Mr. Johnson, we hardly knew ye

The latest mini-controversy is over a guy I had never heard of before last week, Jim Johnson, one of the key people on Obama's VP search committee. He resigned today after some news about his business dealings. Sounds like he did the right thing. Any kind of connnection to the subprime mess, particularly to Countrywide, is not a good thing. Throw in some time he spent on compensation committees of some large corporations, approving very nice - maybe too nice - pay packages for executives, and the pot started to boil quickly. Obama is walking a fine line, portraying himself as something of a Washington outsider, but also claiming to know how to play the Washington game. The Times captures one aspect of the dilemma:

[T]he loss will carry some costs for the Obama team. The controversy is the latest example of the demonization of so-called Washington insiders, who both profit from the political system and bring irreplaceable experience and insight to it.

I'm sure Obama and his people are aware of the contradictions. I'm sure they are also aware of the fact they will occasionally get caught in these kinds of contradictions.

But notice that Obama moved very quickly. I had never heard of Jim Johnson before this, and I am exceptionally well-informed about these kinds of things. Most Americans will not even notice this. It might make a blip on the evening news, but in a week or two, it will be forgotten. I think Obama handled it well.