All things considered, there have been very few people so far who've had to leave the Obama campaign. Running for president is such a large and complicated process, involving so many people -- who are each connected in various ways to so many other people -- that it'd be a miracle if there weren't a few people who could best serve by bowing out gracefully.

Who vets the vetters? Who vets the people who vet the vetters? At some point it gets silly, and the best you can do is have some kind of policy about how to handle things when it turns out you're working with fallible humans rather than a collection of saints.

Maybe someone should have seen this information about Johnson and recognized it as the vulnerability it was before they let him start the process. But the important thing now is that he's out of the way.

I'll add that to my long list of reasons to vote for Obama over McCain. This sort of thing does matter, even if it's counted as "news" when it happens in a Dem campaign and "dog bites man" in a Repub campaign.

I'm not trying to make a point but, MAN, SO much negative publicity is something Obama doesn't need right now. It will make it that much harder for him.

You're new to this, aren't you?

Most potential voters haven't heard about this. Now that Johnson's out, most of those who have heard about it will have forgotten it by the weekend, except for a vague memory that someone got booted off of Obama's VP committee because of some kinda financial thing or other. Net effect on Obama's campaign: neutral or possibly a little positive, especially in comparison with McCain's campaign.

Granted, it might end up on the list of some pimply-faced cut-and-paster getting McCain Points (tm) for spamming online discussions. I'm not shaking in my boots.

I picture a series of TV ads: "McCain vs McCain". One for each policy reversal, and one for each time he's done something like Glenn points out here. Simply show a picture of him with voice-over and text of what he said a few years ago (or a few months!), flip the picture and do a voice-over and text of what he says now.

Tag-line: "McCain: What does he really think?"

Does anyone at all wonder why this political movement lays in ruins?

Oh, don't blame Knows Better. He's just another victim.

Granted, he's probably not in an underfunded VA hospital, so he's not that much of a victim ...

To be fair, the Catholic Church (per Pope John Paul II) opposed the Iraq War.

Some people evidently find any pursuer of the truth a little scary. Maybe that's what happens after prolonged exposure to "truthiness". Facing the real thing can take some getting used to.

If I remember correctly, the article even suggested potential running mates, including Jeb Bush.

[laugh] Yeah, that would fit into McCain's idea of "change".

Rumor has it that Jeb hates Dubya's guts for horning in on the presidency and then soiling the family name. Granted, the Bush family name wasn't exactly fresh out of the laundry, but Junior makes Senior look good.

The empty chair plan was scrapped because they were worried about unflattering comparisons between an empty chair and McCain.

(To be completely honest, though, part of it is waiting there to see if the iPod Touch gets a version bump and/or price cut.)

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

(And vice versa, of course.)

This is the New, Improved John McCain! Now with more Maverick(tm)!

(Your mileage may vary. Early termination fees apply. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Contents are sold by volume, not weight. Ask your doctor if John McCain is right for you.)

This skepticism of Government power -- which lies not only at the heart of most key British reforms over the last 8 centuries but also at the heart of the American Founding -- is precisely what has been missing almost completely from the American Right, for which there is now no federal government power too great or too unlimited to embrace.

Oh, there are plenty of powers "conservatives" in the US think the federal government can't be trusted with -- market regulation, providing economic safety nets, protecting our environment, single-payer universal health care, etc, etc.

"A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes." -- Mark Twain.

Still, it's certainly worth trying.

The armed forces are a product of the Nanny State. "You're a wimp. You spent your earnings instead of investing them in a defensive system, weapons, training, and a long-term contract with one of the regional mercenary companies. So we're going to protect you from your own stupidity by taxing you, and spending what we take from you on no-bid contracts to benefit our cronies. We are big government."

The web is not a broadcast medium. While I think "Michelle Obama Watch" and "Fight The Smears" and so on are good efforts, how many folks are going to fire up their web-browser to check those every time they see a rumor land in their InBox or broadcast over FauxNews? Hell, how many so-called "reporters" do you think will bookmark those sites?

The best these websites are going to be are sources for supporters, so we know what shit is out there and how to counter it when it's spouted at us by the blow-hard at the water-cooler. That's good as far as it goes, but given the dynamics of corporate news media and the machinations of the right wing, it's still working from a defensive position.