I've been yelling it to the clouds for weeks! This Johnson dude is amost as bad at vetting as Warren Christopher, who found Joe Lieberman for Al Gore!
June 11, 2008 3:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Warren Christopher, I believe, also found Walter Mondale for Jimmy Carter. Not a bad choice.
June 11, 2008 4:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
Obama has raised the bar for others as well as himself.
We know that he understands how to use the Internets, and we know that he's familiar with viral YouTubes.
So, he must be extra-vigilant in his choices for advisors. How could he NOT know about Johnson's questionable dealings.
I'm glad he solved the problem, and he certainly solved it quicker than McCain's anachronistic/elitist Barber Pole and Golf Gear website links and imagery (which still exist).
But, still.... Obama (and/or his campaign) should NOT be REactive toward this kind of crap; they should be PROactive in avoiding this kind of crap.
June 11, 2008 3:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
questionable dealings
Those questionable but completely legal dealings?
I appreciate your point, and I sort of agree with it, but keep in mind that Johnson never did anything illegal, and, he's a volunteer for the campaign. In other words, keep in mind that this is a nontroversy (shout to NCSteve!) generated entirely by Republicans, aided and abetted by the political media.
June 11, 2008 3:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
Johnson - the first curse of Kerry's support. Many more to come!!!
June 11, 2008 3:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yet another preemptive "I told you so" rant from the trolling Aimey May.
June 11, 2008 4:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
And, YES, Obama has to hire vetters to vet the vetters!!! Plus, he needs to use The Google himself.
I don't want to hear excuses from Obama or his campaign on this issue or any issue. Otherwise, he sounds just like his opponents.
I am an Obama supporter. BIG TIME. But, that doesn't mean I'm going to let him off the hook for poor choices in policy, people or PR spin.
I expect more from him. And, he and his campaign told me I should!
June 11, 2008 3:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Okay, so when will the many sleazy lobbyists running and advising the McSame campaign resign from THAT campaign? Obama needs to make a bigger issue of this, since he just got burned by it himself.
June 11, 2008 3:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
Nice avatar work.
June 11, 2008 6:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
Obama said the guy wasn't on the payroll and then proceeded to chastise the media wasn't for engaging in old Washington gotcha games. Now Johnson's gone.
Quite the battler, that Barack Obama.
June 11, 2008 3:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
The whole episode shows how msm has dumbed down and taken down americans with them.
Issues, policies, life and death matters, who gives a fuck ?
June 11, 2008 3:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
For the record:
Tip O'Neill was the one that suggested to Mondale that he pick a woman for VP, and Tip pushed him to pick Geraldine Ferraro. That gave her the inside track with Mondale, since he wanted to have Tip on his side. I suspect that Mondale did not even bother to Vet Ferraro after Tip O'Neill pushed him to put her on the ticket.
June 11, 2008 4:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
Who is doing McCain's Veep search?
June 11, 2008 4:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
Diogenes!
June 11, 2008 4:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Diogenes?
Don he know dat cockaroachers run like crazy away from candlelight? Why he be wantin to scare off all his buds?
June 11, 2008 4:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
It occurs to me that the GOP can now just make a list of every Obama campaign official, whom they perceive as a threat, and do oppo research on each and every one of them, using the "six degrees of guilt by association" tactic... and pretty soon, in order not to be "distracted", his brain trust is going to be decimated.
This constant capitulation to manipulated perception is going to tank Obama, eventually. They just haven't figured this out, yet.
June 11, 2008 4:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
I read on HuffPo (so ... ya know) Obama took Johnson on because he was close to Hillary's circle - in order to promote unity. That pressure has subsided to some degree. Maybe he used this as an excuse to do something he wanted to anyhow?
June 11, 2008 4:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Blame Clinton.
How pathetic.
Its about the judgement.
June 11, 2008 7:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yawn.
No one outside of the Washington press corp could care less about this one.
Johnson who? Countrywide what?
June 11, 2008 4:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Nobody knows who Jim Johnson is and nobody cares. I'm glad that they handled this before it could turn into a spectacle.
June 11, 2008 4:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
God. Are you re-reading your homer apologist crapola?
If it was McCain you'd be sh*ting bricks.
People.
June 11, 2008 7:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
Unbelievable.
I just finished this Slate article about Johnson from yesterday. Read up. Greg Sargent didn't explain why this matters, of course.
June 11, 2008 5:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
This isn't an admission of guilt. This isn't to get someone dirty out of the process. This is just to remove a distraction.
June 11, 2008 5:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
What does that mean? You mean Johnson is a distraction like Rev. Wright? He wasn't dirty. Like Samantha Power? She wasn't dirty. Like Robert Malley? He wasn't that dirty. What's dirty?
June 11, 2008 6:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
Incompetence. Indecision. Hmmm.
Sounds like the Bush adminstration to me.
Obama....Bush III.
June 11, 2008 7:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm personally furious with the campaign for letting this happen today and taking away from McSame's gaffe this morning on the Today show. Couldn't this have waited until tonight after the nightly news?
June 11, 2008 9:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
Get accustomed to it.
Gaffes We Can Believe In.
Fired up and Ready to Blow It.
June 11, 2008 9:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
Kiss off, troll. I can be angry with the campaign for a mistake and still believe in my candidate. Overall, this campaign has been outstanding. Did anyone really think in the beginning that he could bump off the Clinton machine? This was a minor tactical error (frustrating nonetheless).
June 12, 2008 7:07 AM | Reply | Permalink
This is an interesting (and long) interview with Jim Johnson from back in April 2007.
http://www.buyingofthepresident.org/index.php/interviews/james_a_johnson/
The guy was clearly not in Clinton's corner a year ago. He was the biggest Obamaniac in the Bilderberger/Trilateralist/CFR set.
Unforced error on Obama's (and Johnson's) part. It happens. When it does, it does none of us any good to avert our eyes and pretend it didn't happen.
June 11, 2008 11:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
Howard Fineman's article about Obama's handling of Johnson is Newsweek.com's top political story.
June 12, 2008 12:23 AM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks for the link. Does Fineman always write for an 8th-grade audience?
June 12, 2008 7:25 AM | Reply | Permalink
I have no problem with his CountryWide loan, that's par for the course. My problem with Mr. Johnson is that he's a Bilderberger. And now my problem with Obama is that he is surrounding himself with Bilderbergers. How in the hell can you claim to be the candidate of change when you have Bilderbergers running the show??? It's just more of the same. This is one reason I didn't like Obama before. Sorry, but I won't be voting for Obama. My conscience won't allow it, nor my common sense. How anyone can support Obama after this, defies my imagination.
June 12, 2008 11:18 AM | Reply | Permalink
If it's any help, be assured that aliens have not taken control of the planet. The folks running the show are human, all too human, and they are 'reactors' as much as they are 'actors'. Of course, they prefer to be considered 'actors' ... as we all do. That some of them are also opposed to this bullshit war attests to their humanity. Or at least to their sense that Iraq ain't cricket.
They have the guns, but we have the numbers, and they know how to count. And persuade. And when that fails, pivot when the writing's on the wall.
Your ranting adds nothing to that wall.
For starters, you're wrong to suggest that Johnson's Countrywide loan is par for the course. It's only par for the course because 99% of Americans are incapable of explaining why Fannie Mae is a bad idea; and fewer than that concern themselves with executive compensation at nominally private firms whose business models rely on taxpayer-backed guarantees. Absent that capability, you grasp for the easy out ... it must be the Bilderbergers, because the hometown bankers you've personally dealt with would never think to make a buck off you.
Or something like that.
Big countries. Big conspiracies. That's the real "more of the same" ....
June 12, 2008 12:18 PM | Reply | Permalink